Gidgit is a simple, efficient solution designed for the thousands of kitchen fitters and DIYers around the world. Jim Thomson tells Torque Magazine how he came up with the design and what’s next for this brand new innovation
Like many classic innovation stories, Gidgit was created to serve a need – and to fill a gap in the market.
Jim Thomson was renovating his own kitchen, which had been custom designed. When it came to replacing the cabinet doors, the screw holes for the hinges were damaged. Thomson was faced with the prospect of spending huge sums of money to replace the custom doors.
Instead, he designed a solution that meant he could re-hang the existing kitchen cabinet doors, without shelling out thousands, despite those damaged screw holes.
“It is a really simple idea. I designed it and we had 3D printed parts made first. Then I asked a company how much it would be to manufacture it. I came at the problem from an engineering point of view, so it has been designed to be quick and efficient to implement.”
From there, Thomson decided to see if anyone else had been faced with a similar dilemma and began selling the product online to gauge if there was a wider market for it. Designed in spring 2016, the first Gidgit products came on sale in September of the same year. Now available through growing online portals like Amazon and ManoMano, Gidgit is moving from a one-off, time and money saving design to a fledgling business, despite early knock backs from traditional, big name, DIY retailers.
Gidgit is UK-made, UK registered and uses local suppliers to its Oxfordshire base. Founder Thomson is conscious of the firm’s eco-footprint. “We had very simple packaging for online sales, but I didn’t really like it – it wasn’t recyclable… Gidgit is a plastic part and we’re supposed to be having a war on plastic. So, we’ve revamped the packaging and that’s now 100% recyclable as well as being ready for bulk sales into the retail market.”
Hinging on success
“The largest market for us is, currently, Germany,” Thomson tells Torque. “It used to be the UK, then the USA and Canada and then France. We are a very small company, we’re organically grown and there’s been no other financial investment apart from my own. Sales are a matter of awareness, we really don’t spend much on marketing and all our sales are online today.
“It’s been a slow burn overseas, but we’ve now signed a US distributor, who started as a customer. He couldn’t find a solution to the same problem until he found us.”
Thomson continues: “We’re currently raising awareness on LinkedIn and we’ve had some good press coverage too. People find us by searching online for the solution and plenty of our customers discover us this way. The design works for most common cabinets and we’ve now designed another bracket to go on the door side and a design that will be compatible with IKEA cabinets. There’ll be further products coming soon, too.
“We sold seven kits to one person, which was very satisfying and as it seems there are lots of refurbs on kitchens, bathrooms, offices etc going on we are pleased to help with a cheap, effective fix for rehanging existing, cabinet doors, which saves people suffering great expense and frustration.
“People invest so much in cabinetry but you don’t have to replace the whole lot just because of a few, damaged screw holes.”
“A UNIQUE SOLUTION”
Jim Thomson tells Torque: “As of Q1 2019, Gidgit will become the only company to solve the problem of damaged screw holes in kitchen, bedroom and bathroom cabinets for both the cabinet side and the door side.
“Gidgit is the only company that has brackets which accommodate mismatched holes and the only product that includes Euro Cabinet Screws for a proper mechanical fit. It is also the only option which provides a choice of colour to match up with most cabinet interiors.”
This article was originally published in Torque’s February print magazine. You can subscribe to the mag or read the whole thing online.
