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The Barefoot Journey begins with Barefoot Floors and the Barefoot Laundry

Forget the Olympics, the intrepid Dawn Gibbins has launched two new businesses on the same auspicious day, 08.08.08.

Barefoot Floors is a revolutionary brand of seamless flooring for around the home - inside and out. Based on Feng Shui principles, the floors promise to bring 'the outside in'.  The message is Lose those shoes. Relax. Take it easy and get comfortable in your home. Visit www.barefoot-floors.com to learn more.

Dawn sings the praises: "Fabulous flooring, combined with Feng Shui principles, can completely transform your living space into a thing of grace and harmony. Maximise your potential by removing the clutter, open the windows, let the outside in. Walk barefoot on our pebble carpets and allow the pebbles to massage away the stresses of the day. Buy into the Barefoot Lifestyle and learn how to be happier, healthier and wealthier."

Barefoot Laundry is one of the first existing businesses to buy into the Barefoot manifesto. Visit www.barefoot-laundry.co.uk

A regular user of the existing laundry service, Dawn was approached several months ago by staff who asked if she would take the venture on, when it was put up for sale.

The company has been rebranded as the Barefoot Laundry because the name fits in with Dawn’s new flooring and lifestyle brand, Barefoot. The laundry is being managed by Ann Bagnall.

Dawn added: “The laundry is a real gem. It does a great service for people in and around Congleton and I was delighted to be able to buy into the business. I never expected to buy a laundry, but it is such a brilliant, well-organised company, with happy, friendly staff and a useful delivery service, that I thought it made a great proposition."

PRESS RELEASE

Dawn Hot Foots Into New Venture

Just months after selling her global flooring business for millions, leading female entrepreneur Dawn Gibbins MBE has launched a new corporate venture.

Dawn has sealed a £1 million deal to buy extensive premises on the outskirts of Macclesfield in Cheshire as the home of Barefoot, a luxury brand that will provide stylish flooring for the consumer sector.

The mother-of-two sold her company Flowcrete – which she built up from a start-up in the 1980s to a global leader in commercial and industrial flooring - earlier this year.

Now she has turned her attentions to a different kind of business, which embraces her love of flooring with her passion for health and wellbeing.

Dawn said: “Barefoot Flooring will provide seamless flooring that offers the latest in technological advances to deliver a sophisticated look, creating inspirational space from the ground up.

“It provides a canvass underfoot that caters for discerning customers looking to create homes that look and feel good – and empowers them to ditch their shoes and feel the invigorating freedom of barefoot living.”  

Initially, Barefoot Flooring will be offered within the Cheshire area only, with a UK-wide roll-out programme – under a franchisee package – launched in the New Year. Products will include stone carpet finishes and glossy seamless surfaces in a range of hues that are ‘poured’ on to the floor. 

This latest venture embraces a harmonic blend of Dawn’s business acumen with her passion for healthy living. A keen Feng Shui practitioner, Dawn sees that the clear, uncluttered Barefoot philosophy supports a holistic approach to UK lifestyles – helping to generate energised, vibrant space in the home.

Nestled in picturesque hills around the Bosley area, on the edge of the Peak District National Park, the new offices were chosen for their harmony with nature.

Dawn added: “It’s the perfect location for the Barefoot brand. For the future we are looking at a range of initiatives from the new offices including a social enterprise to support healthier living in the UK.”

With career achievements including the award of an honorary doctorate from Manchester Metropolitian University in 2004 and the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year accolade in 2003, Dawn has been recognised for her entrepreneurial flair across the UK.

She was also awarded an MBE in 1994 and made a ‘Pioneer to the Life of our Nation’ by Her Majesty The Queen in 2004.

Dawn started Flowcrete in 1982 in South Cheshire, with her late father, Peter Gibbins.

She oversaw its growth to become a global market leader in commercial and industrial flooring with 30 offices worldwide and 12 manufacturing sites of excellence in the UK, Asia, Sweden, Belgium, South Africa, US and Brazil.

The company, which was sold to New York Stock Exchange listed company RPM in April 2008, has a client list which includes world class names such as Bentley, Jaguar, Ascot Racecourse and Marks and Spencer.