It is easy to assume a business like Andromeda Chimney and Home serves a small niche.
On the surface, chimney sweeping, fireplace installation, stove fitting and stone masonry sound like specialist jobs for a limited number of people. But once you look at the towns Andromeda covers, the numbers tell a different story.
Across the current target area — Bath, Bradford-on-Avon, Bristol, Corsham, Devizes, Frome, Keynsham, Melksham, Radstock, Shepton Mallet, Trowbridge, Warminster, Wells and Westbury — the combined population is roughly 773,000 people.
Using an average household size of 2.4 people per household, that gives a broad catchment of around 322,000 households.
That is the big headline number.
But that is not the real working market. Not every one of those households is the right fit. A large chunk will be flats, newer homes with no chimney use, rented properties, or homes outside the areas where a local trades business would realistically want to work regularly.
So the more useful number is the practical market.
A realistic estimate is that the true addressable market is somewhere between 120,000 and 180,000 households, depending on how heavily Bristol is included and how wide the real working radius is.
That still leaves a very large local market.
And this is where it gets more interesting.
Bristol alone adds a huge amount of volume to the total. With a population of around 472,000 people, it dramatically lifts the headline catchment. If you strip Bristol out and focus on the tighter Bradford-on-Avon, Bath, Trowbridge, Frome, Westbury, Warminster, Wells and surrounding belt, the serviceable market drops to closer to 125,000 households.
That smaller number is probably the more honest one for the kind of work Andromeda does.
But even 125,000 households is not a small patch.
The South West also tends to suit this type of business well because the housing stock is full of the kinds of homes that create real demand for these services — older terraces, village homes, country properties, family houses, period cottages and homes with chimneys, fireplaces, flues, stoves and masonry features. The median age in the South West is about 44, compared with 40 across England and Wales, which usually goes hand in hand with more established housing and more long-term home ownership.
That matters because this business is not built on every house needing every service.
It is built on enough of the right homes needing the right work.
One household may need a chimney sweep before winter. Another may want a stove installed. Another may need a fireplace opened up, a hearth repaired, stonework redone, or broader home improvement work carried out properly by someone they trust.
That is why the market is bigger than it first appears.
The broad catchment is around 322,000 households.
The more realistic working market is around 120,000 to 180,000 households.
And the tighter, more practical local core is around 125,000 households.
For a skilled local business built around chimney work, fireplaces, stoves, stone masonry and selected bespoke home projects, those are strong numbers. This is not a tiny niche. It is a serious local market with a lot of the right kinds of homes in it.