Duncan Tift talks to Satt Sembhy, chief executive of Broadway Kitchens, about his life and business.

Talking to Satt Sembhy I feel a little like a guest in the commentary box of the Test Match Special team – not because of anything to do with cricket, more so cakes. Jonathan Agnew and his team are probably just as famous for the delicious cakes their listeners regularly deliver to whatever venue they happen to be broadcasting from, as they are for their cricket commentaries. In this first respect at least, they share a lot in common with this week’s interviewee.

Satt Sembhy’s Broadway Kitchens is best known for manufacturing high quality bespoke kitchens and furniture, and has been for the last 30 years. However, it is the relationship which the company builds up with its customers which has had just as much to do with its success as has the quality of its products.

“We have a good relationship with our customers and whenever they visit our showrooms we treat them as guests, offer them cups of tea and coffee, biscuits and the like – it’s what you do when you invite someone into your home,” says Satt.

But back to the cakes.

“We had a lady once who came into the showroom just before Christmas to say how pleased she was with her new kitchen and as a show of appreciation she had baked us some mince pies. They were absolutely delicious and we had some in the showroom for other people to try.

“Anyway, we had another lady come in, who was also a good customer of ours and she tried one and asked where they had come from, and so we told her.

“She said ‘they’re very nice but you haven’t tried mince pies until you’ve tried my mince pies’ so she went off and baked some and brought them in. They were lovely too.

“Then we had another customer do likewise and now it’s become something of a tradition. Customers will pop in and see us and bring cakes and biscuits in and sit down and have a chat with us, it’s very nice. It’s also good because we get a feel for how satisfied they are and that way we know we are doing a good job – we even had one lady who baked a cake for our fitters,” he said.

But it hasn’t always been so easy for Satt and his family, who arrived in Britain 40 years ago from their native India and grew up in one of the poorer parts of Handsworth.

However, it was the strong family bonds which in a way, lead to the business being started.

“Back in India, our family had been master craftsmen in the village they are from and they were relatively well off by Indian standards – although not English ones. Anyway, my father received a good education and was able to speak English, which was an enormous advantage when we came over here because he was able to act as a translator.

“It had always been his ambition to start his own business but being the sole breadwinner for a large family meant he had a lot of responsibilities.”

It was while living in the house in Handsworth that the family may have received the inspiration for what was to become its livelihood.

“The house had a separate kitchen and my mother used to have to prepare the meals while we all sat and chatted in the other room. My mother would get upset at this and would start crying and say she felt like a slave to the kitchen.

“So one day my father knocked the wall out, whether it was legal in those days or not I don’t know, but suddenly mom would be able to do the cooking and natter to her children at the same time together with her parents and visitors etc.

“I can remember sitting in the kitchen doing my homework. The whole family would eat and talk there. It became the focus of family life. I can still remember the stories my grandparents used to tell me – good ones, with morals behind them. I can still remember the kitchen now, the smells and everything stays with you,” he says.

“The kitchen became the focus of family life and now it’s the in-thing for people to have sofas in the kitchen etc. It’s become the lifestyle we had when we came to England 40 years ago.”

The family business – which was then known as Sembhy & Sons – began in the Birchills area of Walsall, when the family moved from Handsworth to live above their workshop, which was manufacturing hardwood doors and window frames.

They gradually built up the business and took on an additional factory in the Caldmore area of the town, which is probably best known for its quality leather goods.

However, a large cloud was about to appear on the horizon.

“When uPVC frames came out it almost wiped out our business overnight. We had the rug pulled from under us. We were really struggling and then someone told us that we could use the same machines to manufacture fitted kitchens.

“So we started making our own and we didn’t have to start investing in new machines. It’s ironic I suppose but 25 years later hardwood is back in fashion – I had said it was a fad, I just didn’t expect it to last as long as it did.

“However, at the time we were in such a bad state that we were on the verge of calling in the liquidators but my father wouldn’t have it. He said he wouldn’t intentially cheat people. We faced losing our house and we’d only brought it a few months before.

“I said to him we had to consider this (liquidation) as it was a way to save some of the business. But he said the people he bought from were his friends and he wasn’t going to let them down. He said that if he had to pay everyone back himself then that’s what he’d do.

“My father is a very religious man and he has a strong sense of right and wrong and so he wouldn’t do it. I tried to get him to change his mind but I had to go in and tell the liquidators that my dad had said no and that it was his business and I had to respect his decision. We drove home and I was still trying to change his mind but he was adamant.

“We had approached kitchen businesses to supply them and everyone had said no because they couldn’t just change their suppliers, especially to a company that was untried. So as we drove home on that Friday we were really worried.

“Then, on the Monday morning we arrived for work we were told we had won a contract to supply three kitchens to a firm in Lichfield and I thought – there is a God. Slowly we started to trade our way out of our problems. There must have been unseen forces at work.”

Mr Sembhy senior, now 68, still gets involved in the business and fulfilled the goal he set himself when he started the firm – to own a house on the Broadway – one of Walsall’s premier residential areas.

“Dad is very proud of the way the business has gone. The factory now has the latest machinery and he thought out the flow system. His mind is very sharp. I make the strategic decisions but I would always consult my father. I can’t do things on my own so I always consult with others,” says Satt.

The past 30 years have seen the family build up the business through a combination of good customer relations, quality work and products and innovation.

It has not always been easy and there have been prejudices to overcome.

“We have lots of personal endorsements but along the way we have had to overcome certain prejudices but I don’t take offence. There have been people wary of us but I don’t think it’s a racial thing – it’s mostly from people of a certain age who have been brought up in a certain way and don’t know any different. It’s not racism, it’s just ignorance. In the last 10 years or so, attitudes have softened.

“We listen to our customers and try to give them what they want but we also offer our own ideas and the finished project is a combination of the two.

“We are confident of the business model we have and despite the harsh environment we are £270,000 up on what we did last year and have full orders to Christmas.

“I think we are benefiting from the fact that people are staying put at the moment and improving what they have. We are also evolving the business and do far more than just kitchens. We have started to do furniture for home entertainment systems and coffee tables, things we haven’t done before but it’s what people want,” he says.

“In addition, when we begin jobs then sometimes people will say can you make me some bookshelves or a fireplace, that kind of thing. It’s all about responding to customer needs.”

A lot of the company’s work comes through recommendation, from customers who are more than happy with the service they have received.

The company’s lavishly illustrated brochure looks like a lifestyle magazine editor’s dream and boasts endorsements from satisfied customers which include leading businessmen and famous footballers, including ex-Aston Villa stars Ugo Ehioghu and Paul Merson.

“I am delighted that customers feel happy enough to have their names in our brochure. It shows that we are doing the right thing. But it is more than this, our customers are more than just customers to us, they are our friends.

“We treat them as we would expect to be treated ourselves. I wouldn’t give my mobile number to my customers unless I was confident that we will give them the best service,” he says.

The business, which employs 33 people, opened its Streetly showrooms seven years ago after it found it was doing a lot of work in Sutton Coldfield and could probably do more if it had a local base.

Since then, the strength of its work and its use of the internet to market itself, has lead it to fit kitchens all around the country – London, Bolton, Derby, Nottingham, Worcester, even Cornwall.

Away from work, the 49-year-old father of two loves skiing and although he has no favourite resort, he does enjoy visits to the Dolomites and the French Alps. Despite this, his favourite holiday was a trip to Iceland.

“Iceland was a favourite because of the rugged nature of the landscape it was just spectacular,” he says.

So what are his plans for the future of the business.

“We want to do a lot more studies for people whose children have grown up and left and now have more space. Also, we are doing more dedicated home cinema rooms where we do the furniture for home entertainment systems.

“I also have an embryonic idea to fit out people’s garages.

“We would design furniture for the garage and organise clutter. I can see specific furniture in there – it’s a market I would like to create. It’s something I have been thinking about for the past 18 months.

“I want to develop a whole-house strategy where we look at a person’s house and say what rooms are there and how are they used.”

“I think we can do a lot for our customers.”

More cakes on the way then I should say.