When Stannah Stairlifts needed to improve their customer choice through a new range of premium upholsteries, they turned to blackswan to define their upholstery selection.
About Stannah
In 1867 Joseph Stannah first opened his doors for business in London. Over 150 years later, we are still a British, family owned and run business producing stairlifts and homelifts, for the UK and around the world.
Having sold more than 700,000 products worldwide, Stannah is a global market leader of lift products, including Stairlifts:
Joseph Stannah started the business in Bankside, London, making cranes and hoists to move goods around the bustling docks of the industrial revolution.
Still a family business, it is the fifth generation – Jon, Patrick, Nick, Alastair and Helen – that now steer the company and continue to build a firm fit to meet today’s challenges yet unashamedly focused on the values of quality and service that Joseph articulated all those years ago.
With over 90,000 products on our service portfolio we know that our customers, both commercial and domestic, rely on us not just to provide first class products to start with, but also to ensure the maintenance, repair, and smooth operation of those products over the years that follow.
Stannah Stairlifts and blackswan
Stannah Stairlifts are market leaders for a reason. Their product development is second-to-none and they have an acute focus on the “voice of the customer”.
Most Stairlift manufacturers treat the stairlift as a medical device or simply a convenient machine. Of course, there is a necessity to requiring a stairlift – no-one puts one in their house by choice – but that doesn’t mean it should be stylish.
Back in 2005, Stannah worked with world-renowned design agency Seymour Powell to create a ground-breaking new design for chairs which became their Solus and Sofia products.
Stannah continue to break new ground and launched the Starla range not long after to give their customers seats with a wood finish, inline with many homes and modern styles..
In 2019, Stannah Stairlifts, in partnership with their supplier Global Upholstery Solutions commissioned blackswan to create a new range of upholstery designs to give their customer even more choice.
The aim was to give customers the option to choose an upholstery for their Stairlifts that suits their decor, or the personal taste. Stannah already had a wider upholstery selection range than anyone else in the industry, but what they wanted to do was unprecedented.
The blackswan brief was to give this upholstery selection a wide choice of colours, fabrics, textures and styles. So we did. The result, in Stannah’s own words, is as follows:
Introducing our new upholstery ranges
Having a stairlift installed can be a big decision for many of our customers. Not only is functionality and reliability important to them, but they want the stairlift to blend into their home, fitting in with their decor and furnishings.
We have worked with Global Upholstery Solutions and blackswan to come up with not one but four new ranges of upholsteries to give our customer a wider choice to make their stairlift truly unique. These now include a variety of fabrics, colours and patterns in addition to our current vinyl and woven ranges.
As the only stairlift company on the market able to offer this wide range, we hope that this will help improve our customer experience.
Fusion
An embossed stitched diamond faux leather range that comes in ten different colourways
Sark
A velvety feel upholstery fabric with a creative blend of alluring colours
Ravel
A woven back matched up with a vinyl base for that ultimate unique look
The Fusion and Sark ranges are supplied by Agua Fabrics. The Ravel range is a combination of fabrics from Chieftain – The Ravel and Lionella ranges.