TOP STORIES

• Carpetright seeks to regain lost ground following weak mattress sales

  Bed sales dropped more than a quarter as the category proved troublesome for the recovering Carpetright retail chain in 2018–19.

• After 30 years, industry braced for change to furniture fire regs

  Loved, loathed or tolerated, Britain's furniture fire regulations are some of the most stringent in the world. Introduced in 1988, they are also in need of a serious overhaul.

• Owner of JYSK, Actona stands down for health reasons with son to become chairman

  Lars Larsen, chairman of the eponymous furniture group that owns global companies including JYSK, ILVA and Actona, is stepping down as chairman. His son, Jacob Brunsborg, is to succeed him with immediate effect.

• Half-year sales, profits advance for 78-store bedroom chain Sharps

  Fitted bedrooms vertical Sharps maintained forward momentum in the six months to end March as the manufacturer and retailer shrugged off a tough macro environment to increase sales and profits.

• Bedroom chain Sharps plans to list high-interest debt on Nordic market

  Sharps, the 78-store bedroom furniture maker and retailer backed by Sun Capital Partners, is planning to list corporate bonds issued last year on a Swedish exchange.

• Dunelm gets c. £7.5m profits boost from better-than-expected late spring trade

  Furniture and homewares retailer Dunelm Group says profits will be higher than analysts' expectations after the weather helped boost late spring trade.

• Dreams says healthy balance sheet gave it 'flexibility to adapt to market'

  Bed specialist Dreams says sales and profits advanced again despite a difficult U.K. retail backdrop last year, a fifth straight improvement since it was bought by private equity company Sun Capital Partners in 2013.

• Competitors 'actively exploited' Steinhoff events says Bensons, Harveys owner

  Customer confidence in the Bensons for Beds and Harveys retail chains was negatively impacted by the noise surrounding their owner, parent company Steinhoff said last night.

• U.K. losses widened for furniture division in 2017–18, Steinhoff reveals

  Losses at Steinhoff's U.K. household goods division deepened in 2017–18, the period that took in the disclosure of accounting irregularities at its parent company.

• Nine weeks on, Wesley Barrell phoenix formally enters liquidation

  The phoenix company behind the brief resurrection of the vertically-integrated Wesley Barrell upholstery business has been placed into liquidation, more than two months after staff were told of its closure.