Make An Entrance is a family-run business based in Lincoln. Founded from charitable roots, it has been operating online since 2005. It supplies homes and businesses across the UK with made to measure door mats of every type.
Husband and wife team, Stuart and Samantha Burlton created the business, following in the footsteps of Stuart’s father Allen who in the 1990s, managed a Royal School for the Blind factory, where visually impaired people were employed making handmade mats.
In 2019 the Burltons opened their Lincoln workshops to prevent this traditional skill from dying out and are now training a new generation of mat makers.
In recent years they have moved production of most product lines in house, bucking the trend of UK manufacturing decline and bringing skilled practical employment to the Lincoln economy.
When the Make An Entrance team started manufacturing, they partnered with the local council to help bring long term unemployed people back into the workplace through a heritage skills bursary.
Why did you choose to sign up to the charter?
Make An Entrance chose to sign up to the charter because it feels like the right thing to do. The socially responsible activities that they commit to doing by signing the charter are simply the way they like to do business.
Treating their people and their community fairly and with respect is one of their key values.
Supporting our team:
You become a member of the family when you work at Make An Entrance. They don't expect people to be perfect, just to do their best, and they recognise there are times when their team needs their support. For example, with mental health and personal problems. They’ve supported team members through many challenges in recent years. As a family business they wouldn't give up on someone in their family and they don't give up on a member of their team.
A few of the ways in which we support our team:
• Local Business Employee Discount Scheme – they provide membership to their entire team which gives them many shopping and leisure activities discounts with a wide range of local small businesses. This helps make treats more affordable for employees during the cost-of-living crisis and keeps money flowing towards local independently run businesses.
• Private Medical Insurance
• Mental Health Support Line
• Salary Advances for Financial Support
• Free Eye Tests and Flu Jabs
• Healthy Eating advice and training
• Continual training and skills development
Supporting the local community:
Make An Entrance is a business at the heart of their local community, whether it is through charitable fundraising or looking for additional ways to create employment opportunities, they have their local community at the heart of their business. They consider this approach to be socially responsible business practice.
A few of the ways in which we support our community:
• Work Experience Placements
• Apprenticeships
• Supporting local charity fundraising events
• Hosting our own events in aid of local charities
• Donating our products to local charities refurbishing their properties.
Supporting our suppliers:
They choose to work with local suppliers wherever this is feasible, and their supplier relationships are partnerships. It is collaborative teamwork, not adversarial. They’re offered payment terms, but always pay much sooner than required and never put suppliers under unfair financial pressure. They are fair and reasonable and expect their suppliers to reciprocate in kind.
Have you noticed any positive changes since undertaking a range of socially responsible activities?
Behaving in a socially responsible way is our natural style, and so we have always engaged in these behaviours even before signing up to the charter. However, publicly stating an aim to operate like this has given us a renewed focus. We constantly look for ways in which we can become even better whether that’s in terms of how we support our team, or our community.
Do you have any words for a business looking to sign up to the charter?
Just go for it, if you’re even considering it then you already know that it is the right thing to do. Treating people as you’d like to be treated yourself is good business sense and feels great too.
