I am Matt Rampley, director and founder of MR Woodcraft Ltd. When I first started the company there was one thing which was very important to me; I wanted to produce high quality pieces of furniture, which would compliment peoples homes and gardens. The whole process from start to finish needed to feel personal to the client, to ensure they were getting the very best experience from order to installation.
A little bit about me:
“Ever since a young age I have always been a very practical person, I grew up in the Suffolk countryside and loved the outdoors. It was during my middle school years where I fell in love with woodworking.”
I remember making a clock in my resistant materials class when I was around the age of ten. The clock was hung in my kitchen at home, and there were often positive comments about it made by people visiting.
I stuck with woodworking from then on, into high school where I did a GCSE in resistant materials and then going onto Sixth form and studying product design as an A level. I learnt many vital skills throughout my school years, which I still use to this day. At the end of GCSE, AS and A2 level years our final products from each course would be displayed along with all the research, sketch books, design work and development notes in the ‘Annual Design Exhibition’ at school. These exhibitions were set up so the examiners could access our work, once this was done it was then opened to the public.
“I received multiple awards from different visiting companies over the three years, as well as this I had a huge amount of positive comments and feedback about my work, which will always stay with me. It was from there I really knew I wanted to work with wood, and make products for people, which they would truly cherish.”
My final year A level product was a very modern looking Swing Seat, made from both Oak and Stainless steel components, the two materials were chosen because they complemented each other beautifully. It was this product and my A Level folders, which ultimately led to me being offered a job with a local garden furniture maker. The job I was offered, and later accepted was a fantastic opportunity for me, it was with a relatively young company who were not only looking for a joiner, but a designer too, as well as helping out with other aspects of the business such as sales, deliveries and shows. In the workshop we all worked extremely closely together, almost like a family. It was here I was able to learn a huge amount more about joinery and design, and also many of the different aspects of running a successful business as well, and I loved every minute!
In 2015 I was told by my boss that he had decided he was going to retire and that him and his wife were going to be emigrating to a different country, something they had always spoken of doing, an extremely exciting opportunity for them and the time was right to do so. It was from here that we started discussions as to how I may be able to take over and continue running the business. With help and advice from some close friends and a lot of backing from my family, it was in October 2015 I purchased the assets from the old company, and MR Woodcraft Ltd was born, a hugely exciting time indeed!
I wanted to continue to make the same high quality products as we did before, as well as diversifying and doing a little bit more to push my new business forwards.
“MR Woodcraft is now very much a family run business, myself along with my trusty Labrador Aussie keeping me company in the workshop every day, with my father often here too giving me a helping hand with larger bits and pieces and deliveries.”
From the start of the process right up until the very end, our products are lovingly designed and handmade using a mixture of both traditional and modern techniques in our Suffolk workshop, by us, for you. This means that when you contact us about a product, you won’t be greeted by a salesman, but instead you’ll be dealing directly with the people who are passionate about the product which they, themselves create.
