When we hear the words 'Vance Miller, The Kitchen Gangster' and see images and video clips of him pumping iron at the gym early every morning, it's very hard to imagine the Real Vance Miller.

With biceps that could easily crush a pen-pushing journalist and a six pack you could use as a wash board, it's hard to actually take on board the fact that these days, Vance Miller is in fact a gentle and caring family man.

I followed Vance for over two months, spending perhaps one day a week, sometimes three days a week and at one stage I was lucky enough to spend ten days on a China tour with him. The Vance Miller ‘Kitchen Gangster' that I had read about for so long was nothing like the Vance Miller that I got to know.

I had always imagined that ‘The Godfather’ of Britain’s fourth largest kitchen supplier would now be the driver of a Bentley Continental with maybe a Ferrari and a Maserati in the garage to pull out at weekends. To my astonishment and curiousity, Vance drove a six year old Honda CRV.

Vance had arranged to meet me at Piccadilly train station in Manchester for a quick visit to familiarise myself with him and his setup at the Victorian Mill that served as his headquarters. As I climbed into the CRV I couldn't help but think that perhaps the Bentley was in for a service. On the way to his mill in Oldham I had to ask, "So, what do you normally drive?"He looked confused and paused for a moment to think before replying. "This."Was the one word answer. I left it at that.

As we drove from the train station to the mill it was clear to see that Vance was well known in Manchester. At traffic lights people dropped their windows to talk to him. We stopped for petrol and the cashier called him by his first name. Vance shook his hand to say goodbye and at least four cars flashed their lights or waved to us as we reboarded the CRV and left the garage. At this stage I realised I may be in for an interesting ride.

As we pulled into the Maple Mill car park, staff smiled and waved at Vance as though greeting a friend, not a boss. We stepped out of the Honda and proceeded into the mill and every member of staff we passed met him with a smile, a greeting - "Alright Vance?" and reached out to shake his hand warmly. If they were wary or afraid of him they were all hiding it well. I was beginning to wonder what happened to Vance Miller "The Kitchen Gangster" I had come to meet?

I sat on one of the deep , comfortable sofas in the reception area of his enormous open plan office on the top floor of the mill while he dealt with some urgent business, then after lunch Vance took me for a walk around what I can only describe as being the largest warehouse I ‘ve ever been in. We passed by aisle after aisle of of shelves stacked high with kitchen doors, cabinets, washing machines, sinks, taps, handles – you name it. If you have one in your kitchen then Vance had 100,000 of them. At this stage, contrary to a couple of garbled forum posts I'd read whilst researching Vance Miller's business, I knew that this was no scam operation. No one would invest in these levels of stock to operate a scam. It occurs to me that a team of ‘scamsters' would be hard pressed to empty this place in six months, so ‘Fly-by-night' is also probably one of the most inaccurate descriptions I've ever heard of his company.

Later that day Vance drove me back to the station and wished me farewell until our next scheduled meeting one week later. During my journey home I couldn't help but realise that perhaps this was not going to be the story I had thought I was going to write. It was only the first meeting but first impressions told me that maybe this was not the ruthless gangster I'd expected, out to make a quick buck; This was a genuine business man running a slick and professional operation.

Second Meeting

My second meeting with Vance was scheduled to last three days. I arrived on Friday to spend the weekend with Vance and his family. This was when I got to know the real Vance Miller.

Vance's typical weekend starts on a Friday about 3:45pm when he picks his two boys up from school. Kent is 15 and Devon is 5. Accompanying Vance to collect the boys, I watched as both children hugged and kissed their father when they saw him and the smile on both their faces when they saw him would warm the heart of any proud father.

From school, we drove to the gym and as I had been previously warned to bring my gym kit, we all got changed and got started. As I feared, I was well out of condition. Even Devon outran me on the treadmill. Fitness is obviously very important to Vance and his enthusiasm has caught on with his whole family. The visit to the gym had obviously not been staged for my benefit. The boys knew their way round the equipment and there wasn't a single person in the place who didn't know Vance or the boys. Vance shook hands and had a cheery word with almost everyone in the place.

After a sauna and a shower, we drove to a house in Rochdale where we picked up Connor, a boy of 15 who was Kent's friend from school and then we continued on to Oldham where we picked up Caylum, another friend of Kent, aged 14. A quick motorway drive took us to Vance's house, an unexpectedly modest two bedroom lodge house inside the gates of a cemetery. I asked Vance how he had come to live in a cemetery and whether or not it bothered him. He replied with a grin,

"I've lived here for over twenty years. In all those twenty years I have never had a problem from any of those dead folk but there have been plenty of problems from the living"

I pressed him again "But why did you choose to live here?"

"It was fifty two grand and Kent's mum bought it many years ago. She pays about £200 per month mortgage on it so I now rent it from her for not much more than that. She's happy because the value of the house goes up all the time, and I'm happy because it's cheap to live here, so I've got no intentions of moving."

We all filed into the house and quickly packed the CRV with blankets and pillows and off we went, destination Wales. We drove for a couple of hours and arrived at a place called Aberdaron, passing through and it literally seemed like we had arrived at the end of the world. We finally stopped where the land met the sea, and there on a cliff top was the family caravan. It wasn't what I was expecting. Not some luxury 40 foot static caravan with electricity and running water, but a hobby touring caravan, no water or electricity attached. I began to wonder what was in store for me this weekend.

Quickly, all the boys jumped into action, showing their experience with their weekend holiday home. Caylum set up and cranked up the generator, Connor pulled out the canopy on the caravan while Kent built and lit a camp fire. I looked around for something to help with,

"Relax, leave ‘em to it" smiled Vance "They love doing all this"

Within fifteen minutes we were drinking mango juice and cooking gammon on the fire. I began to realise that I was going to enjoy this weekend with Vance and the boys.

By one in the morning we were all watered, fed and tucked up in our beds and I had time to reflect on how enjoyable this was turning out. Everyone told jokes and stories in the dark till one by one we had all drifted off to sleep.

The next morning it was 5 year old Devon who was first up and already outside chasing the sheep away. By 10am the bacon and eggs were in the pan sizzling. After a hearty breakfast we all jumped in the CRV and made our way down to the beach. Looking at a line of beach huts all stood in a row, neat and beautiful painted, I noticed one that stood slightly apart, a scruffy green corrugated hut that looked like it hadn't seen paint in fifty years. I was getting used to Vance's off-beat tastes now, and somehow I knew this was ours –and I was bang on the button. Sure enough, we emptied out of the CRV and to my amusement Vance and the boys made a beeline for it. They opened it up and pulled out beach chairs and old but clean and well maintained barbeque set and we set up base camp there for the day.

It was like going back in time to a day out as a kid. Lots of laughing and shouting and playing football on the beach.We even went hunting for golf balls in the shrubs that surrounded the golf course next door, which is probably technically illegal but I have to admit I joined in with the same relish as Vance and the boys. We barbecued, then played cricket and crazy golf. Towards evening, all of us were flushed with the exercise and sea air. The boys loved it and I have to admit that it was one of the best days I can ever remember at the beach. None of us stayed awake for long that night and I drifted off into a long, deep relaxed sleep.

We were all up early the next morning and ravenous for breakfast. We washed up and then it was down to the beach for a jog. To playful taunts and derision from the boys, I cried off after a couple of minutes and sat down, watching them all dwindle off into the distance before they turned and headed back, all carefully managing to run at the same speed as 5 year old Devon without letting him know.

We cooked lunch on the barbeque and after the boys had carefully cleaned it as per Vance's instruction "It'll last us years, that if we look after it, and it'll poison us if we don't!" then we packed everything away and prepared to set off back to Manchester.

Vance dropped me at the train station and we parted company once more. On the way home I found I was smiling to myself a lot as I remembered moments from the last few days. With surprise, I realised neither Vance or myself had once brought up the subject of work. It simply hadn't occurred to me to ask. I felt healthy and energised and the weekend with Vance and his boys was mentally filed away under the heading of one of the most enjoyable and relaxed times I could remember .

My next meeting with Vance was on a warm Wednesday evening. After my lazy weekend at the beach getting to know him better as a person, I was determined to get some answers to my questions that involved more than a one line sentence. As the purpose of these meetings were to get to know more about the man himself, as opposed to the usual ‘in-depth' interview regarding his kitchen business, I decided to find out more about his life-style and the reasons behind those choices. As we sat quite relaxed in his small lounge at the lodge, I set the ball rolling:

Q: Why do you choose to drive an old Honda CRV?

A: "Simple. First of all because it was cheap. I gave 7,000 for it at the auctions and secondly, because it's a Honda and it does everything I want it to do. It never breaks down, I can pull my caravan behind it, it's low key and it will fit us all in."

Q: Don't you ever feel like driving a Bentley or something similar?

A: " I don't want something that's flash. I just like to go about my everyday life without attracting adverse attention or people looking at me. I like it that way."

Q: What about this house then? Frankly, It's hardly the kind of house that suggests a successful business man lives here, is it?

A: "Again, I prefer it this way. You only need a lounge, a kitchen, a bathroom, and bedrooms. I don't see the point in having more than what you need. I also like to be warm in winter and big houses tend to be cold normally."

Q: What about the caravan? Most people would expect a millionaire to have a nice house by the beach. You have a mobile caravan. What led to that decision?

A: "I think you might already know the answer to that, you've been there" he grinned, "It's fun and I like the simple things in life. When we go to bed in the caravan we can all talk to each other until we drift off to sleep. It rounds off the day. We couldn't do that if we were all in different rooms. I like sitting around the camp fire with my family. It's cozy and they love it. I also don't want my children to grow up spoilt just because their dad has a few quid. If I give them the best of everything now then they'll have nothing to look forward to.

If they experience an expensive luxurious lifestyle now, then it may be harder for them in later life to keep up with that and it may affect their happiness when they're older. I don't want that. It's easy to go from rags to riches but it's a lot harder to go from riches to rags. I want my kids to make their own choices and not feel under pressure to keep up. I also want them to realise that it isn't money that brings you happiness.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that having money doesn't make you happy but I also believe having no money can make people sad. We are very lucky in that we have enough money to live the kind of lifestyle that we choose to live. My children would be no more happy if we travelled to Wales in a Bentley and arrived at a mansion on the beach than they are driving down in the Honda and arriving at the caravan. If we went to fancy restaurants for our dinner, they would actually enjoy it less than cooking burgers on the beach, I'm sure of that."

Q: So, what is it all about then? Why do you work so hard if you don't want the money and the trappings that it brings?

A: "I love my job. I like the adventure of it all.I enjoy travelling the world and doing the things I do. Things like building factories in the middle of nowhere, mining my own granite and planting my own trees to chop down at a later time. I can't understand why others are content to sit back and not explore deeper into things. I kind of really like exploring. Why on earth should I happy giving the local granite dealer say £250 for a length of granite when I know it's just a piece of rock that been dug out of the ground and then cut and polished.

In the time that it takes me to drive through China and to find a granite mine to buy, I could have gone to Paris for the weekend, had a few expensive meals before flying home, having spent a small fortune. I would rather spend the time on the drive through China and achieve something I feel is much more worthwhile. I can't sit still and I don't go to pubs or clubs so instead I just go and find things that will go into making my kitchens cheaper and my quality better. You won't hear me doing a lot of boasting but I can say this with pride – I know more about kitchens than any other single person on the planet.

From the raw material of any product right through to the finished item. I know all the specifications, where the best quality can be sourced for the absolute minimum price and more importantly – I go and get it. I get a buzz out of it. I only have three hobbies: my family, my work and the gym."

Q: Yes, I couldn't help but notice you go to the gym every day. Why do you enjoy going to the gym so much?

A: " I don't. I hate going. Anyone who tells you that they like going to the gym isn't working out hard enough when they get there."

Q: So why do you go then?

A: " I like the results. You can walk into the gym with a hundred problems on your mind but as soon as you start training they disappear. By the time you come out of the gym, your mind is clear and you have no problems left. You feel fresh and ready to tackle anything. I find it hard to understand how people survive without going to the gym. To me it's a huge part of my life. Where ever I am in the world the first thing that I have to find is the local gym. It's also a great place to meet real people and not pissheads that prop up bars and talk shit to each other. The next day they don't know what they've said or promised each other. I don't do pub talk."

Q: So, why does everyone in the kitchen industry hate you so much, Vance?

A: You would probably hate me too if you were in the job. When they are paying say £20 for a kitchen door and selling it for £30, but I'm selling it direct to the customer for £10 then they are hardly going to say I'm a great guy and my doors are great. Instead, they harp back to stories from 15 or 20 years ago from when I started in the game and say things like 'Oh yeah, Vance Miller. He's a gangster and his kitchens are shit and he'll only deliver half a kitchen and you'll never get the rest of it.' How could they possibly compete unless they told lies about me? None of them know anything about me and I don't bother telling them. They can't understand how I can sell a length of granite worktop for £100 when they pay £250 so they'd rather just assume it's crap. If they spent less time in the pub and more time exploring like I do then perhaps they would also be able to sell at the prices I sell at. Thank God they don't.

Q: What about your criminal record? You've hardly got a clean sheet, have you?

A: I have never been convicted of a dishonest crime since I was a teenager and certainly not in relation to the kitchens industry. As a kid I bought some stolen jewellery and I ended up going to borstal for it. That was over 30 years ago and we're all allowed a mistake or two. I am not a dishonest person . I have been to prison for other offences that weren't dishonest, like kidnapping. Although it sounds like a serious offence, and it is, but it was hardly that I went out, kidnapped someone and then held them for ransom. I caught some burglars in my mum's house. They'd robbed her previously and I had a tip-off they were going to do it again. I held them prisoner in a mill till they told me where they had hidden my mum's jewellery which they had taken in the earlier burglary. I then went and got my mum's jewellery back, along with the guys who had it and I got 18 months for kidnapping. OK, legally it was wrong but my mum got her jewellery back.

Q: So what does the future hold for Vance Miller?

A: I'm just going to carry on having as many adventures as I can, I am going to continue to supply the cheapest kitchen in the best quality materials in the world and I'm going to continue to be hated by everyone in the kitchen industry. I'm going to continue to be the best father that I can possibly be, and I'm going to continue going to the gym."

Q: And are you eventually going to buy a Bentley?

A: "Never!"

This brought the question and answer session to a close. The next morning Vance drove me to the station and we bade farewell until our next meeting, which was to be a trip to China. I couldn't wait. I think I may have caught a little bit of the adventure bug from Vance.

My views about Vance Miller were very different on my train journey home than what I had expected on my first journey to meet him.

To sum him up, he is likeable, positive and fun to be with. If an extraordinary man is an ordinary man with a lot extra added, then he really is extraordinary.

He is a man who can have anything but wants nothing. Perhaps Vance Miller has got life sussed out. If you want for nothing, then you'll always have more than you ever wanted.

Vance Miller is an entrepreneur from Rochdale, in North West England. Currently the chief executive officer of Maple Industries China.

Vance Miller is presently the chief executive officer of Maple industries China with facilities in Guangzhou, Dalian and Shanghai employing over 400 staff. Maple Industries China is a manufacturer of kitchens and OEM supplier of kitchens and appliances to many kitchen brands in the United Kingdom. 2007 Maple Industries China acquired a granite mine in Mongolia, currently producing 100 m3 of granite products per day.

When we hear the words 'Vance Miller, The Kitchen Gangster' and see images and video clips of him pumping iron at the gym early every morning, it's very hard to imagine the Real Vance Miller.

With biceps that could easily crush a pen-pushing journalist and a six pack you could use as a wash board, it's hard to actually take on board the fact that these days, Vance Miller is in fact a gentle and caring family man.

Vance Miller is an entrepreneur from Rochdale, in North West England. Vance Miller, whose business practices have attracted controversy, has been referred to in the media as The Kitchen Gangster. Miller is the executive director of Maple Industries, and of Kitchens, which operate from Maple Mill in the Hathershaw area of Oldham in Greater Manchester. Vance Miller has been featured in two documentaries about him.

Vance Miller is an ambitious and driven businessman who has built up an enormous and successful company that employs thousands of people worldwide. If he was a conman then he's certainly not a good one, after all why would he need 800 staff in Britain and 2000 staff in China and operate from what is the largest mill complex in the north of Britain. Conmen (and I have filmed a few during my career) do not invest so heavily into their business. A conman would simply operate his scam from a small office somewhere. Why would they need all these staff and such a huge manufacturing capacity?

Vance Miller was quite good at his advertising as he took advantage of all the small classified columns in all local news papers all over the UK. One could perhaps say that his skills in advertising were far better than his skills in finding a good kitchen supplier.

Vance Miller became quite famous in the industry for buying up bankrupt stock and end of lines etc. In other words Vance Miller would buy what everyone else didn't want. To be fair this is where Vances reputation came from for selling crap kitchens. Still at this stage he was completely under estimated and was just used within the industry to get rid of your end of lines. To give you an example I remember going to Vances place when he had just took delivery of five trucks full of brand new ovens from Beaumatic. They had found a fault with the oven that it wasn't worth their time to put right but Vance Miller had three engineers stripping the ovens and putting them right again.

Vance Miller soon made enemies of the big boys in the industry. It came to the attention of B Q that Vance Miller was selling their own kitchens at a fraction of the price that they sold them for and they soon found out how. Because he was buying from their supplier what they did not want. For example Bernsteins kitchen manufacturer and Ram Kitchens were at the time supplying the big boys and Vance Miller was well in with the management there and it suited every one except the big kitchen retailers that Vance Miller would buy up all of the over runs, the seconds,the end of lines,you name it and Vance Miller bought it. He was advertising Homebase kitchens at 75% off,B Q KITCHENS AT 75% off. The big boys soon put an end to Vance Miller buying all of their stock as it became obvious to them by this time that Vance Miller was damaging them financially. By this time it was to late as the monster egg had hatched and Vance Miller now had enough capital to do the job correctly.

Vance Miller then moved into a much bigger building in Rochdale and I remember visiting him when he was unloading his first set of machinery that he had bought from another kitchen company that had gone bankrupt.It was quite obvious some months later that Vance Miller did not know much about kitchen manufacturing but that kid was so determined that his determination got him through. I had visited Vance Miller many mornings at his factory to sell him goods to find him still in the factory from the night before. I remember seeing once that he had no edge bander so instead he had his staff with irons ironing on the edging tape.

His factory was far too small for the volume of kitchens that he was selling. It was chaos in there but it was the high light of my week visiting Vance Miller. At this stage he was still the laughing stock of the industry , but that was about the last time that he was the laughing stock.

Perhaps it was by luck or just Vance Millers determination to move forward I do not know but around 15 or 16 years ago Vance Miller bought the largest factory I have ever in my life seen. It was Maple Mill in Oldham, the largest mill ever built in the north west and again yes Vance Miller bought it from a company that had gone bankrupt and he bought it for a song.

This was to be the beginning of a new chapter for Vance Miller and a new chapter for the whole kitchen industry.

" To anyone who would like to know the truth about why so many competitors slag off Vance Miller I will let you in on a secret "

I myself have been in the kitchen wholesale business for thirty years up until the end of last year. I am now retired and what I am about to say I would not have said whilst I was in the industry as I would have lost most of my customers.

The truth is that independent kitchen retailers used to make huge margins and so did the wholesalers. There was no one else to compete with except each other and the price was determined by the big boys who did the wholesaling and distribution and manufacturing. A kitchen retailer would normally make around 30% profit and the rest would be made by the wholesaler,distributor,manufacturer,advertiser,you name them and they all got a big share.But that all changed when Vance Miller came on the scene.

All of a sudden there was this young kid [and he was a young kid at the time] that was out to take control of the industry. Yes I agree that this kid had a wild up bringing and a chequered past but nether the less he was a born grafter and rather more intelligent than most kids with his kind of up bringing.

I met Vance when he had not been in the industry for very long and when I met him he had a wharehouse in Bury in Lancashire and he was buying truck loads a day of second kitchens from one of B&Q'S suppliers and he was retailing and wholesaling them from a scruffy run down wharehouse and to be quite frank no one including myself credited him for what he was about to achieve. How could he make it big? After all he was selling rejects but I suppose that everyone has to start somewhere and without being born with a silver spoon we have to start where we can.

Vance was quite good at his advertising as he took advantage of all the small classified columns in all local news papers all over the UK. One could perhaps say that his skills in advertising were far better than his skills in finding a good kitchen supplier.

Vance became quite famous in the industry for buying up bankrupt stock and end of lines etc. In other words Vance would buy what everyone else didn't want. To be fair this is where Vances reputation came from for selling crap kitchens. Still at this stage he was completely under estimated and was just used within the industry to get rid of your end of lines. To give you an example I remember going to Vances place when he had just took delivery of five trucks full of brand new ovens from Beaumatic. They had found a fault with the oven that it wasn't worth their time to put right but Vance had three engineers stripping the ovens and putting them right again.

Vance soon made enemies of the big boys in the industry. It came to the attention of B&Q that Vance was selling their own kitchens at a fraction of the price that they sold them for and they soon found out how. Because he was buying from their supplier what they did not want. For example Bernsteins kitchen manufacturer and Ram Kitchens were at the time supplying the big boys and Vance was well in with the management there and it suited every one except the big kitchen retailers that Vance would buy up all of the over runs, the seconds,the end of lines,you name it and Vance bought it. He was advertising Homebase kitchens at 75% off,B&Q KITCHENS AT 75% off. The big boys soon put an end to Vance buying all of their stock as it became obvious to them by this time that Vance was damaging them financially.By this time it was to late as the monster egg had hatched and Vance now had enough capital to do the job correctly.

Vance then moved into a much bigger building in Rochdale and I remember visiting him when he was unloading his first set of machinery that he had bought from another kitchen company that had gone bankrupt.It was quite obvious some months later that Vance did not know much about kitchen manufacturing but that kid was so determined that his determination got him through. I had visited Vance many mornings at his factory to sell him goods to find him still in the factory from the night before.I remember seeing once that he had no edge bander so instead he had his staff with irons ironing on the edging tape.

His factory was far too small for the volume of kitchens that he was selling. It was chaos in there but it was the high light of my week visiting Vance.At this stage he was still the laughing stock of the industry , but that was about the last time that he was the laughing stock.

Perhaps it was by luck or just Vances determination to move forward I do not know but around 15 or 16 years ago Vance bought the largest factory I have ever in my life seen. It was Maple Mill in Oldham, the largest mill ever built in the north west and again yes Vance bought it from a company that had gone bankrupt and he bought it for a song.

This was to be the beginning of a new chapter for Vance and a new chapter for the whole kitchen industry.

Within a few weeks of buying the factory he had his machines up and running and he was on a plane bound for China . A man on a mission .

I had seen Vance come from nothing to owning the largest factory in the north west and he was off to Asia to fill it. B&Q had helped to create their biggest enemy. Within not very long Vance had filled that huge factory with containers of hinges,handles,doors,sinks,taps,solid granite worktops,solid oak cabinets and not the normal chipboard offered by his competitors. He was buying granite mines in Mongolia,forest in China and building a huge manufacturing plant on the border of north Korea.

Now it was time for the kitchen industry to get worried and Vance soon changed the way of life for all most kitchen retailers.How on earth could the industry now compete with this kid? He wasn't just manufacturing the kitchens himself but he was manufacturing them in a country with labour rates 10% of those in the UK. He wasn't buying him wood from the local timber merchant but was chopping down his own trees from his own forest.He mined and cut his own granite from his own mine. He didn't buy from wholesalers,distributors or even importers,he did the lot himself. He was now a force to be reckoned with ,and a force that was impossible to compete against.

Out came the big guns from the industry leaders.people with friends in high places,STOP THIS MAN AT ANY COST.

What would you expect the industry to do? Sit back and let Vance walk away with all their fat profit? Vance was selling kitchens at 25% of the price of other retailers and still making a profit. He Became the most hated man in the industry and whilst everyone else spent their time in a propaganda war against him he just motored on ,developing ovens in China,dishwashers,fridges,you name it he was onto it and getting more powerfull by the day. I don't think that any industry has ever experienced the likes of Vance Miller nor will any industry ever experience this kind of a guy.

This industry is not a nice clean industry and when peoples lively hoods are at stake it gets even dirtier.

People within the industry started to blacken his name and the big boys with the friends in high places started to make contact with those friends. Don’t think for two minutes that B&Q don’t have friends in high places of government,friends at the BBC or friends at Trading Standards.Wake up to the real world everyone.

Vance had to be stopped and the big boys had to use the big guns to stop him and hence came along Trading Standards with their accusations that Vances wood wasn’t wood and his granite wasn’t granite. Whatever Vance was selling it was not the real thing according to the law. He sold quad bikes they were deemed unsafe, his wagons were taken off the road,he was banned as a director,he had a new law called a stop now order invented just for him. The list is endless at what the big boys tried to do to stop his operation but he just continued regardless.

The Trading Standards engaged on the largest investigation of all time into Vance Miller, they sent 130 officers to arrest him in what can only be described as a publicity stunt and propaganda campaign to let everyone know that this guys kitchens were fakes. Vance has fought 42 separate criminal charges against the Trading Standards and without lawyers and representing himself won every single one of them. Thank God for the British criminal system.

It isn’t a coincidence that after the trial the head of Trading Standards was sacked after a damming summing up by the judge that said that there was no case to answer and that the case brought by the Trading Standards was an abuse of the courts process and that the head of Trading Standards was over zelous,unproportionate,unfair and without evidence. The judge commented that Trading Standards desire to close down Vance Miller had coloured their thinking.

During the trial Harold Wheatley a Citizens advise employee had admitted under cross examination by Vance Miller that he had indeed tried to blackmail Mr. Miller into handing over his business but only after he was confronted with a secret recording that Vance had made of the meeting with the Citizens Advise employee. T he judge added that it would never be known what the real reason for this prosecution was but that it was not what the Trading Standards had made it out to be.

So the propaganda war against Vance Miller continues. I have personally seen evidence of competitors posting negative comments about Vance Miller on forums like this one. I have even been asked to participate in such.

This propaganda war against Vance Miller will never end until the day that he stops selling kitchens at 25% of the price of his competitors.

Vance Miller is guilty of working too hard and putting too much effort into his career.

I have not seen Vance Miller for over a year as he now lives in China were I believe he operates a huge kitchen manufacturing and retail business but if he is anything to do with this Stilhaus Kitchens then surely this is proof of the man? The company has no outstanding complaints ,none. They offer a pay when you are happy service and their prices are too good to be true,so much too good to be true that it scares people from buying.

There are no critics of Stilhaus Kitchens but just the same old stories of Vance.

Put yourself in the shoes of his competitors. If you cannot compete legit then you have to slag him off. If you are selling shoes for a tenner that cost you a fiver but the guy next door is selling then for two quid are you going to tell your customers that he is a wonderful guy and that his shoes are fine? I don’t think so.

As I am now retired and I have plenty of time on my hands I will be more than happy to answer any questions that anyone would like to ask about Vance Miller and his empire.

I am eagerly awaiting all of the negative comments about Vance Miller that come my way.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN

GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACIES?

Is it possible for a man in a position of power, acting alone or under orders from "above", to carry out a planned and concerted attack for almost a decade on a trader who the "powers that be" have decided has gone rogue?

Surely it isn't possible for a selected 'Hit Man' to be placed as head of a local government department whose mission is simply to use whatever means at his disposal to bring about the complete downfall and ruin of a man who can't be got at by conventional means? Someone would surely notice? There are checks in place to prevent that sort of thing happening...aren't there?

If bogus, completely false complaints figures were issued from local government to the press about the suspected rogue, surely some conscientious journalist would check before using them to write sensationalist headlines that sell newspapers?

Vance Miller was targeted in what can only be described as a witch hunt. Evidence has proved that it was big PLC home improvement stories pressure on government bodies that led to the witch hunt that Vance Miller had to endure. In the words of his honourable judge Foster sitting at Manchester Crown Court "I am suspicious that there may have been other reason to launch this investigation"

 

Tony Allen spent £5 million of taxpayers' money on his personal vendetta against Vance Miller. He was sacked immediately after the trial collapsed.

What if 'alleged' complaints figures against this one man reached fantastic, unbelievable numbers? Could a government department get away with issueing a statement that one man had actually had more complaints against him than ALL the reported complaints made against EVERY company in the same industry in one year? Now THAT would be impossible to do without someone checking...surely?

Read on to see how that happened in real life. How, for almost a decade, a vendetta was carried out that led to Vance Miller's reputation lying in tatters, false prosecutions, aggressive police raids, harrassment, victimisation, TV notoriety, and the threat of ruin, confiscation of all his assets, bankrupcy and imprisonment hanging over him for years.... until the government 'Hit Man' was finally exposed by a crown court judge and sacked, after spending in excess of £5m of taxpayers money to fund his personal war.

---

Excerpt from " Vance Miller - Kitchen Gangster?"

The story of a serial entrepeneur by John Newton (see 'about the author', below)

This chapter of the book, whilst not exciting to the thrill seeker is, to the serious researcher, the best description of how a government department can, over a period of time, create a witch hunt against a trader or company that they have decided should not be trading. Whether that opinion is right, wrong, or just personal is apparently irrelevent. This is a deeply researched and well laid out investigation into how Vance Miller's reputation was exaggerated and blown up out of all proportion using statements issued to the media by Trading Standards in a concerted effort to criminalise a man described (on page 209-Kitchen Gangster) by Alistair Cook, a channel 4 documentary maker, as ".....likeable, fun to be with and extremely hard-working but above all I found Vance to be the most honest businessman I have ever met."

(taken from the open letter to Ukpreneur magazine by Alistair Cook printed below)

Chapter 11
Media Storm - The Blizzard of Hate

Maple Mill

 

The mill is a massive Victorian pile, cold and forbidding both inside and out. I sit swaddled by my overcoat in the ancient spinning hall now used as a large open plan office, riffling through a 6 inch high pile of newspaper pages. Culled from local and national press and sorted into precise date order they show a fascinating story of the press whipping several small local newspaper news items into a national media storm.
Within a few minutes I forget the chill air and the bustle of business going on around me and become caught up in a chase that starts slowly and builds over seven years to a crescendo.

The early local press stories, written before Vance's move to The Mill, are bland informative and quite accurate. The Manchester Evening News (MEN) refers to the business operating from Vance's gym and the move to larger premises in Bury New Road. This is the time when Vance admits to selling "crap" kitchens and the phrase "Kitchen Rogue" first appears as an easy media title for Vance.

Around 2001 a few stories appearing in local Manchester and Oldham papers investigate complaints from dissatisfied customers about Vance's rickety kitchens business and Oldham Trading Standards (OTS) begin to increase pressure on Vance.

"At that time they were right" he says. His kitchens, rejects or salvage from other companiy's manufacturing errors, were poorly finished in Vance's workshop or delivered missing vital parts. His place in those days at the outer boundaries of Britain's kitchen industry relied on the hope that customers accepted poor quality in exchange for ridiculously low prices.

Newspaper stories and OTS press releases concentrated on the number of complaints received at the OTS office. Only muted mention of Vance's criminal past come through in hints that this dodgy businessman is at it again, so no accusations or taunts of direct criminality yet appear.

What started as a gentle breeze of local press innuendo and inaccurate complaints figures developed into a brisk wind when some national newspapers picked up Manchester reports of legal moves to stop Vance trading, using the new Stop Now order. This complex law, apparently originating in the EU, aims to disrupt dishonest traders by using Contempt of Court rules if a business they control makes any mistake, however minor, in the manufacture or delivery of goods.

Vance tells me "I can break that law just by getting out of bed in the morning if any of the silly buggers working for me send out one wrong hinge in a 3,000 part kitchen."

He overcame this by resigning ownership of his kitchens business and passing day-to-day management to others - people trusted from school or years of friendship - keeping only an advisory role as far as the outside world is concerned.

But the outside world picked up first use of this strange new law, when in 2002 the Sunday Times printed an article about Vance and the Stop Now order. The piece stated that Vance's business was subject to 180 complaints a year , showing that the journalist had , at least , bothered to check facts. This article is almost the last to show figures anywhere near correct but seemed to set the tabloids off on a six-year media storm that came across in the pile of newsprint before me as a howling blizzard of hate. Based on biased, fantastical and in the main, completely inaccurate complaints figures, the stories seem never to delve for fact nor check the drivel they shove out with such arrogant glee.

Sitting in that cold office, squinting at six years worth of smudged newsprint, I see how these stories, when read seperately over a period of widely seperated dates, would appear authoritative to the casual reader in their logical path of disclosure. But reading through several hundred pages all at the same time, obvious cracks and similarities appear in stories so settled and similar they run in a line from tabloid to tabloid and back again.

Choose any scurrilous Red Top and read about Vance then read again a few months later in other Red Tops and you see the same article repeated almost word for word. Same attack, same unflattering photograph, same triumph at Red Top investigative ability. Only the newspaper name and journalist byline differ. It seems so simple. Just type the name "Vance Miller" and bring up a computer template story already laid out and easily cribbed with only the date and a few hints at journalistic cleverness changed.

Article after article over the six years add drama by "revealing" Vance to the world, or "at last stopping this rogue from his dodgy trading." None seemed to notice that having "revealed" or "stopped" Vance last year or the year before they are repeating the same nonsense from their own rags and those of their competitors.

In all the "naming and shaming" and "stopping ths rogue/conman/gangster" from trading, none appear to notice that Vance is far from "stopped" or bankrupt or skulking in some overseas hideaway with ill-gotten loot. Nope! He continues developing his business with remarable success both in Britain and China, whilst watching his household-name competitors go bust.

Up until November 2006 all the media and Trading Standards pressure on Vance and his business is based on stressing and reporting customer complaints with only vague unsubstantiated hints at criminal behaviour by use of the word "conman" or "conned"

The real media hunt-and-chase-let's-get-this-man probably started with a Manchester Evening News article in April 2002 stating that seventy five per cent of Vance's customers complained about kitchens worth around three million pounds. This seems based on an OTS press release in December 2001 at the start of the Stop Now case, commenting on "a very large number of complaints," with no hint of how many.

This allowed some newspapers to set out hilariously silly and contradictory figures without ever appearing to check and research a source. The Daily Express in January 2004 gives a figure of 180 complaints in a year. Pretty close. The actual figure for that year in Oldham Trading Standards records is 185. The People, in August 2004, gives the same figure of of 180. Following stories throughout the press become wilder and more reckless, grabbing any figure that came to mind in the heat of the moment.

Raid on Maple Mill

On 29^th November 2006, one hundred and thirty police and Trading Standards officers mounted an enormous and aggressive dawn raid on The Mill and Vance's home. Police handcuffed and arrested Vance and dragged him to Oldham Police cells for a day and night of questioning. At The Mill officials took every scrap of paper from the offices, including family holiday pictures from the walls, and every vestige of computer equipment and records and emptied Vance's house of all documents, telephones and other equipment.

 

Vance Miller was a witch that needed to be burnt

On 30^th November the Daily Mirror reported The Mill Raid in breathless excitement, shouting, "50,000 complaints and millions of pounds conned in five years of trading." The figure '50,000' could be read as the number of complaints in one year or it makes a neatly rounded calculation for tabloid readers of 10,000 complaints per year over the five years.

Simple to understand but nowhere near correct. The official 2006 Trading Standards record shows 73 complaints for that year, which makes the headline 9,927 out.

On the same day The Express, The Star, The Mail seemed happy to report by implication 50,000 complaints per year without bothering to ask how a business selling 400 kitchens a week (The Mail, 30th November, 2006) manages to garner complaints almost 60% higher than the number of kitchens sold?

Especially since an Office of Fair Trading press release dated 9th January, 2007 showed all complaints against all kitchen companies in Britain to be 12,819 during the whole of 2006, the same year Vance took 73 complaints. If I found this out all on my own, why couldn't these large newspapers, so richly endowed with staff and researchers try the same path of analysis, curiousity and research?

Even the famously august and campaigning publication WHICH! Magazine failed on this score by, in January 2007, publishing the same old chestnuts from the previous five years.

The WHICH! article commenting on The Mill Raid, spouts that "15,000 people are thought to have been conned out of millions" and "Trading Standards officers said they handle between 60 and 100 complaints a week about the firm, making it the UK's most complained-about company." This equals 3,000 to 5,000 complaints in a year, quite a long way from the official Trading Standards listing of 73.

So, on 24^th December 2007, I sent an email to Suzanne at WHICH! explaining the contradiction of news media quoting entirely wrong complaints figures - anything from 180 per year (Sunday Times) to 50,000 (People) to any figure in between as apparently plucked from the air by the journalist. Mentioning the latest shot of 3,000 complaints per year in Oldham Evening Chronicle. I pointed out that the true annual figure of 73 complaints equals 1.5 per week, not the completely false 60 to 100 in the WHICH! article.

"Any retraction or correction?" I asked.

No reply, so a month later I called and spoke with Sarah Gartside in the WHICH! public relations department and followed with an email giving the correct information. Accepting they may have published incorrect figures in good faith I suggested that, now possessing the truth, why not print a correction?

No reply, so I sent the email again to Sarah, repeating my suggestion for a retraction and suggested a meeting to discuss the figures. In reply, I received some well writtten waffle about maintaining the highest standards of accuracy, blah-blah and that the figures were taken from an OTS press release in November 2006.

Ah yes. That Oldham Trading Standards press release, used as a get-out by several newspapers. A wondrous document sending out completely inaccurate figures absolutely ignoring the correct figures their office release to the likes of me who have the gumption to ask and check.

My contact with WHICH! ended by me pointing out that the magazine is definitely at fault in not investigating that information supplied is correct. I wrote, " In this case you showed gullibility in trusting an inaccurate figure without making simple checks. I doubt your editor will feel the need to make any adjustment to the faulty information. As I am dealing in verifiable facts I will place our exchange of correspondence on this matter in my book."

Oh dear, I received a sharp final bit of blah from Sarah that included, " We reject your claim that our printing of the figures in January 2007 was 'wrong and inaccurate' and we would point out that we are entitled to rely on figures from Trading Standards without the need for further verification."

Oh really? What then is the point of being an investigative magazine?

Ms Gartside also felt, " We do not think that there is anything further to add to this issue." Well, I suppose not when you've been caught out, as a Red Top might say.

So where do all these fictional figures come from?

I called other publications and asked the question. All told me " From Oldham Trading Standards." Odd. Because the actual complaints against Vance and his business between 2001 and 2006, the year of The Mill Raid, total 785 complaints over five year-an average of 130 per year. The figure jumps in 2007 because of The Raid and problems associated with all paperwork being confiscated. A full set of figures and analysis appears in Appendix 1.

During the middle period of this storm of hate, television began to take an interest in Vance. In succession he appeared in Rogue Trader, The UK's Worst and Watchdog. All retailed the same inaccuracies to make absolutely certain that Vance came across as a dishonest rogue. Around this time someone coined the description "Kitchen Gangster". I fail to discover whether the title came from tabloid, television or Vance himself, as he does tend to overact and send himself up for the media. But it stuck, for again and again it is used as an easy headline.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Fraud as '1. Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. 2. A person intending or thing intended to deceive."

Note the word " intending." The tirade of abuse against Vance appears mostly brought about not through deliberate, planned fraud but by customer complaints of quite minor delivery faults or errors or misunderstanding by either the customer or Vance's office. Most errors were quickly corrected to satisfy most of the aggrieved customer, except one or two who appear to have enjoyed Red Top attention.

The media take no account that the tiny average annual incidence of consumer complaints against Vance calculated to a smidgeon under 0.4 of 1 percent of the 20,000 kitchens his company delivers per year. Yes, one in every 250 kitchens sold results in a complaint. Surely if this was a fraudster then the figures would be reversed and only one in 250 would NOT have resulted in a complaint?

This barrage of hate seems egged on by Oldham Trading Standards whom everyone blames for passing the amazingly inaccurate figures squirted around by the tabloid press. Hardly any publication uses a basis of fact to show a true picture.

When I ask reporters, "Why?" most shrug and say. "Don't know." Although a couple of newsmen intimate some possible undercover intrigue by the Oldham authorities using Trading Standards as their instrument of attack.

On 9^th January 2007 in a Press Release faxed out by Marc Dubin of Oldham Trading Standard, Tony Allen, head of OTS, issued a statement advising consumers against "?dealing with Mr Miller or the company, which operates under the name Kitchens." In the Release Mr Allen states, "There is a high probability of consumer detriment, misrepresentation, fraud and problems with this firm."

This release and statement appeared in a newspaper called Guernsey Press. Naturally, anyone reading this piece in Guernsey would assume Vance is a convicted fraudster. I can find no other newspaper using such language, since at no time to date has Vance ever been convicted of fraud. So is it possible other newspaper feel the need to be careful of the precise words they publish, when, perhaps, a Press Realese is suspect?

It is true that following the Big Mill Raid Vance has been charged with fraud but at time of writing these charges have yet to be tested in court. So how can such a statement be made without challenge?

Oldham Trading Standards, who themselves appear to have difficulty in offering the press accurate complaints figures from their own record, seem to the independent observer equally loose with the language of this Press Release. The wording and attitude behind it could strike our independent observer as a form of oppresion and a "public relations exercise" calculated - in the words of the judge criticising Trading Standards in another case - to be designed to attract "sensationalist" publicity.

The Daily Telegraph business section of 15th February 2008 reports a case dealing with an investigation into milk price-fixing in 2002 by large supermarkets in detail. The article says, " In a strongly worded press release (in September 2007) the OFT claimed that collusion had cost consumers £270 million," and quoted the OFT Release as stating, "This is a very serious case. We believe supermarkets have been colluding to put up the price of dairy products."

Those mentioned in the article included Asda, Tesco and Morrison's. All denied any wrongdoing and Morrison's went to court asking for a judicial review in the way the OFT publicised its "controversial and high profile" investigation. Morrison's followed up the judge's agreement to the judicial review with a separate libel action centred on the Press Release.

Our independent observer may feel that this case shows very similar pressure and publicity placed upon Vance by Oldham Trading Standards and other authorities. Supermarkets with deep pockets and top lawyers can fight back. I asked Vance why he did not do the same. His replay, "Let the bastards do their best. There's no doubt Tony Allen has got it in for me but he and Oldham Council haven't managed to close me down yet in six year of trying. Let the bastards keep wasting their money by chasing me. I don't give a shit."

 

 

After five or six hours sifting through this pile of newsprint, I find my self wondering how to excavate some truth from this mountain of misinformation? I wonder if a meeting with the man Vance sees as his nemesis and main enemy, Tony Allen, head of Oldham Trading Standards. might help.

Vance Miller at the news conference after the gruelling five month trial where he represented himself and was cleared of all charges.

Continued in the book: "Vance Miller - Kitchen Gangster?"

For more sample chapters visit:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GyirhPmTjXAC&pg=PA213&lpg=PA213&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

---

References: Letter from Alistair cook

August 14th, 2007 at 1:17 pm

Alistair Cook says:

To whom it may concern

My name is Alistair Cook. I have recently noticed on the web and also in a number of newspaper articles. A statement from Oldham Trading Standards referring to Vance Miller having appeared on BBC's notorious. In my view this is mentioned by Oldham Trading Standards in a manner and style designed to mislead the readers of these articles into believing that notorious showed Vance Miller in a bad light, when it in fact shows quite the oppostite.

To put you in the picture I would like to explain that in 2002 I was commissioned by the BBC to make a documentary about the business practices of Vance Miller. After reading many newspaper articles on Vance Miller I was convinced that I was going to uncover a scam on a huge scale (an impression carefully maligned in conjuction with the media by Oldham Trading Standards). what I discovered during the making of this film was quite the opposite.

I found Vance Miller to be likable, fun to be with, extremely hard working but above all I found Vance to be the most honest business man I have ever met. What I found was the complete opposite to what I thought I would find. What Vance Miller has achieved is truly remarkable building from nothing what is today the fourth largest kitchen company in Britain.

It became quite obvious to me during the making of notorious that Oldham Trading Standards and Oldham Council have a hidden agenda when it comes to Vance Miller and his huge kitchen empire.

If Vance Miller is a conman then he's certainly not a good one, after all why would he need 800 staff in Britain and 2000 staff in China and need to operate from what is the largest mill complex in the north of Britain. Surely if he was as good a conman as he is a bussiness man then he could operate his scam from a small office somewhere - why the need for all these staff and manufacturing capacity.

In my view it is wrong of Oldham Council to continue to hound Vance Miller and Perhaps it is Oldham Council that should be the subject of my next documentary.

In would be happy to provide a copy of the notorious film to anyone that requires one.

I hope this statement clears up any doubts you may have about Vance Miller.

---

 

John Newton - Author of "The Kitchen Gangster? - A Story of a Serial Entrepreneur.

John Newton was born in London and educated in Germany before serving in East Africa with the armed services and then spent several years as a policeman in Kenya.

After leaving the Kenya police he stayed on as a businessman and travelled widely throughout Africa, Arabia and India. He speaks German and Swahili.

He broadcast extensively on Kenya and Uganda radio,writing and producing his own programmes, and wrote of his travels in an English newspaper. He lives in Bedfordshire with his wife and writes full time.

He deals in facts and even his works of fiction, such as the best-seller "White Sunrise" are based around years of intensive research before putting pen to paper

Anyone who has spent any time with him is left with the lasting impression of having met a true gentleman, a moral and honourable man, who can be trusted to to put forward an honest, balanced and factual account.

---

 

Four years after the witch hunt Vance is pictured here with his children and staff in China from where he now runs his international kitchen supply company.

Unravelling the other side of the coin of the life
of Vance Miller

 

The name of Vance Miller has been the icon of many headlines in almost all media channels across the UK. The court orders, the criminal charges, and all the documentaries and television programmes have put the Lancastrian entrepreneur in really deep water, costing him his reputation. Is he a total fraud? Or is he someone who strives to breakaway from the traditional pattern and achieves something unprecedented in the kitchens industry? After being cleared of several fraud prosecutions, it turned out that “The Kitchen Gangster’s” sole crime was daring to be different.

It all started with an aspiring entrepreneur who had a vision that he could give customers the best of both worlds; a high-quality kitchen with very affordable prices. The equation of success was never easily accomplished; it is a long and strenuous journey that encompasses hard work, persistence and above all the courage to take the risk of being unconventional and unique. The journey of Vance Miller was one of great accomplishments and striking controversy. Invading the Kitchens industry, Miller has soon established himself as a solid and fearless competitor. From a small company to a series of kitchens companies that generate millions in profits a year, he has irrevocably changed the tactics of the game and stirred ferocious competition and rivalry. But how has he done it? How did he manage to keep down the prices of kitchens all over the UK?

The allegations thrown at Vance Miller by the Trading Standards Officers in Oldham were mainly concerning the quality of his kitchens. It has been claimed that there were lots of complaints about his kitchens and he was accused of defrauding and cheating customers by selling low-quality chipboard and MDF as Solid wood. After proving the falsity of these allegations, it is apparent that being completely unparalleled and impossible to compete with is what stimulated this destructive wave of fury against him. Selling high-quality kitchens with low prices does sound too good to be true, does it not?

Miller has managed to combine both edges through his hard work and a think-outside-of-the-box approach. By cutting down the manufacturing expenses, he has managed to decrease the prices to a great extent. He has established a huge factory in China that uses the best raw materials and state-of-the-art technology to finally provide high-quality kitchens, and all without aggravating expenses with commissioning and outsourcing contractors. And the result is high-quality cheap kitchens that anybody can get! Despite the massive increase in sales and the popularity that his companies gained, greed has never eaten him up; his prices remain the lowest in the market! And that was mainly the root of all the false allegations against him.

In a world in which bad words travel fast, this bombardment of false allegations could have cost Miller his business all together. But it was really fascinating how his team remained intact after all the sticks and stones thrown at them. Vance Miller did not only establish a solid and successful business, but also a team that could stand against all hardships.

Miller is a caring and supportive boss and he managed to form a team that would stand with him all the way! Despite all the calamities; the prosecutions, and the torching of one of the companies, this team has proved the ultimate example of patience, perseverance and above all the unwavering belief in their companies and their boss.

On a personal level, Vance Miller is a really humble man. A multi-millionaire lifestyle did not really fit his down-to-earth nature. His life mottos did not include seeking money and luxury; it was simply a result of his hard work and success.

He leads a simple life style. His family and friends are his most valuable assets and with his solid belief that we do not walk in this world alone, he is helping several charity projects, including an orphanage in Uganda.

The story of Vance Miller is one full of buzz and controversy, yet it takes stepping outside of the pattern to see things for what they are. After proving his innocence and the vicious conspiracy that was set against him from his competitors, it is now the time for Miller to gain back his reputation; a target that is worth fighting for, with a team of supportive co-workers and above all the belief that success comes with its stumbles. Vance Miller is a man who is not afraid to take the road less travelled to reach what his peers have not even considered, and take success to a whole new level!

VANCE MILLER BRITS GET RICH IN CHINA

VANCE MILLER   -  BAD MAN RISING

Interview by Tim Wallace for KBB (Kitchen Bedroom & Bathroom, Trade magazine)

ln the words of Tim Wallace (KBB review)'
"It’s easy to assume that Vance Miller is someone who the industry, and the consumer, should be giving an extremely wide berth. However this is no dodgy one-man band."
“ Miller can offer, a 6,000 pound kitchen for just 1,495. Meanwhile, a version priced at 4,000 pounds retails for 795 pounds"
"Decide for yourself if the leopard really has changed its spots but whatever your opinion of the man the size and significance of his operation is undeniable. To dismiss him as simply 'the Kitchen Gangster' is to dangerously underestimate him"
In the the words of Andrew Davies (editor of KBB review):
"...to dismiss Vance Miller as nothing more than a cowboy, a gangster making a quick buck, is as dangerous as dismissing Ikea as simply a Swedish chancer knocking out Billy bookcases..."
"...he is knocking out 30,000 kitchens a year and turning over 50 - 70 million pounds. He is the fourth biggest kitchen dealer in the country and with those numbers he can't be that far wrong. If they see your products on sale for six thousand pounds and his for just one thousand four hundred and ninety five, at the very least it will make them curious. Vance Miller's reputation may be well founded but to ignore him and to dismiss him as a minor irritation is dangerous. This man is coming after your customers and he's getting them, by the hundred, every day."

He shows me a contract he's drawn up for customers. "These cost 50p per sheet to make in the UK," he says, "in China, 50p pays for the whole book. Another saving I can pass on"  The small print confirms it is 'almost guaranteed that one item or maybe more will be missing, damaged or wrong before fitting'.
It's things like this that the customer has to weigh against the fact that Vance Miller can offer a kitchen that others retail for six grand for just one thousand, four hundred and ninety five quid. Meanwhile, his version of a four grand kitchen from a competitor retails for €795.
Another accusation he often faces is that he relies too heavily on poor quality products sourced in China. Again it's something he's quick to refute. "The quality isn't as good if it's made by a Chinese run factory," he admits, "but I've been over there six years now and we've got our own factories. I don't go to a factory and say 'make me this' because they'll rip you off. Firms looking at sourcing products from China should get ready to have their fingers burnt but I've now got my own quality control men between the production line and the container; they'll make sure we don't get any rubbish." As he begins our tour of the factory he races ahead, eager to show me that Maple Industries is no fly-by-night operation. Describing his dealings in China, I begin to get some idea of his total dedication to the business. "A typical day out there," he says, "starts with me waking up in the van. We drive overnight and I'm in a different city every day. I've got a team that go with me including an interpreter, but it still kills you." Such is Vance Miller's heavy investment in China, he's now adapted a 56-seater coach to ferry him from place to place, ripping the seats out and replacing them with two bedrooms, a bathroom and an office. Hes also bought himself a granite quarry. "If I can save a bean I'll do it," he says. "It cost me thirty grand for my own quarry. It's a day's earnings and I got myself a granite quarry!"
Miller explains why China is so important to the operation: "Over there, you can have a man working all day on a door and it still only works out at 5% of the cost of making it in the UK. You can concentrate on perfection."

A MILLER’S TALE

Cowboys and gangsters are at their most dangerous when your back is turned

I tend to spend a great deal of time meeting and greeting in my job. You name them, I’ve sheken their hand...and then forgotten the name. I an sure this always comes across as incredibly rude but I assure you it’s not meant to be, I am just genuinely terrible with names. It is one of the few benefits of being liverpool born and bred, I can get away calling everybody “mate”.

A couple of day ago I spent a very interesting morning behind this scenes at the Ikea superstore in brent (see next month’s kbbreview) to investigatethe global giant’s kitchen offer and, in particular, it’s new UK-wide installation programmer.

It was hand not to be impressed.

Ikea’s skills as a mass market retailer are undeniable, the thought and planning that goes into showroom layout, stock control, distribution, and marketing are remarkable. It’s also clear that their teams of trend analysts exactly the same magazine (including this one, I was obviously pleased to see), attend the same shows and follow fashion as much as the finger-on-the-pulse top market independents.

This means that, in Ikea, fashion-concious consumers can pick up pretty close approximations of what we would consider top line names. One of its best selling kitchens is called abstrakt, a high gloss slab door that comes in white, black or red. While it obviously isn’t Poggenpohl up close for £2500 it’s as close as you can get for a price like that.

Ike and other mass retail outlets like it, have always been seen as the enemy of the independent. The stack-it-high-and-sell-it-cheap principles are anathema to everything the independent retailer stands for, and quiet right too, but they are still seen as a thret that needs to be counterred whit the unique weapons of service, quality and knowledge that an independent has in his arsenal.

Which brings us on to Vance Miller.

If you haven;t read our exclusive interview whit the industry’s most notorioust cowboy (page 21), I suggest you turn to it now, it;s fascinating stuff. There have been a coulple of dissenting voices wondering why we, as kbbreview, would consider writing about someone who has become the poster-child for everythingthat’s wrong with the kbb industry. My argument, however, has always been tha to dismiss Miller as nothing more than cowboy, a gangster maing a quick buck, is a dangerous as dismissing Ikea as simply aSwedish chancer knocking out Billy bookcases.

Miller is as much business threat to the kitchen industry as he is threat to its reputations. If Miller figures are correct he’s selling 30,000 kitchen a year and turning over £50-£70m. He reckons he’s the fourth biggest dealer in the country and whit those numbers he can’t be far wrong. He spends £40.000 dropping 2.7m advertising leaflets a week- that kind of advertising is putting him directly in front of your customers and if they see your product on sale for £6000 and his for £1495 then at the very least it might make them curious.

Plus he’s the man responsible for the trucks in fields at the side of the motorway advertising discount kitchens. In between cursing them as bad for the industry, there must be a few people out there who wish they’d thought of it first.

Miller’s reputations is well founded, but to ignote him and dismiss him as minor irritation is dangerous. This man is after your customers and he’s getting them, by the hundred, every day.

What do you think? Email: kbbreview@uk.dmgworlmedia.com

From The Link :        

Once upon a time there were three businessmen: Vance Miller, a gunslinger if ever I saw one; Peter Williams, who was 70, military and starchy; and Tony Caldeira, who was big in cushions until the bottom fell out.

They all decided to try their luck in China.

Brits Get Rich In China (Channel 4) would have been much less fun without Vance. He sells cheap Chinese kitchens in Rochdale and, finding his suppliers were ripping him off, he arrived for a quick word. It was always the same word. He criss-crossed China in a coach with "Olympic Inspection Committee" painted on it, which, he found, smoothed his way remarkably.

Vance gets to the point like a heat-seeking missile: "I ain't going to no wholesaler. If I want a kitchen, I chop down a tree." Indeed, when last seen, he was on his way to inner Mongolia, with his nine-year-old son, Kent, to chop down an oak forest that was going cheap ("lots of kitchen doors there"). To travel with him was a commercial education. Kent, an adventurous child, urged Vance to try the donkey's penis, a local delicacy, which Mr Lee had ordered for him. Vance strongly suspected Mr Lee, who owed him money, of taking the piss. It was just one of the cultural bumps you hit in China.

Since you ask, simply enormous.

When Mr Wang tried to sell him damaged granite worktops, Vance immediately bought the quarry. Surprisingly reasonable at £30,000, if, admittedly, a death trap. That's China for you, dirt cheap and dangerous.

Whole Chinese cities make one product. There is Condom City, Zip City, Bra City and Toilet City. Vance drove through streets lined with lavatory pans. "You'll see all the posh names in these factories. All the companies you think you would never see." His voice took on a high, affected note: "Oo, it's an English company! Got their own factory in Stoke-on-Trent. Have they toss! Made in some sweatshop here." In Tap City he met a cut-price cowboy called Black Horse ("nobody likes him, so I liked him as soon as I heard about him"), and beat down the asking price of a shower from £100 to £50 by dismantling it and costing every component.

He is surfing a tsunami. Three hundred million Chinese are moving from the country to the city in the biggest migration in human history. In Britain, the tide is going out. As Tony said, "Everything was made in England, and life was great and we were all happy." Then he switched out the lights in his empty factory. Vance has bought up bankrupt British machinery, the pitiful carcases of dead companies, for a song. He is building a new factory on the north Korean border and arrived to find, in a fusillade of fucks, that only the wall was built. "It's more expensive than the fucking Great Wall of fucking China."

On the border of Mongolia, Mr Wong, who owed him £75,000, had arranged an ovation saying, with some emotion, that he was their saviour. Without him, the village would be reduced to selling ducks. Without him there would be no school. Vance let it go at that. After all, Mr Wong made the cheapest doors in China.

Unlike Vance, Tony and Peter relied absolutely on a Chinese partner. Tony trusted Miss Di and her sister's father-in-law to build him a factory in a paddy field while he fended off offers of massage in his hotel suite. It was built on time and the village is thinking of changing its name to Cushion City. Peter relied on a local tycoon to market his air-conditioning device and do the wining, dining and wenching the tycoon claimed was essential, while Peter watched war films in his hotel. Peter has yet to see the money.

Alistair Cook and Rob Davis produced, directed and filmed it all. And enjoyed the ride like little boys clinging to a stagecoach as it headed for the new frontier.

Producer of Channel Fours Brits Get Rich In China

NOTORIOUS : THE KITCHEN GANGSTER

Vance Miller has been accused of ripping off his customers in the early days. But is Vance Miller really a wrongun or is he just a business man trying to make a living. If B&Q make a mistake delivering a kitchen then it's not a crime, but if Vance Miller makes a mistake then it's a crime.

The BBC followed Vance Miller to find out the truth. This documentary on Vance Miller was made approximately ten years ago.

Producer and director Alastair Cook on completion of this documentary that Vance Miller was in fact a very honest business man who's staff were letting him down.

Vance Miller

Kitchen Gangster? Really?