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H really is the magic letter for a new family-run sofa shop, with Hannah and Harry Hambrook at the helm and a business name inspired by the couple's two-year-old son, Henry... "The Boss".
Times are tough for retailers. We've just come out of a pandemic, the cost of living is going up and economic uncertainty seems to stalk small businesses wherever they go. However, despite this, there are several newer faces around the island braving it all.
Last week, Express met some of the newest additions to the high street. Today, we speak to a family setting up shop in St. Peter...
Maison Henry will be opening next month with a mission to "make family life comfy through a hand-made sofa range which doesn't comprise on quality, ethics or durability."
Hannah describes herself as a "Polish girl", who moved to Jersey for work and has now been living on the island for eight years. She gained a qualification in accountancy and bookkeeping, but has always dreamt of starting her own business.
Hannah's soon-to-be-husband, Harry Hambrook, was born in Jersey and spent his childhood on the island, before leaving briefly to study business at university. In classic Jersey fashion, the couple actually met "outside the Royal Yacht" and now live together in Jersey.
Pictured: Hannah is the creative design force behind the venture, while Harry has a more business-orientated brain.
Harry now works as a civil servant, and Hannah is currently a full-time mum. When covid hit, the couple had just bought their first apartment which they were struggling to furnish locally. This led them to realise that there was a "gap in the market" for bespoke furniture in Jersey.
Harry explained: "We wanted to create something different from the other furniture shops already in Jersey. They just go to a manufacturer and just pick stuff off their production line, but we've actually spent a couple of years like designing the products ourselves so it's completely personal to us.
"We then found really good small family manufacturer the UK to bring our designs to life with fabrics from all across Europe."
The entrepreneurs are not worried about the prospect of competition from online retailers, believing that a new sofa is "one of those things that you need to feel and test to see if it's comfortable".
They have decided to locate their new showroom in St. Peter's Village, as they wanted a large space outside of town with sufficient parking for customers.
The initial plan is for Maison Henry to be open from Wednesday to Sunday, with Hannah in charge on weekdays and Harry covering the weekend shifts.
It is often said that you shouldn't mix business with pleasure, but the couple feel that it has worked well for them so far. They believe that the the secret to their success is to set out clearly what they are both responsible for.
Hannah explained: "I have always been passionate about interior design, it's just my thing. It's something I can do for hours and I don't know where the time goes! I want to to show people how they can change the space they live in.
"However, Harry is passionate about building the foundations of the business and has experience in entrepreneurial projects."
Harry joked: "It's all fine as long as I make sure I don't try to give too much input on the design side of things!"
Pictured: Maison Henry is named after the couple's two-year-old son, Henry.
Although they are starting out with just sofas, armchairs, and love seats, the Hambrooks are hoping to expand into other types of furniture in the future too.
Their initial designs will be available at Maison Henry in a range of colours and a choice of three different fabrics: velvet, linen, and hessian.
Hannah said: "We've chosen very calming and earthy tones. What it's all about is when you work all day and you want to go home and you want to be surrounded by calmness and relaxing colours, nothing too bright or crazy."
Harry added: "They're super soft as well; it's one of those things that you sit on and you're just like 'wow!'. When we were trying sofas for our apartment, we found that a lot of them looked nice and cost a lot of money, but they just weren't comfortable."
"I love them, I really do," Hannah gushed. "I would never sell anything that I don't feel passionate about!"
Despite their optimism, the Hambrooks have already noticed the impact of rising costs even though their business is yet to open its doors.
Harry said: "Even since we started negotiating prices, the cost of fabrics has actually gone up already because of the increase in energy costs. It's not necessarily the fabric costs themselves, but just the influence of energy costs so there's definitely going to be a pinch with the rising costs of living.
"I know economists say that there's going to be a recession but we're quite hopeful that because Jersey has quite a strong economy it's not going to be felt too hard."
He added: "I was thinking today that with inflation going up, people arena going to want mortgages anymore so it might mean that people stay in the properties that they have already but decide that they want to just fit out a little bit better with some new furniture!"
The couple remain hopeful that Maison Henry will bring something new to the island which Jersey hasn't seen before.
"We're quite confident," said Harry. "We've put a lot of work into making sure they're amazing products so we hope people can see that."
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