The Custom Group Standard

Custom Group was founded in 1974 by Richard J. Rybij, an Ilkeston-born man who combined his skills in sales and manufacturing of soft furnishings to offer a fast, quality curtain manufacturing service.

The Custom Curtain Company was formed, and its success in the retail market quickly spread to the commercial sector. The same principles of attention to detail and customer care resulted in the company being awarded prestigious contracts in the UK and internationally; the business was subsequently incorporated in 1987.

The 1990s saw the manufacture of window blinds commence, along with the launching of a specialist theatre division, formed to provide curtains, seating and other drapery products for some of the most prominent performance venues in the UK and abroad. Projects included refurbishing all the soft furnishings for The Point Depot in Dublin and rejuvenating the Lyceum Theatre in London in time for Prince Charles’ 50th Birthday Party.

The early 2000s saw a company name change, to Custom Group Ltd, to reflect the increasing range of products offered by the business. The expansion of all divisions led to the construction of the company’s current headquarters, adding valuable additional office space, conferencing facilities and production capacity to alleviate pressure on its other two existing factory units.

With an ever-growing customer and product portfolio, this additional manufacturing space was quickly utilised, leading to the acquisition of two adjacent factory units in 2016. These were integrated rapidly into what is the current manufacturing facility.

Today, we manufacture our own products in-house to ISO 9001 standards using directly employed personnel. This provides speed and flexibility of manufacture whilst maintaining total control over quality.

We offer nationwide service and cover all project sizes – from single-room refurbishments to large-scale construction projects.