Pricing in the stairlift industry is somewhat of an unknown as the product is not part of everyday life for the majority of the UK population. It carries the stigma of a medical product which symbolises a lack of independence and old age. Ultimately it is a purchase out of need and not aspiration.    

However times are changing. We are seeing a shift in the stairlift market for many different reasons.  The ageing population is living longer which is causing their everyday life to become a challenge, especially mobility. One of the biggest challenges people face is tackling the stairs, a daily task which is taken for granted by many.  Within the UK there is a Government Facilities Grant scheme (DFG) supported through local authority social services which is designed to help people who may not be in a position to finance adaption’s to enhance their mobility.  Given the recent times and Government austerity measures, the amount of funding is being reduced with signs indicating less funding will be available as the years progress.  This will cause a major shift within the stairlift market as more and more people will have to finance the purchase themselves. This drives the need for prices to become more transparent with design, functionality and value for money becoming a major factor in making the right choice of product and supplier.

At ThyssenKrupp Encasa we design all of our stairlift products with our clients in mind.  We recognise people invest significant time, money and love in their homes and the phrase ‘home is where your heart is’ rings true throughout our business when dealing with customers.  It is our aim to help people stay in their own homes, avoid re-housing or permanent downstairs living by providing stylish, innovative, practical stairlift solutions.  Our curved stairlift, the Flow 2 is arguably the best stairlift on the market.  It holds patented technology and design with its unique ASL technology allowing people to change direction whilst travelling, this eliminates small narrow stairs where typically a stairlift would not fit.  Each lift is bespoke to individual stairs and therefore offers a taylor made solution that meets the needs of the customer, and not a standard off the shelf product. 

ThyssenKrupp Encasa encourages price transparency and when asked by customers we always provide guide prices which are realistic and not misleading to give customers false hope to accept a home visit.  It is difficult to provide a set price for stairlifts as there are many different variables to take into account.  Is it a straight or curved stairlift? Does it require a powered swivel or hinge track? All of these variables can only be answered by visiting the customer’s home to assess the stairs and surrounding areas but also to measure the client to ensure the lift will fit and transport the users safely up and down the stairs.  Not only that, there is also a duty of care to other people who live or access the property to ensure their safety is not jeopardised as a result of installing a stairlift.  All ThyssenKrupp Encasa surveyors are trained to identify all aspects of installing a stairlift and will only recommend a solution if it is right for the customer.  We treat all of our customers as if they are a family member, therefore we ensure quality at all times.

In saying this, it is fair to assume that a new straight stairlift fully fitted should cost in the region of £1,200 for a basic model Depending on the options this figure could increase to around £1,600.  For a new curved stairlift you should expect to pay in the region of £4,300 for a basic model, increasing up to £5,000+ for more complex and complicated requirements.

Journeywoman Xenia Moseley

With this year’s “Designing for the Future” winner about to be announced, I caught up with last year’s winner Xenia Moseley who is about to graduate from the University of Brighton.

Inspired by the European tradition of Journeymen, Xenia has set herself the challenge of exploring the traditional crafts still being practiced in her home county of  East Sussex, discovering that many practical trades and skills are still thriving in Britain today – the antithesis of the processes behind the mass produced products which dominate today’s high street. Like a modern day Journeywoman, Xenia has been turning up on the doorsteps of local craftspeople -  a spinner, basket weaver, upholsterer and boat-maker  – learning the skills and then producing objects which both celebrate these traditional crafts and symbolise the ongoing journey.

Xenia Moseley’s work can be seen at the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton Graduate Show  31 May- 12 June 2013.

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As we approach the judging of this year’s “Designing for the Future” student design competition, we catch up with one of last year’s judges, designer Richard Child whose career has taken an unexpected turn.

At the start of December 2012, I made the decision to leave Hymid R&D. A company I co-founded late August 2011. It was a difficult decision as I’d been developing our first product (Kinex) for over a year. The project was very important to me and I’d met some great people during the process.

Chloe Meineck - Music Memory Box

Great news. Chloe Meineck, one of our Designing for the Future alumni, has just been named as one of the new Designers in Residence at the Design Museum in London where she will be developing her Music Memory Box for people with dementia.

Chloe follows in the footsteps of one of our previous Designing for the Future winners, Harry Trimble who was Designer in Residence last year. 

Chloe has had a busy year, having just completed a Crafts Council residency and been nominated for a Santander University of Brighton Enterprise Award.

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“Designing for the Future” run by The Future Perfect Company in conjunction with the University of Brighton is now in its fourth year and encourages student designers to think about the challenges and issues affecting our ageing population – and to create innovative and attractive and designs which allow older people to continue to live enjoyable, active and independent lives.

Eastbourne - designed for all

Last October, I reported on the launch of an innovative marketing campaign, Eastbourne – Designed for All.

Whilst reputed to be one of the sunniest places in Britain, like all major towns, Eastbourne has felt the gloom of the economic downturn.  But rather than using traditional strategies for boosting local economies, Eastbourne plans to regenerate the town by encouraging local businesses to adopt the principles of Inclusive Design in order to improve their competitiveness and increase customer numbers, sales and satisfaction.

The Eastbourne- Designed for All campaign team believes that by principally targeting working age adults most UK businesses unnecessarily restrict their own potential to serve a larger number of customers. Inclusive Design – Design for All – proposes that attention to the needs of all ages expands market size and that a town and individual businesses offering excellence in meeting the needs of all will stand the best possible chance of thriving and attracting further wealth and investment.

So, 6 months on, how is Eastbourne – Designed for All progressing?

The good news is that 32 Eastbourne businesses are now members including Southern Railway, Visit Eastbourne and the Enterprise Shopping Centre. There has been the inaugral inclusive design workshop (on digital inclusion) with more to follow.  We are hoping to showcase some of the work from our Designing for the Future student design competition in June.

The latest project was a survey of coffee shops in Eastbourne by EDA member, Shopper Anonymous. The differentiating factors? Not the coffee and food but the service and the toilets!

It is fantastic to see progress being made and the Eastbourne – Designed for All ethos being embraced by local businesses large and small.

For more information about Eastbourne – Designed for All and how to join, visit www.eastbournedesignedforall.co.uk

Peter Thornton talks to Dermatuff user, Flo Lees

Formerly chairman of Thorntons, Peter Thornton was inspired by his own experiences to develop an innovative new skin protection product, Dermatuff which helps prevent skin tears.  In the third of his guest posts, Peter recalls how he had the idea for Dermatuff  and a particular sticky moment along the way.

I worked for 35 years in the family business, Thorntons, the confectioners. During that career I was really lucky because I could usually see the answers to problems without too much difficulty.  Of course the ideas had to be refined as they came to me as I said in my last blog but generally the answers to almost anything would occur if I just let the problem lie in my mind.  That business was a marvellous environment for innovation, it was very stable, in my day always made a good profit, always had lots of cash in the bank, made great products that one could be very proud of and had a social working environment which was second to none.

Having plenty of money around meant that mistakes could be made without it having a dramatic effect on the business, the start-up entrepreneur rarely has that benefit.  Actually this is probably a very good thing because having plenty of cash around is a good background to getting things wrong.  If you are very short of money then you have to think of every possible way to do what you want to do for no money or hardly any money.  You also have to be wary as to what you do because a mistake can finish you off completely.

When I lived in Wensley near Matlock in Derbyshire I became quite familiar with the local Minor Injury Unit.  My most memorable visit there had been one day when I was alone in our home some time after I had left Thorntons.  I was wandering around the house when I noticed that my wife had left a box of Thornton’s toffee on top of the piano.  Being always an addict I could not resist taking a piece.  As I wear plates in my mouth holding various teeth which have been removed, I must be very careful when eating toffee.  On this occasion the toffee stuck to my bottom plate which was immediately loosened by the chewing motion, pushing a wire hook which was on one end of the plate well into the inside of my cheek.

This was rather like a fish hook and could not be removed by any pulling strategy that I tried.  I therefore decided that I would have to go to the Minor Injury Unit where I proceeded in my car with the bottom plate hanging out of my mouth and firmly hooked into my cheek on the inside.

Of course I had to give my details to the reception staff who were quite amused to see the state that I was in.  They asked my name – Peter Thornton, what had caused this incident – I struggled to explain that I had been eating a piece of Thornton’s toffee whereupon broad smiles spread across their faces particularly when they realised that the business had been my career background.

Not long after that I had to go to the Minor Injury Unit again.  I had a vintage Aston Martin which was parked in a large garage that I had.  I was walking past it one day and inadvertently my leg knocked quite gently against the rear bumper.  Imagine my surprise when I look down at my trousers and realised that they were completely soaked in blood.  Rolling up my trouser leg I saw what appeared to be a horrific injury; a large flap of skin was hanging from my leg with blood pouring out of the wound.

They sewed it up for me and then I had to keep returning for re-dressing once per week for several weeks.  This was the first of many incidents of this nature.  Eventually I went to see my GP and said “what can I do about this?”  “Nothing,” he said, “you’ll just have to be more careful”.  “Isn’t there something that I can wear?  Pills that I can take or something that I can rub in?”.  To which he replied in the negative and told me that I had got thinning skin as a result of taking cortisone for many years.

This seemed to be a serious affliction; I began to lose my confidence and to be extremely wary about where I was and what I was doing.  The trouble about that state of mind is that it seems to make one even more vulnerable.

At that stage it had not occurred to me that I might be able to find a solution to the problem, I had to suffer several more accidents before I put this problem firmly in my mind as needing a solution.

For more information about DERMATUff, visit www.Dermatuff.com.

The aim of the event was to celebrate the enterprise and achievement of women working in professional and voluntary roles in East Sussex. And what a diverse and inspirational group of women they were – judges, Mayors, councillors, chefs, GPs, Deans, directors, lawyers, charity leaders, business women, judges, policewomen, magistrates…

Outside the various domestic arenas, it is really unusual to be surrounded just by women and such successful women at that.  The event was a fantastic exemplar of what women do and can achieve. All the women I spoke to combined professional roles with some sort of voluntary or community role. And all to a woman were extremely modest about their contributions.

I came away with the impression that behind many businesses, charities, organisations, communities  (and indeed families) is a whole army of capable, talented, passionate women determinedly and purposefully saving the world.

Peter Thornton talks to Dermatuff user, Flo Lees

Formerly chairman of Thorntons, Peter Thornton was inspired by his own experiences to develop an innovative new skin protection product, Dermatuff which helps prevent skin tears.  In the second of his guest posts (read the first one here)  Peter considers the role of intuition, emotion and charm in becoming an entrepreneur.

Being highly intuitive is the first essential for an entrepreneur. In the last couple of years I have become convinced of the effectiveness of the empirical system of personality definition known as MBTI – Myers Briggs Type Indicator.  Try it online for nothing, it’ll tell you how intuitive you are and what your other characteristics are.

The system has four preference pairs:  Extrovert/Introvert, Intuition/Sensing, Thinking/Feeling and Judging/Perception.  Abbreviated to: E/I, N/S, T/F, J/P. My profile is E(65%),N(88%),T(90%),J(64%). The ideal profile for an entrepreneur is said to be: E,N,T,P.   Not quite perfect apparently and yes, I do think too much.

I think it’s really important for every individual to understand their own personality and I have been attempting to understand mine since I was a very young man.  The trouble is that nobody ever tells you, at least not truthfully so, or on an informed basis.  It was eventually MBTI that made my rational personality features clear to me. You get a comparison with the system; you know how you compare with other people.

Intuition is the most extraordinary gift, my theory is that somehow the brain amasses a huge database of information and when you put a problem into the brain it automatically retrieves appropriate information and produces a solution. 

Not that all intuitive solutions are always correct, they quite often are not and have to be examined consciously. It is also sometimes the case that the intuitive solution is not so, it is just an emotional reaction to an emotional situation.

The emotional reaction has to be particularly carefully guarded against; I believe that most intuitive people, creative people, are also quite emotional people, if you suspect that the solution is an emotional one then leave it for a few days before doing anything about it. The emotional state gradually dies away so that it is usually gone within a couple of days.

British people have been much more open in the last 10 years or so about revealing their own emotional behaviour.  I have been very open in my book ‘Thorntons, My Life in the Family Business’ about mine.  It used to be that personal emotionality was totally hidden and suppressed; we tried to give an outward impression that all was calm and untroubled.  This was a very bad thing because suppressed emotion has dangerous side effects on our health and well-being and impairs rational judgement. I have been very watchful of my own emotional behaviour since I started Dermatuff Ltd.

Just as our rational characteristics vary as measured by MBTI so do our emotional characteristics.  Some people are extraordinarily stable and remain in the same balanced mood all the time.  Other people including myself incline naturally towards bipolarism to a greater or lesser degree. I believe that this is due 50% to nature and 50% to nurture. The important thing as with our rational characteristics is to know ourselves and to know how to control these characteristics.

I am very fortunate to have learnt how to control bipolarism in my case: ‘cut off the peaks’ – never get too excited or depressed then things come much better into balance. It needs constant effort though because it is not natural behaviour. Decisions taken when on an emotional high or on an emotional low can have very dangerous consequences.

I was talking to a friend of mine recently who told me that her sister had been extraordinarily successful in business.  I asked her what characteristic it was that made her so successful.  She replied “well it’s not really that she is brilliantly intelligent or well educated, she is just extremely charming, I think that it is charm that matters more than anything don’t you?”

So remember ‘cut-off the peaks’, make the best of your extroversion and be charming, keep a quiet mind and don’t think too much so that your intuition can work and keep the balance between judging and perception.

To find out more about Dermatuff, visit www.dermatuff.com

Chloe Meineck and her Music Memory Box

For those of you following the progress of Chloe Meineck’s Music Memory Box, here’s a lovely video about her Crafts Council residency showing how the Music Memory Box is developing and evolving http://www.watershed.co.uk/dshed/music-memory-box

Chloe is hoping to produce the Music Memory Box in kit form which means that everyone, be they 8 or 88 will be able to have their own musical box of memories.

It is fascinating watching this product evolve from The Hub which Chloe entered into our Designing for the Future competition at the University of Brighton in 2011.

La Dolce Vita Knightsbridge, London 1953 by Thurston Hopkins courtesy of The Aldrich Collection

Thurston Hopkins, one of the great photojournalists of the 20th century, celebrates his 100th birthday today. Hopkins, an alumni of one of the antecedent colleges of the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton, worked for a number of picture agencies but most particularly at Picture Post where he worked until it closed in 1957.

Picture Post pioneered photojournalism and quickly became an important historical resource documenting both the Second World War and the immediate post war years. Another photographer who submitted pictures to Picture Post and was offered work at more or less the same time as Thurston went under the name of Dick Muir. Women photographers were almost unheard of at the time and to get her work considered Grace Robertson, who was to become Thurston’s wife, had to use a male pseudonym.

Both Grace and Thurston are still enthusiastic supporters of the Faculty of Arts and are often to be seen at the annual Graduate Shows casting their eyes over the work of the latest generation of artists, designers and photographers.  

We are very lucky to have work from both Thurston Hopkins and Grace Roberston in the Aldrich Collection at the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton. For more details, visit  http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/aldrich