Drummonds: Bath Bomb

U.K.-based bathroom products company Drummonds is a brand with a story. It all started in 1988 when founder Drummond Shaw struggled to find beautiful antique and architectural materials while restoring a country house south of London. Inspired by the lack of availability, Shaw left his city job to set up a reclamation yard where he made it his business to source and restore these items. As the business developed, Shaw found his niche in beautiful bathroom items, delivering restored baths to all sorts of clients, including the Queen of England.

“The ethos was about the products that would stand the test of time and also last,” says James Lentaigne, creative director at Drummonds. “We moved the business forward by building our own foundries from the ground up to manufacture a range of bathroom items entirely by hand and to exceptional levels of detail and design.”

Drummonds takes great pride in providing customers with exceptional service, excellent product quality, and a transparent process. The company is fairly small—under 100 people, most of which are based in factories—and the unique construction process sets the company apart from other bath brands.

“The construction process is complicated and we are always looking at methods to improve the information and the customer journey from start to completion,” says Lentaigne. “We get so many beautiful case studies after the project is finished, which is really a testament to the good relations between our team and the customer. Whenever we have an issue, we learn from it and we are very quickly to move. As a small business, it is so easy to get stuck or weighed down by the ever-increasing demands on the business, but we area very agile and this is essential in my view.”

Drummonds has developed a reputation for their freestanding bath tubs and vanities. With hundreds of designs in their lineup, from their popular skirted baths to cast iron claw foot tubs, colorful spray painted matte or gloss exterior baths, or an entirely copper role top tub, the company has an offering for everyone. Plus, they will work closely with you to determine what is the right fit for the client’s lifestyle and how they use the space.

“Inspiration or really our product development comes from a variety of channels,” says Lentaigne. “A gap in our range, a concept for something different, a product improvement and customer feedback, but also just some crazy ideas (I have one at the moment which I have been thinking about for years). We feed these into our system, but unfortunately as a small business, filter out most to really only have a small, but incredibly strong output.”

For the time being, Drummonds is keeping busy further developing their range and staying ahead of the curve.

“My 14 year chase of the most amazing designer has turned into a collaboration that will launch in October 2021 if it comes into fruition,” says Lentaigne. “It will be a bath, shower, bath taps (faucets), and basin taps. This small collection is stunning, it is classic but contemporary. So often people label transitional, industrial, etc. as styles, but this is classic and contemporary. I am really excited about the collection and the designer—they bring a level of detail into the mix which we have never seen before and we are truly lucky to be a part of it.”