Interview: NK Interior Solutions' Neil Fisher on setting up a successful business in tough times

NK Interior Solutions director Neil Fisher founded his business with designer Simon Holland in March 2025 – since then they have gone from strength to strength as MHK UK members, and this March were winners at MHK's prestigious Golden Triangle Awards. Emma Hedges talks to Neil to find out more.

Q: How did your relationship with MHK start?
A: Two years ago I went to KBB Birmingham. I had a property development company at the time and I was originally going there to have a look around and see if there was anything different for the development side of things. But in the months leading up to it, the idea of moving into kitchen retail formed and I actually ended up going to KBB with a completely different agenda. I was intrigued by the buying groups at the show and went to talk to MHK. Within a week of coming back from the show, they called me and came to see where we planned to build our showroom. It was originally an old dairy with stables and it was a bomb site, with rubbish in the yard, but they said: "We get it – we think it's great". So MHK were the first people to be supportive of my idea – and in all honesty, that was what gave me the confidence to go ahead.

Q: Tell us about your showroom.
A: It's in the west end of Glasgow, on Great Western Road. We do Rotpunkt, and a little bit of Alku, and bathrooms as well working with large-format Dekton tiles. We've got 2 displays, and we've got some workspace, as well – a sort of work design area, which is all the furniture.

As soon as we opened, I decided that there was a bit more space out the back where the toilets were, so we got our laundry display, a shower display and a boot room display too. We didn't actually open the showroom until a year ago, as it turned out to be a real building project – not just a fit out. We had to dig up floors and recobble the courtyard, but everything in the showroom works – the shower's got hot and cold water, and every hob and oven works.

Q: What to you has proved most valuable about your MHK membership?
A: I'll be perfectly honest – last October, I was sitting there thinking this is not going quickly enough. We can't pay that bill. So I got on the phone to MHK, and it was fine. In that difficult moment they were really supportive. Since then we've also got an agency to do our advertising and social media – me and Simon are dinosaurs when it comes to that – and it's made a real difference. From the first week in December onwards, business has picked up, and I would say this March and April we've probably been on the verge of being too busy.

Q: Do you do appliances through MHK as well as kitchens?
A: Yes – we do ASKO and AEG, and we've also just started Fisher & Paykel. When it comes to kitchens, I don't want all our eggs in one basket because then I couldn't consider us truly independent. In general, there is a move towards single brand/franchises from independents at the moment. If we expand, then a second, single-brand showroom would be a possibility for us, but we would have to retain artistic license so we would design layouts and choose what products would be displayed.

Q: Overall what do you think is the biggest advantage of being an MHK member?
A: So, MHK, for a new business, it’s a no brainer. It's as simple as that. I don't understand why any young company wouldn’t do it. From an accounting point of view, half the paper work's done with it. And there’s unlimited credit. And then you can just pick up the phone to any group member on the supply side, your account is open there and then. It just is so much easier. When you've only just set up your company and haven't got a showroom yet, and you pick up the phone to a supplier it immediately becomes a different conversation – they trust you know what you're doing.

Q: So what's next for NK Interior Solutions?
A: We might go down the route of a second showroom, and we haven't broken into the contract market yet, so I think that's where we might look next. But I'm very interested in the sustainability angle. I went to Copenhagen 18 months ago to see this development that was being built in line with all UN17 Global Goals – the UN17 Village – and through a bizarre quirk of fate it turned out to be Rotpunkt who had done the kitchens. So with my development hat on, that's something I can see that can be done – and it works.