On 27 August 2026, Symphony Group turns 55. Five years ago we marked our 50th anniversary by looking back over half a century of building trusted, quality fitted kitchens and bedrooms. This time, we’re keeping the history short, because the real story is what’s happened since – a validated route to net zero, a £30 million expansion of our Barnsley factory and a new chapter of ownership that keeps our founding values firmly in place.
Five Decades of Creating Harmony
Founded in 1971, Symphony is now the UK’s largest privately-owned manufacturer of fitted kitchen and bedroom furniture. 55 years on, we employ more than 1,900 people across three manufacturing and distribution sites in Yorkshire, produce around 3,000 kitchens every week and supply kitchens to retailers and housing developers across the UK.
Symphony has been built on our founding principles of excellent service, customers first, partnership with our suppliers, nurturing our people and a duty of care to the environment. These values have carried us through our move to a state-of-the-art factory and head office in Barnsley in 2008, the growth of a family of trusted brands – Gallery, Linear and Freedom for kitchens and Urbano for bedrooms – and in 2015, a successful partnership with Laura Ashley, which has brought the Laura Ashley Kitchen and Fitted Bedroom Collections into homes across the country.
Since our 50th anniversary in August 2021, we haven’t slowed down. The last five years have been some of the most transformative in Symphony’s history. Here’s what’s changed.
The Last Five Years: Building for the Future
A new chapter: Symphony joins the W&R Barnett family
In 2025, Belfast-based W&R Barnett acquired a majority shareholding in the Symphony Group. Founded in 1896, W&R Barnett is a fourth-generation family business that has grown from its origins as a grain merchant in Northern Ireland into a group of commodity trading and industrial businesses – a heritage that mirrors Symphony’s own journey from a family business in Leeds to a market-leading national manufacturer.
The two businesses share many of the same core values, including a commitment to employee welfare, excellent customer service, innovation and an appetite for growth.
That shared commitment to people is already visible in one of the new partnership’s first initiatives: a charity matching scheme through which W&R Barnett doubles the money raised by Symphony employees for charity, giving even greater impact to the fundraising our teams already do for good causes across Yorkshire and beyond.
£30 million invested in manufacturing – the Pen Hill factory expansion
Manufacturing capacity has grown to match our future ambitions. We’ve completed a 300,000 sq ft extension to our headquarters at the Pen Hill Estate in Barnsley in 2023 – a £30 million investment that takes our total manufacturing and distribution footprint to 1.3 million sq ft.
That enhanced capability has allowed us to produce our latest worktop collections from the new facility. The extra capacity gives a wider choice of on-trend decors, extended worktop lengths and complementary splashbacks and upstands.
Whatever the wider economic climate, this investment reflects our confidence in the business, in our loyal customers and in the future of British manufacturing.
A landmark sustainability strategy
In 2025 we launched our most ambitious sustainability strategy to date: Sustainability Strategy 2025, In Harmony with the Planet. It formalises our environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments and sets out measurable targets rather than just good intentions.
Highlights from the last five years include:
- Beating our self-imposed green energy target four years early, with 100% REGO-backed renewable electricity across our sites
- Cutting carbon emissions per £1 million of turnover by 41% between 2017 and 2023
- Increasing recycled content across our products, including cabinet chipboard made from 74% recycled material and rPET foils made from recycled plastic bottles
- Winning the South Yorkshire Regional Large Manufacturer of the Year Award and the Sustainability Award in 2024, and again in 2026
These sit alongside long-standing commitments: our partnership with The Used Kitchen Company to recycle replaced kitchens, Gold membership of the Supply Chain Sustainability School and our continued support for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as Gold Corporate Members.
August 2026 will see Symphony deliver its most significant sustainability milestone of all. Symphony Group has approved near- and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), along with verification of our net-zero science-based target for 2050.
Here’s what we’ve committed to and had validated:
Near-term (from a 2023 base year):
- 42% reduction in absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030
- 33% reduction in scope 3 emissions intensity (per £ of value added) by 2035
- 5% reduction in scope 3 FLAG (Forest, Land and Agriculture) emissions by 2035, alongside a commitment to no deforestation across our primary deforestation-linked commodities
Long-term (from a 2023 base year):
- 90% reduction in absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2050
- 72% reduction in scope 3 FLAG emissions by 2050
In line with the SBTi Net-Zero Standard, we’ll prioritise cutting our own emissions first, only neutralising any unavoidable residual emissions once we reach our long-term target in 2050. You can read our full strategy here.
Langdale Fern Green
A first for British heritage – The National Trust Kitchen Collection by Symphony
In February 2026, we added a new chapter to our brand story. The National Trust Kitchen Collection by Symphony launched in collaboration with the National Trust – Europe’s largest conservation charity – marking the first-ever fitted kitchen collaboration in the National Trust’s history. The collection unites two iconic British names around a shared vision of sustainability and craftsmanship, bringing heritage, quality and timeless style into kitchens across the country.
The Leconfield
Through sales of the National Trust Kitchen Collection, a minimum of £50,000 will be given to the National Trust to support their woodland management work such as Hardcastle Crags in West Yorkshire.
Looking Ahead
Since 1971, Symphony has been guided by the same principles: supplying quality furniture with consistently excellent service, nurturing and developing our people and taking our responsibility to the environment seriously. 55 years on, with a validated net-zero pathway, an expanded factory and a new ownership structure built to support the next stage of our growth, that idea is even more future-proofed.
We’re proud of the last five years and even more excited about what comes next. Explore our kitchen and bedroom collections, or find your nearest retailer.