Flybe / September 2018

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Talking Business
Ivy & Duke’s luxury, handmade
dog beds not only look good,
they’re designed with pet
comfort in mind
Tell us about Ivy & Duke.
Ivy & Duke offers a fabulous
range of luxurious memory
foam dog beds, designed and
handcrafted in the UK using
robust waterproof and high-
quality fabrics. The products
have been developed to not
only look stylish in your home
but also offer durability, comfort
and orthopaedic support.
Where did the company name
come from?
I have been an animal lover
all my life, and my fondest
childhood memories are of
playing in the garden with our
family’s two golden Labradors
named Ivy and Duke. Very
sadly, they are no longer with
us, but they will be forever
remembered in the company
name.
What was the impetus for
starting the business?
Ivy & Duke was born when
I acquired a soft furnishings
company based on the outskirts
of Manchester. The factory
was manufacturing some fairly
standard soft-seating-type
products, but the team seemed
incredibly talented, from
fabric cutters to seamstresses
and even a small, youthful
online sales team. I knew
we could create something
special. During a long career
in manufacturing and foam
conversion, I had always
wanted to design and retail
a finished product. When my
family gained a new member
named Winston, a boisterous
Weimaraner puppy, I searched
high and low for a suitable
dog bed, with no luck. The
beds either had inferior filling,
which I knew would go flat very
quickly, or thin, poor-quality
fabric which wouldn’t stand up
to Winston’s sharp claws and
teeth. The timing was incredible,
there was an obvious gap in the
market for a high-end, quality
product and I now had the skills
to produce it.
Describe your products, and
who designs them?
All the designs are created
from our own inspiration in-
house. Using local companies,
What makes your dog beds
stand out from the crowd?
The fact that they are
designed as pieces of furniture,
and we can create unique
shapes using my specialist
foam-cutting machinery.
Perfect examples of this are
our two models The Boneo
and The Chaise Chien. There
is nothing else like them on
the market and we get some
amazing feedback from them.
What challenges have you
faced with the company?
With a company in its infancy
the challenges have been
immense, from creating
prototypes from scratch and
taking them back to the
drawing board several times to
photography and developing
the website. We have worked
tirelessly on these beds,
inspecting every detail to ensure
we are only producing the best.
What are your plans for the
future of our company?
We have a hard-working,
talented team here, who are
all incredibly passionate about
what we are creating. I’m sure in
the coming years we are going
to grow, while still maintaining
our core roots of being
producers of quality, and being
hand-crafted here in Britain.
5 MI NUTES W I TH…
Charlotte Taylor,
MD of Ivy & Duke
Above, left to right: Ivy
& Duke’s Zara Wood,
Megan Welsby, Mark
Taylor, Charlotte Taylor
and Sue Justice
we sourced tasteful, stylish and
timeless fabrics that would
blend naturally into people’s
homes as a piece of furniture.
We knew that only the best
would do, so what better than
materials already used on your
sofas, armchairs and cushions?
Upholstery materials are
hardwearing and high-quality,
so they were the obvious choice.
Next up was filling. With
my knowledge of the foam
industry, I knew there was only
one viable option to ensure
these beds were long-lasting
and never went flat – memory
foam, which also has the
added bonus of being super
comfortable and offering
support to your dog’s joints
which, as they get older, will
be very beneficial.
“The factory was
manufacturing
some fairly
standard soft-
seating-type
products, but
the team seemed
incredibly
talented,...
I knew we could
create something
special”
78 / Flight Time / SEPTEMBER 2018