Built by people obsessed with garden rooms

The Smarta Award was for “game changers" and the panel of judges included Deborah Meaden from Dragons Den.

Booths were seen as the company at the forefront of a massive new demand for garden offices and garden rooms. The figures back this up showing that Booths turned over half a million in 2009, but have boosted this to selling over £10.2 million worth of garden rooms in 2021 - from tiny offices all the way up to large annexe or fitness rooms. Most of this growth during a relatively slow economic outlook for the UK economy.

It annoyed Alex that he couldn't take his garden studio with him when he moved house so he vowed then to always design garden rooms which are portable.

I knew Alex when he had the original vision to see just how popular garden rooms were going to be. He built me one of his first garden offices - a building I still use to this day. So it's pretty amazing to look back at how Alex started from zero and presently has a company turning over £10 million and employing 51 people. He's come a long way.

Alex's "QC" garden office design has been the backbone of this growth.

The "QC" stands for "quarter century" since the design is zero maintenance for at least 25 years. After his obsession with garden office and garden rooms, Alex's spare time is spent with his family - "nothing is more important or enjoyable than being with your family".

Alex asked…

“Why spend thousands on a building that you can’t take with you? By making the Studio portable, it increases its value as an asset. If you move home, you can take it with you, or if you stop using it, you can sell it on. Being a portable building increases its second hand value. You don’t suffer the massive depreciation that can occur when you sell your house and the buyer has no interest in your expensive unlovable garden room.”

The obsession Alex has for the whole concept of garden rooms, garden studios and garden offices have driven Booths to the number one supplier of Zero Maintenance Garden Rooms in the UK, and now even rent garden offices to customers whose cash flow is stretched.

Renting out garden offices is all part of Alex’s plan to give everyone the opportunity to have an extra room. Extra space which can transform the day to day quality of your leisure or business.

This was prompted by a friend of Alex who said, “I’d love one of your garden studios for my business – if I had one, I could do “Tanning” (she runs a Beauty Salon from home) and probably earn an extra £100 per week, but I haven’t got the money to buy one.”

So Alex suggested:

“If you pay for the installation and then pay me a rent, see how you get on for 6 months and if it doesn’t stack up for you, I’ll take it back.”

Needless to say – it’s an offer Alex’s friend couldn’t refuse and she was very soon adding an asset to her business and earning extra income whilst working at home.

Alex actually started out supplying and building conservatories and has worked for “Fairline Boats”, makers of millionaire yachts. It was after building an office shed at the bottom of his garden, that he realized the full benefits of not working in the house…

He felt “more in control”, rather than the business controlling him.

He felt he made better decisions, with better concentration, and more productivity.

It was this “aha”, that made Alex determined to design an affordable, insulated, portable, attractive garden office. (He never thought he’d be turning over millions of pounds doing it)

The cheaper end of the garden office market in the UK were simply sheds with more insulation, or single skin buildings like log cabins, which don’t actually have much “log” and are more “plank cabins” than log. This meant Alex started from scratch. He didn’t run a shed business or log cabin business so he started with a fresh outlook to the situation.

Alex knew that famous authors such as Roald Dahl, Jeffrey Archer, Dylan Thomas and Philip Pullman preferred the concentration zone that such an environment could give. He set about designing a garden office with the following key features; portable, insulated, secure, attractive, installed in days, free standing, provide a professional working atmosphere, and most of all VALUE FOR MONEY.