LEICESTER: The new city centre showroom of 150-year-old family business Pochin has been officially opened by Leicester’s City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby.

The city centre bathroom and AGA cooker showroom, on William Street, brings to £4 million the total investment by the business in Leicestershire and the East Midlands during the past six years.

Pochin has invested approaching £500,000 in the new city centre showroom and adjoining trade centre. It follows new branches and acquisitions in Loughborough, Market Harborough, Hinckley, plus a new distribution centre and HQ at Murrayfield Road in Leicester.

Customers including Leicester Tigers and England star Toby Flood and guests from many of the construction and installer businesses supplied by Pochin attended a launch party at the showroom where Sir Peter Soulsby cut a ribbon to declare the premises open. A new Pochin brand, created by Leicester consultancy Newenglish Design, was also unveiled.

Managing director David Pochin, the sixth generation of the family to lead to company, said: “The new showroom, indeed the whole Pochin business, is a team effort. So it was fitting and a pleasure to open the showroom among customers, suppliers, colleagues, advisers and civic representatives of the city of Leicester.

“Moving here from our old home of many years is a bit like shedding a skin so we are refreshed with a new image which will take us on the next part of the Pochin journey.”

Sir Peter Soulsby said: “I’ve always considered myself a long-standing customer of Pochin – for some 40 years. I’ve bought everything from a bathroom suite to obscure washers.

“Pochin has been very important feature of Leicestershire life for six generations. It is a trusted and long-standing supplier to hundreds of other businesses and is an integral part of a supply chain that employs thousands. So it is good to see the confidence shown by this investment in a remarkable transformation into the new showroom.”

David Pochin announced the business is to mark its 150th year with a series of fundraising initiatives to benefit the Leicestershire children’s hospice Rainbows and the international water and sanitation charity WaterAid.