Back in Action: company returns to Cookham with 'sensational' new branch

A company specialising in high-end furniture to improve people’s posture has eased itself back into familiar surroundings, opening a new branch in the village where it all began.

Back in Action was founded by husband and wife David and Linda Newbound in 1987 and was run in the early days out of a sales office in their home in Cookham.

Successful trading saw Back in Action soon outgrow its base, and over the following decades grew to open more branches in Amersham, Bristol, London and Marlow.

The company has now combined its two branches in Amersham and Marlow and opened a newly revamped showroom in Lower Mount Farm in Cookham.

Mr Newbound said: “We wanted a location that feels much more inviting when clients arrive and the converted barn that we've moved into is just sensational.

“It's a really wonderful retail space.”

Back in Action offers back support products for a range of ages – from high chairs to office chairs – and focuses on ‘high-design’ products.

Even furniture for home cinemas is up for sale.

“We're a million miles away from a ‘geriatric store’,” Mr Newbound said.

He said other products on offer include seating designed to improve attention span – Back in Action sells a ‘high volume’ of products for university students.

Though there is a gap in the market between the ages of 25-30, Mr Newbound said, adding: “It takes most people until they are 30 before the effect of what they’re doing kicks in.”

Back in Action was founded after a car crash spurred a need to look for better back-support products, Mr Newbound said.

After two years of researching business and market strategy, the couple opened in Cookham and found a niche in offering attractive and functional products.

Mr Newbound said: “Our clients by and large want something attractive…

“We’re a pretty high design organisation and the way we work is by providing somewhere where people can be with a highly skilled assistant who can spend up to one, two, three hours with them if necessary.”

From then, the company grew to branches across the country, and has now come full circle back to Cookham.

The new site offers the company a larger space for different departments.

Mr Newbound said: “That’s given our clients more of a sense of a personal relationship with our staff; there is a department for beds, there's a department for office furniture assessment.

“There’s a department for choosing sofas and reclining chairs.

“There’s an individual room for companies to choose management chairs and boardroom furniture.”

But another benefit of moving back to Cookham, he said, was the opportunities offered by the scale of housebuilding in the area.

“We really like that we've now got closer access to the new communities that are growing up around Maidenhead, especially after Crossrail – we’re going to meet a whole new spectrum of customers.”