home comforts
with the opening this week of a new branch of home comforts, kyra komac now has 25 stores in her successful international chain of home and furniture shops, But the new store, in London is Camden High Street, takes her back to where it all started. She talks about how the business began.
When I was little, my mother began selling vegetarian food from a stall at Camden Market. She couldn't leave me at home on my own, so I had to go to the market with her.
To begin with, I didn't have to do anything. I just sat there, and my mum told me jokes and stories so I didn't get bored. When I got older, I gave my mum a hand and I really enjoyed it.
Then, one year, my uncle gave me a book for Christmas. It was all about making candles and I loved it. I was fourteen, and I didn't have to go to market anymore because Mum could leave me at home on my own. I spent my free time making candles of all different shapes and sizes. I made hundreds of them.
One day, my mother was ill so I had to go to the market on my own I decided to take some candle with me and see if I could sell then. They were sold out in twenty minutes! The next week, my mum gave me some money to buy some wax to make more candles. Again, they sold out really quickly.
Six months later, we decided to stop doing the vegetarian food. My mum and I couldn't make enough candles during the week, so some of my school friends to help us. I paid them one pound for every candle, and we used to sell them for four or five time that. It was fun and my friends worked with me at the stall.
You could leave school at sixteen and I was in hurry to leave. My uncle lent us some money and opened my first shop in Portobello Road. Since then, I've never looked back. In the first store, we only sold incense and candles, but now we sell everything from designer furniture to silver jewellery. Oh, and candles, of course.