Acorn Stairlifts

Contact Acorn Stairlifts on the freephone number 0800 016 9251

Our History

Acorn Stairlifts – Specialists in making and supplying stairlifts

Our entire operation around the world is focused on the design, manufacture, sale, installation and servicing of stairlifts. Acorn is the world's largest dedicated manufacturer of stairlifts.

Every nine minutes, an Acorn Stairlift is installed somewhere in the world

Acorn is proud to be a British company with its head office in West Yorkshire where it was formed in 1992.

All Acorn Stairlifts are made in three factories, two in the heart of Yorkshire and our main manufacturing location in Scotland.

We employ over 1,400 people worldwide and 500 people in our factories in the UK.

Our UK factories manufacture more than one million components each year, and during the last five years we have invested £8m in plant and machinery.

Acorn is a profitable and cash-generative company which allows our business partners to have confidence in the long-term future of the company.

This is demonstrated by the fact that in both 2013 and 2014, Acorn was named in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 as one of Britain's private companies with the fastest growing profits, and at its year end on 30 September 2014, the Acorn Group had more than £20m in cash reserves.

Our Products and Services

Quality Products and Services for our customers

All of Acorn's current stairlifts have been independently tested and certified to comply with the newest standards for stairlifts. This includes testing our stairlifts to a minimum of 25,000 return journeys, the equivalent of 11 years of use (assuming 6 return journeys each day).

Third party independent official bodies inspect and test our products to all international standards worldwide. Tests are completed quarterly at our factory in Scotland.

All of our carriages are built in Scotland, where the factory has the ISO 9001 quality management certification and the ISO 14001 accreditation for environmental management.

More than 20 people work in the quality assurance team ensuring that each carriage is checked 29 times for quality and safety during the time it is being built. Once built, every single carriage is loaded and driven on a rail as a final quality and safety check before leaving the factory.

Acorn is the only stairlift company awarded the prestigious Ease-Of-Use Commendation from the Arthritis Foundation. The Arthritis Foundation created the Ease-Of-Use Program to encourage manufacturers to design user-friendly products. Products are put through an extensive, scientific evaluation based on the user being Arthritic.

Once the stairlift has left the factory, our dedication to quality and safety continues. Each time we install a stairlift, our highly trained Acorn engineers have a further 37 point checklist in order to ensure both safety and functionality.

Commitment to good customer service and aftercare

Our Customer Service office is open and manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We always aim to respond to any breakdowns within 24 hours, and achieve this target on 98% of occasions.

We have a dedicated training department for our customer service staff.

A Welcome Pack is given to each new customer which encourages feedback.

Acorn's Complaints Procedure is on our website and also available in braille, audio and large print. In the unlikely event that we are unable to resolve a complaint, a customer can refer the matter to the British Healthcare Trades Association for resolution free of charge.

The Company Secretary and Senior Operations Managers hold a meeting each week to review any complaints to resolve and learn from them.

The well-known Dr. Hilary Jones has appeared as our health advisor in many of our publicity materials for the last few years. Dr. Hilary would be unable to do this if he received any negative feedback from our customers.

Acorn has a Primary Authority partnership with West Yorkshire Trading Standards with whom we have a very close and productive working relationship.

Quick response to all sales enquiries

When someone needs a stairlift installing in their home they can often need it to be installed very quickly due to a change in circumstances, perhaps due to a fall or after an operation. Acorn, has over 65 sales surveyors. This enables us to visit any customer in the UK within 24 hours, usually within the same day that they make the enquiry.

We can install straight and curved lifts to 80% of areas in the UK within 3 days, and the extra 20% within 5 days. No other supplier can install a curved stairlift as quickly as we can.

We asked our customers what the primary reason was for choosing Acorn Stairlifts. This is what they told us...

We are very proud that the most common answer was due to a recommendation from another customer or partner.

Effective sales process

When customers contact Acorn Stairlifts, we assist with their enquiry to ensure they have all of the information that they require to make an informed decision.

We offer a free, no obligation survey to assess the suitability of a Stairlift and to provide a quote.

If the customer chooses not to arrange a survey at the time of contact, or if a customer is not ready to place an order with our surveyor, we respect their decision and leave them with the information they require.

We follow a strict policy of not 'over-calling' customers and try to arrange a call back to suit the customer where possible.

Our Values

We act respectfully towards our customers

The majority of our customers are over 75 years old when they buy a stairlift.

We do not use subcontractors for installing or servicing our stairlifts.

All of our salespeople and engineers are DBS checked (formerly CRB).

All of our salespeople and engineers have identification badges.

We have an on-site code of conduct for salespeople and engineers.

People who enquire with us are encouraged to have a friend or family member present when our salesman visits their home.

We run a "going the extra mile" competition which encourage engineers to offer assistance with small tasks around the home that may be difficult for the elderly and vulnerable.

Monthly Acorn Achievers award that recognises praise from customers and nominations from colleagues for good deeds done.

We have had several instances in the past where we have referred our customers to social services where we have concerns about their health and safety.

Dedicated training department who train customer service staff on how to spot and prioritise those who are vulnerable.

A partner you can be proud of

In the last few years, Acorn staff have raised more than £50,000 for the local Sue Ryder Manorlands hospice.

As a business we have installed 25 stairlifts free of charge for patients of the local Manorlands and Marie Curie hospices, plus others for people around the UK suffering from Crohn's Disease, cerebral palsy and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS).

We are delighted to tell you that Acorn has this month agreed with Marie Curie nationally that we will install five free reconditioned straight stairlifts for their patients each month, as nominated by Marie Curie nurses and occupational therapists throughout the UK. The first installation is already scheduled for the first week in December.

Acorn's achievements in the community were recognized when it was recently declared Overall Winner of the 2015 Raising the Bar Award by the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.

Accreditations/ Marketing collateral

Recently, Acorn has become the first national stairlift supplier to have been accredited by Trustmark, and also has joined the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA).

Trustmark

Acorn Stairlifts have now achieved independent endorsement and accreditation of their installation and customer care through TrustMark, the only Government endorsed accreditation scheme for contractors and tradespeople. TrustMark promotes standards and consumer protection within the domestic home repair, maintenance and improvement sector.

TrustMark is unique amongst the many so called other trader schemes advertised on TV and in the Press in that they make home visits to check the work done and talk with the consumer to get their experience of how it was done. TrustMark do this in addition to the checks others do such as insurance, financial stability, customer service and Health & Safety.

Acorn's stairlifts are independently tested and certified to meet the latest European and worldwide safety standards, so it is natural to have TrustMark undertake independent assessments of our installations, too.

BHTA

The BHTA has a code of practice for all of its members - overseen by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI). By signing up to the code, a supplier demonstrates its commitment to high levels of customer care that go above and beyond its obligations, giving confidence to its customers, and business partners.

Arthritis Foundation

Acorn is proud to be the only stairlift company officially awarded the prestigious Ease-Of-Use Commendation from the Arthritis Foundation. The Arthritis Foundation created the Ease-Of-Use Program to encourage manufacturers to design user-friendly products. Products are put through an extensive, scientific evaluation based on the user being Arthritic.

These accreditations are complemented by other high profile branding we are due to introduce:

Made in Britain

Acorn is the first Stairlift company to be awarded the made in Britain accreditation and this is due to be incorporated into our future marketing collateral

Made in the UK Export Award

Acorn is proud to have been named the Made in Britain winner for Exports in 2015, and this is already being used in our marketing collateral.

We find that all of these accreditations and branding are highly relevant to our target market and will provide your customers with the confidence that they are dealing with a responsible, trustworthy, British company.