Apollo Blinds is 50 years-old this year – and the celebrations have begun!
As well as all Apollo’s team coming together to mark the milestone this March at an event in Scotland where it all began, we’ve launched a fantastic 50th Birthday free prize draw to win five fabulous Golden Anniversary prizes worth £1000. You can enter our competition here.
Our Company History
Apollo Blinds’ Business Development Director Matt Thomas reflects on the success and longevity of our brand.
Apollo Blinds began in 1972 when two brothers from Inverness started to recruit a network of distributors to sell the blinds they were manufacturing.
The first shop to open was in Airdrie, Scotland: it sold 120 Venetian blinds in its first week!
By 1975, within just three years, 30 other shops had opened in Scotland, with rapid growth during the 1980s as the rest of the UK began to enjoy the Apollo Blinds experience when the brand increased presence across the UK.
During the early 1990’s Apollo Blinds benefitted further with the opening of a new £5 million factory in Glasgow, which was officially opened by Princess Diana.
In 1994 the Apollo Blinds franchise business became part of Hunter Douglas, an international company and the world’s largest manufacturer of window blinds. And the network has not looked back since because our franchisees continue to benefit from access to innovative products and on-trend collections – which mean they can offer the widest choice of quality, made-to-measure window blinds, Shutters, Curtains and Awnings in their local area.
Today Apollo Blinds is the leading retailer of window coverings, it’s a national brand delivering a local service. Our team of franchisees operate across more than 50 franchise territories in the UK.
Every local Apollo operation is owned by a local representative who is totally focused on running their own business the Apollo Blinds way to deliver exceptional levels of service – backed by authentic guarantees. It’s a highly experienced team too – many of our franchisees have been part of the Apollo Blinds network for more than 30 years; many are also family run businesses.
More than 25,000 customers are visited in their homes by our franchisees each year, benefitting from the design consultation process and expert fitting that ensures blinds continue to operate as new year after year.
Thanks to ongoing innovations in window coverings Apollo Blinds franchisees an array of products including market leading Duette® blinds, motorised products, Shutters and Awnings.
Latest developments include eco-friendly Roller, Vertical and Pleated blinds that use 100% recycled polyester fabrics – made from yarn that has been derived from discarded plastic drinking bottles.
We are also very proud to all of our Blinds, Curtains, and Awnings are manufactured in the UK. We have a number of production facilities around the UK that specialise in manufacturing our different made-to-measure products to the very highest standards using quality fabrics and components.
Apollo franchisee Amanda Hannan said: “There’s always something new at Apollo Blinds, and that’s the reason why we have such a well-established business with generations of loyal customers who enjoy getting high-quality, stunning blinds installed by us so they will work perfectly for years.”
