Monday, August 20, 2018
TOP STORIES
Sofa retailer ScS escapes impact of House of Fraser website predicament
House of Fraser has cancelled online orders and temporarily mothballed its website but ScS — its furniture concession partner — says online sofa, furniture and carpet sales are unaffected.
Lebus grabs bigger share of declining sofa market
Lincolnshire sofa maker Lebus Upholstery outperformed the wider market on the way to a sixth straight year of top line growth in 2017.
Fashion giant launches first furniture, home collection
Apparel retailer River Island says it hopes to transfer its signature style from the wardrobe to the home with the introduction of its first ever furniture and homeware collection.
Direct-to-consumer mattress brand agrees UK retail distribution through West Elm
Retailer West Elm has expanded its collaboration with Leesa Sleep, the direct-to-consumer mattress brand, to include all three of its UK stores.
Mattress market: If anyone is losing their temper, it's probably not Tempur
Right at the very beginning of the current vogue for rolling, folding and boxing mattresses, one of the new direct-to-consumer market entrants had an interesting marketing strapline.
Free of Ryalux, carpet group prospers with earnings jump
Underlying half-year profits jump for carpets group Airea.
Mattress imports destined to break records again in 2018
Year-on-year mattress imports were positive again in June, suggesting the fall in May — a first in nearly two years — was nothing more than a blip.
Furniture retail price deflation sinks to two-year low
Consumers enjoyed keener prices as furniture deflation narrowed to its shallowest level in nearly two years last month.
Incoming Harrods food boss given additional home brief
Harrods has merged the directorships of its food and home divisions and hired an experienced grocery executive to lead the expanded business unit.
Sofas from Singapore: one of the UK successes of the first half of 2018
Upholstery market analysis: the Far East market making UK headway.
Glasswells opens new flooring studio as £1m remodel continues
Glasswells has completed another phase of its ongoing refurbishment project, opening its new smooths flooring studio at its Bury St Edmunds store.
B&Q reverses first quarter decline as weather warms up summer sales
Half-year sales inched forward for home improvement giant B&Q as sunny-weather product lines helped eliminate weak first quarter demand.
INTELLIGENCE
Market Data
Detailed market information about each of the Upholstery, Beds, Cabinet Furniture and Floorcoverings sectors at suppliers' prices.
Discover the up-to-date value of:
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UK production
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Imports
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Exports
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Key Trading Partners
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Total UK market size
BEST READ IN THE PAST MONTH
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John Lewis throws in the (beach) towel in search for home sales growth
Home sales fell for a ninth straight week for John Lewis with the department store chain finding no room for bulky indoor goods in its commentary of weekly product winners.
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Next bearish despite better-than-forecast sales effort
General retailer Next beat its own sales forecast in the second quarter of 2018 but cautioned against over optimism by saying it believed the exceptional weather had brought forward the sale of...
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House of Fraser in urgent search for backup after Chinese investor aborts plan
House of Fraser's plans to restructure its business have been dealt a fresh blow after the owner of Hamleys said it no longer plans to invest in the imperilled department store chain.
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Oak Furniture Land shifts SofaStore.com out of the limelight
JB Global, owner of Oak Furniture Land, has retired its SofaStore ecommerce website, instead incorporating its upholstery ranges into its main offer.
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Sofa maker QFC in administration with KPMG seeking buyer
QFC, Britain's third largest wholly privately-owned sofa maker, faces an uncertain future after a series of factors combined to leave directors no choice other than to put the company into...
INTELLIGENCE
Retail Sales
Up-to-date monthly UK retail sales data spanning total furniture and lighting sales PLUS detailed breakdowns for each of the Upholstery, Beds, Cabinet Furniture and Floorcoverings sectors.
Proprietary granular data covering:
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UK retail sales value and y/y delta. Monthly and annual
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Breakdown by product category
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Historical data
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Monthly and annual figures
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Mattress market: If anyone is losing their temper, it's probably not Tempur
Right at the very beginning of the current vogue for rolling, folding and boxing mattresses, one of the new direct-to-consumer market entrants had an interesting marketing strapline.
Sofas from Singapore: one of the UK successes of the first half of 2018
Upholstery market analysis: the Far East market making UK headway.
Commentary: The unfathomable rise and fall of Fabb Sofas
Making sense of Fabb Sofas' closure is not an easy task.
Opinion: Sofa market leaders provide clear indication of where we are
Analysis of the UK's two leading sofa chains.
DATA & LISTS
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Debt Report: August 20, 2018
Today's list contains six insolvent companies leaving combined debts of £635,815. Names all 20 creditors owed £10,000 or more.
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Corporate insolvencies in the fortnight to August 19, 2018
Thirteen insolvencies from within the furniture and furnishings industry were announced in the period August 4–19, 2018.
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Debt Report: August 12, 2018
Today's list contains six insolvent companies leaving combined debts of £1,289,442. Names all 28 creditors owed £10,000 or more.
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Corporate insolvencies in the week to August 3, 2018
Ten insolvencies from within the furniture and furnishings industry were announced in the period July 27–August 3, 2018.
TOP STORIES
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Sofa retailer ScS escapes impact of House of Fraser website predicament
House of Fraser has cancelled online orders and temporarily mothballed its website but ScS — its furniture concession partner — says online sofa, furniture and carpet sales are unaffected.
-
Lebus grabs bigger share of declining sofa market
Lincolnshire sofa maker Lebus Upholstery outperformed the wider market on the way to a sixth straight year of top line growth in 2017.
-
Ercol looks outside furniture sector for new 'Chief of Staff'
Heritage furniture maker Ercol has appointed Dr Martens' business transformation director Antony Maskrey to the newly-created role of chief operating officer.
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Nasons of Canterbury in planned permanent closure
Nasons of Canterbury, once one of the foremost independent furniture retailers in the UK, is to close both of its stores on a permanent basis next month.
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First-half living, dining and bedroom cabinet on the drift from key sources
The value of imports of key cabinet categories from all three of the UK's main trading partners — China, Vietnam and Poland — all declined in the first six months of 2018.
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Cintique completes factory switch with vow to maintain identity, revitalise offer
Furniture maker Cintique's move to the site of sister business Celebrity Motion Furniture won't compromise its identity, says Wayne Hollis, md of the two businesses.
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Half-year sofa imports slide 8.8% on weak Chinese shipments
Upholstery imports into Britain fell in the first half of this year as a result of both lower demand and delays in product being shipped from the Far East.
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John Lewis negative home run stretches to 11 weeks
Home sales fell 6.7 percent at John Lewis last week as the wide-ranging category trended lower than year-earlier trade for the eleventh consecutive period.
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Buoyant Upholstery aims to pick up recent Ultra gains
The chairman of Buoyant Upholstery says he hopes the Lancashire sofa maker can pick up some of the pieces left behind following the closure of Ultra Furniture, the manufacturer with whom it shared an owner in common.
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BoConcept's biggest UK franchisee delivers 'solid' growth
Profits doubled for the biggest operator of upmarket furniture stores under the BoConcept brand last year after it enjoyed a high single-digit percentage uplift in sales.
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OTHER NEWS
Fashion giant launches first furniture, home collection
Apparel retailer River Island says it hopes to transfer its signature style from the wardrobe to the home with the introduction of its first ever furniture and homeware collection.
Direct-to-consumer mattress brand agrees UK retail distribution through West Elm
Retailer West Elm has expanded its collaboration with Leesa Sleep, the direct-to-consumer mattress brand, to include all three of its UK stores.
Free of Ryalux, carpet group prospers with earnings jump
Underlying half-year profits jump for carpets group Airea.
Mattress imports destined to break records again in 2018
Year-on-year mattress imports were positive again in June, suggesting the fall in May — a first in nearly two years — was nothing more than a blip.
Furniture retail price deflation sinks to two-year low
Consumers enjoyed keener prices as furniture deflation narrowed to its shallowest level in nearly two years last month.
Incoming Harrods food boss given additional home brief
Harrods has merged the directorships of its food and home divisions and hired an experienced grocery executive to lead the expanded business unit.
Glasswells opens new flooring studio as £1m remodel continues
Glasswells has completed another phase of its ongoing refurbishment project, opening its new smooths flooring studio at its Bury St Edmunds store.
B&Q reverses first quarter decline as weather warms up summer sales
Half-year sales inched forward for home improvement giant B&Q as sunny-weather product lines helped eliminate weak first quarter demand.
Birlea posts second straight double-digit sales jump with more to come
East Midlands furniture distributor Birlea racked up 10 percent sales growth in 2016–17 and said it expected to make further top and bottom line gains this year.
Miserable first half for Belgian carpet makers ends on a high
Belgian carpet makers supplying the British market enjoyed their best month of the year so far in June, but still only managed to fractionally beat last year's total.