Staff Spotlight: Introducing Granit
We have started a new series of posts, so you can get to know the team a little better and get some insight into the people who will be working with you on your home:
Today we speak to Granit and ask him a few questions.
Wood has been in the family for generations, can you tell me a little bit about how you were introduced to this growing up, and how it became your passion?
From a young age, I was always fascinated by my dad’s work. At just seven years old, I would go with him to his job, eager to help in any way I could whether it was cleaning up rubbish, organising tools, or moving small pieces of wood around.
By 2008, my sister Leonarda and I started spending every weekend at my dad’s showroom. At the time, I was 13, and she was 15. We helped him with tasks like writing emails and managing accounts since he wasn’t confident with English or using a computer.
When I turned 16, I became more hands-on with tools, especially sanding equipment, though my dad was still the lead craftsman, and I was just assisting him. This continued for years as I balanced school with helping out in the business.
I eventually completed college and university, graduating with a BSc in Accounting and Finance. During my studies, I stayed involved in the business when I could, mostly doing office work. However, by the time I graduated, my interest in the family business had faded. I hadn’t been on-site for years, and the business was smaller at the time, taking on maybe five jobs a month. I decided to pursue a career in accounting and finance.
I found a job and started working, but after only three days, I felt deeply unhappy. Working for someone other than my dad was unfamiliar, and I had no time to support the business. I realised I had to make a choice: either build my own career or return to my dad’s business to ensure it survived. I chose the business. Telling my employer I was leaving shocked them—they had chosen me as their top candidate after a long hiring process. But when I walked away from that job, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted.
Once I fully committed to the business, I set ambitious goals. Within months, through advertising and daily hands-on work, I not only reached those goals but exceeded them. The company grew rapidly, and I had to leave the office to join the installation team. I was now both running the business and installing floors.
At one point, my schedule became overwhelming: working 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on installations, then oiling wood until 10 p.m., all while handling client calls, writing emails, and preparing quotes from my phone. The workload became so intense that we asked Leonarda to step in and help.
Can you tell me a little bit about your day to day role at Woodcraft and what it entails?
Today, I oversee everything, emails, quotes, contracts, site visits and I’m still deeply involved in installations. I take pride in my craft and consider myself a perfectionist. While I’ve learned an incredible amount from my dad, I’ve also developed my own skills and techniques as part of a newer generation. My dad, now semi-retired, no longer works on projects and has handed over most responsibilities to me.
Looking ahead, I can’t imagine doing anything else. Despite the long hours and challenges, I love what I do. We’re still growing as a family business, and one day I hope to take a step back, just like my dad did, and pass the business on to my children.
What is the largest job you have ever done? and were there any special considerations or logistics you had to keep in mind?
We have completed quite good amount of large projects, the largest project that we have fully completed was actually in 2009 it was around 800 square meters of parquet herringbone that was for a school in Buckinghamshire, we were invited to tender for the project and actually had won the tender. The project as I can remember was a lot of work before actually starting the installation with a lot of planning and organising because as you can imagine when a massive school is being renovated there will be tons of tradesmen onsite who are there to complete their part. This project was actually one of the first BIG projects which was something very new to us, we had no idea what a RAMS or COSHH were, we had to learn all these things and create documents that showed we were H & S (Health and Safety) complaint and it was me and Leonarda at around 15 years old who had to deal with all the documents. for the installation team, we did have more people in to complete the project as our small team of two people were not going to complete 800 square meters in the time agreed.
We do now have a project which is 1350 square meters for a German Billionaire who bought a wedding hall in Hexton for 15 million and is transforming it into his own house we are lucky to be the people who are installing and finishing his floor, at this stage we are extremely experienced in dealing with larger projects so nothing is a surprise to us, we have other family members who have their own wood flooring company however they just fit and sand floors they do not produce their floors and they actually work for our competitors, one of our family members in their team which is their dad is one of the best craftsman I would say in Europe at least, he has completed some very unique floors that I get a headache just looking at the plans let alone planning the installation.
Are there any famous floors that have impacted you and your vision?
When I visited France, in the luvre museum they had lovely oak versile panels which amazed me on how well kept the flooring was, as you can imagine the thousands of people who visit that museum every day and the amount of maintenance that has to go into that floor is astonishing.
Do you have a favourite wood or wood species and why? There are many wood species out there, I think my favourite species is an oak called bog Oak, this is an oak that fell or was buried thousands of years ago we are talking 4000-6000 years ago, the oak being buried in wetlands for thousands of years preserves the oak and creates a very dark almost black finish basically it is a oak that has fossilised, as you can imagine this oak has a history to tell, 4000-6000 of history to tell which amazes me, this cannot be replicated it’s a truly unique creation of nature.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone who is planning a new room, what would it be? If I would give advice to someone who is building a room I would say to get the colours right of the theme that they are wanting to achieve, this can be done by taking samples from companies and combining them together, example: flooring sample, door sample, bed sample, blind sample, wall and woodwork sample.
The saying we have in our family is if you either buy right or buy twice, simply means we always tend to seek the better quality things for a room, if the flooring is better quality it will last you longer and can be sanded more times, if the blinds are better quality they will last longer same with everything.
Why do you think Woodcraft flooring stands out so much and why designers and contractors like to work with you so often?
We stand out so much because we are very few family wood flooring businesses left, and we are very few who actually hand finish our wood flooring in house. I do not know of another company who actually finished their wood flooring by hand by family members such as we do, I unload the wood flooring from the truck, I stain and oil the wood flooring and I fit the flooring, so the client is seeing the same person from when they order the wood to when their floor is fitted, this is something that really makes us stand out. Every other company has a team of fitters, they have teams of sanders, they have teams of or companies who finish their wood flooring, we have one team who does everything.
We are also extremely unique as we are preserving our family history by working with wood, as I explained earlier in the email I lost interest in the business Leo maybe did too we were going our own ways however we are now working on the business together as a family even though sometimes we do want to kill each other it’s better to work with yours sister and your dad than someone who isn’t family.
What are you plans for the future?
Looking ahead, I can’t imagine doing anything else. Despite the long hours and challenges, I love what I do. We’re still growing as a family business, and one day I hope to take a step back, just like my dad did, and pass the business on to my children.
Thanks for your time, is there anything else you would like to say to anyone reading this?
I would like to say that my dad came from a war torn country with the clothes that he had on his body, he literally came here with nothing to his name and not a penny in his pocket, all the life that he knew back home was being wiped out. He came to this country to create a better life for me and my siblings, me and Leonarda still owe the debt to my dad for going through all the hardship to the point that he had not seen his parents from 1994 and around 2003 they passed away so it was 9 years he has not seen his parents before they passed away saying this even though we are in business we know our roots and our background we are extremely hardworking and honest people! My dad poured his blood sweat and tears into Woodcraft Flooring and we will continue to do the same.
Granit