VIEW PROFILE: Martin Young

Martin’s sitting spiritually

AFTER being diagnosed with a life changing illness, MARTIN YOUNG from Uplyme, had to change not only his lifestyle but his career too. Fortunately this lead him to forming a successful business making garden seats, which have become hugely popular. Here he tells his story to View reporter TOM GLOVER.

“It’s like swimming, you might need it one day,” was the advice Martin Young’s father gave him whilst he contemplated a carpentry apprenticeship back in 1963.

Martin had wanted to pursue his love of drama but a quick talking to from a careers advisor, seconded by his father, soon changed those plans.

“Its quite funny because I wasn’t that good at woodwork at school but I was very good at drama ironically,” Martin recalled.

“I went to a school where it was made clear to you from the first year that you would go on and do an apprenticeship. You are sort of conditioned into that work ethic right through the four years of secondary school.”

Martin heeded the advice of his father but after completing his five-year apprenticeship he left carpentry behind and went onto pursue a career in sales.

Staying in the construction industry Martin negotiated contracts for builders merchants, spending many years at Bradford’s before finishing his career with the Ready Mixed Concrete Group.

Having climbed the ranks for over 30 years Martin found himself in a national role which saw him travelling the country, covering 40,000 miles a year and spending half his week in hotel rooms.

However, a life changing diagnosis in 2004 caused him to re-evaluate his lifestyle and it was to mark the start for his business Sitting Spiritually.

Martin was diagnosed with a condition called “Syndrome X”, a combination of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

“A real recipe for a early heart condition,” said Martin.

He finished work and began to concentrate on his gardening, which had become his passion after moving to Uplyme in 1998.

The therapeutic and active hobby proved to be the perfect tonic for Martin’s condition. He perfected his garden with the help of local Landscape Architect Ed Brooks and decided to apply to the National Garden Scheme.

He was disappointed to have his garden refused – the problem being a lack of seating. Martin had always harboured a hankering for a swing seat, stemming from memories of American films, so decided that he would try to add one to his garden.

“I found hundreds of swing seats but they were hideous. They didn’t meet my expectations at all,” he said.

“I sent for some plans from America and I made my first seat which still sits in my garden today and that was the start of the whole thing really. Sitting Spiritually was born.”

Martin’s new lifestyle was the inspiration for his company’s name.

“The name fitted nicely with what I was trying to do with my life,” he said. “ I had become interested in meditation and Feng Shui as part of my new lifestyle. We bought the domain name and launched the website in 2004 and maybe half a dozen people bought swing seats and then it started.”

With sales increasing year on year Martin applied to the Chelsea Flower Show. Having had no response he resigned himself to missing out on the show until one day, a month before the show, he was phoned out of the blue and asked to fill a spot left by a cancellation.

He said: “They said we know all about you and we have looked at your website so would you like to come and exhibit.

“Because they had a cancellation they approached me in a much shorter time frame because you are normally told in January and you have five months of planning but we had about three weeks.”

Martin made his first trip to Chelsea in 2008 and admits that this was the turning point that saw his business go national.

He said: “Numbers grew and then I started to involve quite a few local business to help me because I couldn’t do it all myself.

“A chap called Nick Shannon, who is a furniture maker, helped me out, Ed Brooks from Wootton Fitzpaine started to help me make the frames, I started buying my timber from Guy Ewert who runs Eype Down Sawmill; Absolute Industrial in Axminster supply me with my stainless steel, Matt Harvey from Bridport welds all the chains and Siobhan Lancaster from Hawkchurch is my PA.

“I have started to build quite a network of local people so as the business has grown the money has been kept circulating in East Devon and West Dorset.”

The business has grown ever since and a turn of good fortune in May 2009 gave Martin better exposure than he had ever imagined.

He said: “There was a big national article about us in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, May 16th which was the big selling edition when the MPs expenses scandal broke. That was the Saturday before the flower show in 2009. We had a phenomenal Chelsea flower show in 2009 and we have been developing ever since.”

Martin may have been advised against his acting aspirations but he still gets his fair share of attention. He admits he likes the attention he receives on the celebs day at Chelsea and he did get his big TV debut when his garden featured on a television program hosted by BBC Gardener’s World presenter Carol Klein.

The lack of quality Martin found that day he went in search for a swing seat was what gave him the idea for his business. This is not something he has let slip since either. Quality, sustainable garden furniture is still Martin’s key focus and what sets him apart from the rest.

Martin’s life changing visit to the doctors in 2004 gave him the confidence to push on with long harboured ambitions. It may have taking over 30 years for his father’s words of advice to come to fruition but it is not something he regrets.

“When I was diagnosed it gave me the confidence to try these things,” he said.

“I had to change my diet, I had to lose weight and I had to do a lot of things and it all sort of fitted. Instead of driving up and down motorways I am in a workshop, I’m working physically in the garden.

“I just think it came at the right time I really do. I wouldn’t have had the passion I have for it now perhaps 20 or 30 years ago. I was very happy doing what I was doing but it was the logistics involved with the travel that was affecting my health. I absolutely loved doing it so I think it came at just the right time.”

Martin is approaching retirement age now but his work is his passion and it’s not something he intends to give up in the near future.

“I have every intention of carrying this business on as long as I physically can,” he said.

“I have no dreams of retirement or things like that. When Sunday evenings came along I used to think here we go, tomorrow morning I’ve got to drive here and do that. Now weekends, weekdays and bank holidays all sort of merge into one. I don’t see it as a chore at all, I find it very exhilarating.”

Inevitably Martin will have to put down his chisel and hang up his hammer but he doesn’t see this as the end for Sitting Spiritually.

He said: “The future is to develop to a point where somebody. I don’t know who that might be, within the family carries on the tradition.

“My main designer is my daughter Lucy. She is always coming up with ideas and is quite interested, I have son Gary who helps when things get really busy. It might be my grandson Scott, he is quite interested. Scott comes into the workshop and certain little jobs he likes doing like knocking all the plugs in.

“I don’t know who it will be, we are all really involved in it.”

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