Pre-schoolers run rule over the furniture

A GROUP of three and fouryear-olds has been appointed as official product-testers for a new range of nursery school furniture being developed by Keighleybased educational furniture manufacturer British Thornton.

The pre-schoolers, from Handprints Nursery in Silsden, have been recruited to test the final product designs of the Trudy Nursery range, which launches later this year. The furniture, which was designed for imaginative play, has innovative safety features and is one of the first in the UK to be coated in an anti-bacterial lacquer to help reduce the spread of infection in nurseries.

The launch will build on the success of the company’s existing Trudy range, which turns over about £3m annually.

Jonathan Clark, British Thornton’s product design director, said: “We designed this new range with pre-schoolers in mind, so what better way to put it to the test than to give it to the children who will actually be using it? They were brilliant product-testers and it was great to see them enjoying using the equipment, as well as getting their invaluable feedback.”

During the morning, the tiny product-testers were filmed doing their inspections and collating their observations, and the footage is set to feature in the national launch of the range later in the year.

Hannah Wiggin, nursery manager at Handprints, said: “The children were delighted to be given such an important role and loved their day being official product-testers. The furniture is wonderful, and we were very pleased to be approached by British Thornton to be part of the process.”

British Thornton recently joined with fellow Yorkshire company Claughtons and Scotland’s EME Furniture to create the UK’s largest educational furniture business, with a turnover of £30m.