Colchester-based Elfin Kitchens is celebrating two decades in business, 20 years after husband-and-wife team Bob and Ellie Andrew turned an idea for providing innovative, space-saving kitchens to the UK market into a new family business.
From modest beginnings in Crittall Road, Witham, Elfin has grown into a nationally recognised compact kitchen specialist, supplying installations for major developments across the UK.
Today, the business operates from Elfin House in Pedders Close, Colchester, specialising in pre-built compact kitchens designed to maximise functionality where space is at a premium. Its kitchens are used in applications ranging from student accommodation and rental properties to offices, welfare facilities and leisure developments.
Since a major breakthrough in 2007, when the fledgling business secured an order to supply 750 kitchens for the Nido student accommodation development in Spitalfields, Elfin has been a big name in small kitchens.
The scale of the project prompted Bob and Ellie’s son-in-law, Tom McCain, to join the company in 2008, initially project managing the Spitalfields deliveries and their coordination.
Bob and Ellie’s son, Neill Andrew, joined the business in 2012 and that same year marked another important milestone when Elfin outgrew its original Witham premises and acquired a warehouse at Pedders Close. Further investment followed, with planning permission secured in 2015 for new offices, showroom and meeting facilities, which were completed the following year.
Twenty years after its launch, Elfin remains a family business but has undergone a carefully managed generational transition. Tom and Neill acquired an initial 51% stake in 2022, enabling founder Bob to retire. The remaining shares were purchased in 2023, allowing Ellie to retire and completing the management buyout which put the next generation at the helm.
Neill, now Managing Director at Elfin, said: “For us, the 20th anniversary is about much more than the number of years we’ve been trading. It’s a chance to look back at what Mum and Dad created and recognise just how far that original idea has come.
“We started on a small industrial estate in Witham and today we’re supplying kitchens to projects throughout the UK from our base here in Colchester. We’ve grown enormously, but we’ve deliberately tried to retain the things that made Elfin successful in the first place – being approachable, knowing our products inside out and looking after customers properly.
“Tom and I are incredibly proud to have taken responsibility for the business Mum and Dad built. Our job now is to make sure we keep developing it and create the next chapter of the Elfin story.”
Tom, also now a Managing Director at Elfin, is proud that the company’s Essex roots and family ethos have remained important throughout its growth.
“When I joined Elfin in 2008, I came in to help deliver what was, at the time, a huge project for a small business,” explains Tom. “I don’t think any of us could have predicted exactly where that journey would take us.
“What I’m particularly proud of is that we’ve been able to grow without losing the personal nature of the company. We’re still a close-knit team based here in Colchester, but we’re working with customers, contractors and developments across the country.
“Reaching 20 years gives us an opportunity to celebrate Bob and Ellie’s entrepreneurial spirit, thank everyone who has been part of Elfin’s journey and, importantly, look forward. We still have plenty of ideas about where we can take the business next.”
Neill adds: “Essex has always been Elfin’s home. We’ve gone from Witham to Colchester and from a small start-up to a business supplying projects across the UK, but we’ve never felt the need to lose that local identity. 20 years is a significant milestone, and we’re excited about what the future will bring.”
