Quality of lift design attracts commercial furniture designers (Birstall, West Yorkshire)
10 Nov 2026Overview
As a design-led manufacturer itself, excellence in style and accessibility in its spaces are embedded in NaughtOne’s core principles. After securing a new premises in Birstall, West Yorkshire for its expanding contract furniture business, it was the beautiful Swedish engineering and design of Gartec’s lift range that hooked Director of Global Operations Rob Hamilton and led the company to achieve its vision of a sleek and minimal lift for its main lobby.
Gartec Sales Manager (UK North & Scotland), Barry Rose, spoke to Rob about the project and why having a lift was a non-negotiable for their new location.
The Move
Tell us a bit about your company and why you chose to move premises?
“We make furniture for the contract world, selling to office spaces, financial companies, retailers, universities and many FTSE 100 brands.
“We have a headquarters in Harrogate, showrooms in London, Chicago and New York and manufacturing in North America, India and China. Our factory for UK and European distribution was in Elland outside Halifax before we moved to Birstall, but we had very much outgrown the space.
“We had all our warehousing off site as well which caused a lot of problems in terms of trying to get parts in for production on time, so we wanted to consolidate all our warehousing and production into one facility. The space was also quite outdated at Elland, and we wanted a new space for our colleagues and customers that represented the brand.”
Why did you choose to incorporate a lift in the design?
“We’re owned by a parent company called MillerKnoll – one of the biggest furniture manufacturers in the world – and it’s a MillerKnoll standard that every office and showroom space must have a lift for employees and customer use.
“We also saw that the building had been designed with a lift in mind but that one hadn’t been installed. For example, there was a disabled toilet and emergency call out button upstairs but no lift for people to access it.”
Choosing Gartec
What made you choose Gartec for the lift?
“I come from a design background, and we stand for good design, that’s one of our core pillars, so I’m attracted to good design whether it is architecture or lifts.
“I was trawling the internet to find the best-looking lift because what I didn’t want was for people to walk into the main space and be met with an ugly piece of architecture and an ugly lift installation. We did go out to tender with three different companies, but we didn’t have a great experience with the others for installations in London in some of our showroom spaces.
“We had a very fast-paced timeline and deadline, and we wanted someone that showed good customer service and good on time delivery and quality as well. Gartec was easy to work with, and it was great they had you locally to answer questions about whether it would fit, whether there was an existing recess under the tiles and provide on-site support during the installation.”
What style of lift did you opt for?
“We went for full glass on the walls which I thought was absolutely brilliant and alongside the white, it looks very simplified and stylish.
“I like the fact that if there is an emergency it can call straight into my mobile if anyone needs any help, so we set that up on the day with the installers. I think that’s a really good function.”
The Installation
How was the installation experience?
“It was pretty seamless. We were given an installation date three months in advance, the lift came on time, and it took four to five days to install. We were also given a full explanation of how the lift works before the team left.”
Client Recommendation
Would you recommend Gartec to others?
“I would definitely recommend Gartec to others – I already have!”
Specification
Lift: Aritco PublicLift Access
Bespoke features: Fully glazed shaft within a glazed atrium stairwell to maximise natural light.
Technical details: 410kg / 5-person capacity lift with a 1100mm x 1480mm platform and 900mm wide fully glazed doors. In white with dark vinyl flooring. Voice annunciation and automatic emergency communication systems.
Reasons for purchase: Quality of design, accessibility and convenience.
