TOP STORIES

• Celebrity will focus on core brand as md targets MBO in long-term

  Wayne Hollis, md at rise and recline upholstery producer Celebrity Motion Furniture, says the long-term aim is to lead a management buyout (MBO) and has reaffirmed the company's intent to refocus as a single-brand business.

• Living, dining and bedroom cabinet wholesaler returned to profit last year

  One of the U.K.'s largest wholesalers of domestic cabinet furniture returned to the black last year after a rise in output and cost controls.

• Cousins expands with acquisition of flagship Alan Ward store

  Family-owned furniture retailer Cousins has purchased the flagship Shropshire store of Alan Ward and says it will additionally reopen at least one of its three other units across neighbouring counties.

• Slumberland to become in-house Bensons for Beds brand

  National retailer Bensons for Beds is expected to become the sole retail stockist of the historic Slumberland mattress brand following the prepack buyout by Alteri Investors last month.

• Unsecured Oak Furnitureland creditors will get less than 1p in the pound

  The administrator that handled the prepack sale of Oak Furnitureland has written to unsecured creditors outlining the value of the deal and advising they will be unlikely to receive a significant return.

• Licence gives Oak Furnitureland time to renegotiate again with landlords

  The prepack sale of Oak Furnitureland gives management at the retailer time to renegotiate with landlords, many of which will be doing so for the second time inside a year.

• Steinhoff wrote down Bensons/Harveys group value by €50m ahead of original Alteri deal

  The value of the original deal that took Bensons for Beds and Harveys along with group sofa and bed factories into the hands of Alteri Investors and away from Steinhoff International Holdings can now be revealed for the first time.

• Cushion maker closes down because of Covid-19

  A Staffordshire cushion manufacturer with 50 employees and partnerships with prestige fabrics brands has folded as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Relyon and South Wales sofa factories face uncertain future as prepack leaves them behind

  The Alteri Investors led prepack buyout that rescues Bensons for Beds does not includes its manufacturing operations in South Wales and the West of England, including its Relyon plant.

• Blue Group carve-up sees Bensons for Beds split from Harveys

  Bensons for Beds and Harveys are no longer sister retail chains after owner Alteri Investors completed a buyout of the former that leaves the latter facing an uncertain future.