innovation
As British design brand SCP’s Norfolk factory revels in the success of its mission to create all-natural upholstery, we look at why there’s lots to love when it comes to UK manufacturing today
‘Can you please just make a traditional chair with a cushion?’ That was SCP founder Sheridan Coakley’s plea to British designer Philippe Malouin at the start of the design process for the ‘Topper’, one of the two armchairs and four sofas that make up the brand’s first all-natural and sustainable collection. It may be part of arevolution in manufacturing, but its starting point, abespoke brief from Coakley, is the same way every SCP piece has come to life.
Since the launch of the ‘Balzac’ chair by Matthew Hilton in 1991, SCP has produced all of its own upholstered products in its specialist factory in Norfolk. It’s here that a dedicated team of woodworkers, pattern cutters and upholsterers turn ideas by some of the biggest design names of the day into reality, and the fact that this is all done in the UK is, says Coakley, ‘fundamentally important for our identity as a company’. Taking on the might of the big ‘Made in Italy’ brands (think the likes of Molteni &C, Flexform and Minotti), he notes that manufacturing locally allows his brand ‘to keep quality high, maintain control over the supply chain and keep jobs’.
The plan to remove all polyurethane foam from SCP’s sofas, armchairs, beds, poufs and more was one that began almost 20 years ago. ‘At that time, there were very few suitable alternative materials available,’ explains Coakley of the mission that came to fruition with SCP’s new upholstery collection – launched at the showroom’s ‘Soft Power’ exhibition during last year’s London Design Festival. ‘Gradually, over the years, we have learnt new upholstery skills and have been able to work with wool merchants to develop materials that enable us to simulate the comfort levels, reaching the point where today all of our new designs are foam-free.’
Of course, you can have the innovative materials and the expertise, but it’s SCP’s ability to collaborate closely with designers that converts skill and good intentions into magic. Every designer is hand-picked by Coakley. Matthew Hilton, the man behind SCP’s first chair and to whom Coakley was introduced by a friend, has been invited back to produce the new all-natural ‘Ada’ armchair. Other picks include Wilkinson & Rivera, recommended to Coakley by David Alhadeff of The Future Perfect, and Philippe Malouin, whom he met at ‘a dinner in New York given by Jason Miller of Roll & Hill’.
Malouin –who is the mastermind behind SCP’s popular ‘Group’ sofa, armchair and bed –admits that h
