Industry News & Analysis
The latest industry news and analysis—across all categories—listed in chronological order, with the most recent articles first.
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- UPHOLSTERY
Upholstery specialist Sofology says it will turn Black Friday green by launching its own initiative — called Green Friday — in partnership with the Woodland Trust, the U.K.'s largest tree conservation charity.
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- BEDS & MATTRESSES
The insolvency of Monomarket, the North East company that ran a number of regional bedding centres and a prominent online store selling beds, leaves creditors facing a high six-figure shortfall, according to a new report.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
John Lewis & Partners put four straight home revenue declines to bed last week in an otherwise challenging seven-day stretch for the department store chain.
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- CASE GOODS
Yorkshire cabinet furniture manufacturer Ellis returned to profit in 2018–19 after it grew sales and transformed margins following a series of investments and business improvements.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
An India and U.S. based rug maker that supplies companies including Restoration Hardware (RH), Anthropologie and Soho House is launching into the U.K. market for the first time.
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- UPHOLSTERY
Upholstery brand Arlo & Jacob will open its second showroom in the capital and its fifth overall with a new store in a landmark building that once housed the North London Royal Mail Sorting and Delivery Centre.
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- UPHOLSTERY
Brexit and tariffs vexed Far East recliner maker Man Wah in the six months to end September but only the latter impacted its half-year numbers as sales in Europe advanced.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Rhenus Home Delivery will deliver all two-man orders for customers of furniture retailer Swoon after helping it make strides in the success rate for its deliveries.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Sofas were the best-selling category for furniture retailers in October as the wider big-ticket market made gains on the same month last year.
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- UPHOLSTERY
Lancashire sofa maker Buoyant Upholstery has named Paul Longmuir as Sales Agent of the Year for 2019.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Private equity backed furniture retailer The Cotswold Company enjoyed double-digit growth in 2018–19 but profitability was hit by inventory management issues that forced it into spend more than planned on warehousing.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
The venture debt provider that completed a takeover of heritage East-inspired furniture retailer Lombok back in 2017 is no longer the sole shareholder.
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- DATA & RESEARCH
Furniture retail price inflation eased in October as output prices at the factory gate fell again for upholstery manufacturers and, for the first time in nearly three years, for case goods producers.
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- OPINION & ANALYSIS
Steinhoff has agreed to sell its U.K. furniture and beds assets to the turnaround investor Alteri Investors. A deal has been a long time coming, and few will be surprised at the detail.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Specialist European retail sector investor Alteri Investors has agreed to buy Blue Group Hold Co, a newly formed holding company for Bensons for Beds, Harveys and Steinhoff's U.K. upholstery and bed factories.
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- UPHOLSTERY
The Thai majority owner of Alstons, Ashley Manor and Alexander & James said its U.K. upholstery division recorded high double-digit sales growth in the third quarter but production headwinds impacted margin.
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- UPHOLSTERY
U.K. revenue declined for the company behind Norwegian recliner brand Stressless in the third quarter, but still outperformed other world markets. The trend for motorised products has prompted a change of strategy, it said.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
The prospective new owner of Carpetright has been given the backing of the flooring retailer's board and says the chain can thrive "without the constraints of a public market listing."
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
New stores helped fire growth at expanding floorcoverings retailer Connection Retail in 2018–19, during which underlying sales advanced nearly a fifth.
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- EVENTS
Organisers of the BFM Fabric Show London have opened the registration process for upholstery and bed fabric buyers to attend the 2020 edition.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
French furniture and home accents retailer Maisons du Monde says it has decided to close all of its concessions inside Debenhams, dealing a blow to the department store retail chain.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Two of the U.K.'s largest furniture landlords have cited retail as the weak link in the property market as the value of their portfolios declined amid structural change impacting the sector.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Shop Direct says it has sourced £150 million of committed funding it requires following "an unexpected late surge" in payment protection insurance (PPI) claims ahead of the late August deadline.
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- INTERNATIONAL
Austrian furniture giant XXXLutz — one of the three largest retailers in the category worldwide — now operates across 12 European countries, though not yet the U.K.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Grocery and general merchandise discounter B&M is entrenching its position in the furniture sector, citing the category among its biggest gainers in the six months to end September.
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- UPHOLSTERY
Upholstery warehouses across the U.K. are full to bursting after imports of sofas arrived in record numbers ahead of Britain's planned, but ultimately delayed, exit from the European Union.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Sales of home merchandise were down for the fourth straight week at department store retailer John Lewis & Partners but the rate of decline narrowed to low single figures.
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- CASE GOODS
Cabinet furniture imports rose mid single-digits in September led by rising shipments from key Far East markets including China, Malaysia and Vietnam.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Shortening lead times and further boosting its sustainability credentials are priorities for IKEA in the U.K., the country's largest retailer of home goods has disclosed.
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- TRADE & INDUSTRY
The British Furniture Manufacturers (BFM) has unveiled a new brand identity which it says has been designed to take the trade association forward and ensure it remains at the heart of the British furniture industry in the long term.
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- UPHOLSTERY
Italian upholstery giant Natuzzi will open five further Natuzzi Editions stores in the U.K. over the festive season and has identified more locations to expand the fascia here through 2020.
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- BEDS & MATTRESSES
Foam and sprung mattress imports into the U.K. ended the third quarter on a high after increases from Poland and China, the two largest sources of foreign-made products sold here.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
The South East holding company behind the motion upholstery and beds brands Ashley Anderson and Willowbrook continued to expand in 2018–19. Profits declined on thinner margins.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
Imports of carpets into Britain jumped double-digit in September after a return to form for manufacturers in Belgium, the U.K.'s largest trading partner in the category.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Heavy rainfall failed to boost furniture retailers as out-of-town shopping parks attracted fewer shoppers on an annual basis for the first time since the summer.
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- BEDS & MATTRESSES
Spring maker Leggett & Platt, one of the biggest suppliers to the British bed manufacturing sector, booked lower profits in the U.K. after higher input costs combined with lower output.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Beales, the management-owned department store retailer, has bolstered its presence on Britain's South Coast with a new unit at Fareham Shopping Centre.
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- REGIONAL
Sales advanced for the second straight year at the privately-owned group behind three heritage department stores and the Slumber Slumber ecommerce beds website.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Mamas & Papas, the national nursery retailer that sells furniture spanning mattresses to wardrobes, chests and bedside cabinets, is closing six stores and laying off nearly 130 staff through an insolvent restructure.
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- OPINION & ANALYSIS
Despite the rise in the popularity of luxury vinyl tile, wood flooring and ceramics, carpets remain the floorcoverings of choice for most dry rooms in your average British home.
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- BEDS & MATTRESSES
Lawyers acting on behalf of premium British bed manufacturers Savoir and Vispring have shared correspondence, with the former frustrated with the latter over the naming of the models in a recently-introduced product line.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
IKEA's Internet business in Britain is now worth more than £400 million in annual sales after more of its customers shopped online in 2018–19 but fewer walked its vast stores across the country.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Variety retailer Argos said it took a bigger share of the furniture market in the first half of its financial year, despite an overall decline in general merchandise sales.
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- DEALS & FINANCE
Regional window dressings manufacturer and retailer Homefair Blinds has been sold to its management team in a transaction that provides an exit for its former owners.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
Network sales across the 22-store Carpets4Less franchise — which operates 22 stores across England — held firm for the second straight year in 2018–19.
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- REGIONAL
Sales climbed at Sussex and Surrey retailer Collingwood Batchellor in the year to January 27, 2019 with the furniture and department store operator having since gone on to find additional ways to deploy its assets.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
Belgian carpet maker Balta Group sold more in the third quarter after improved sales in its commercial business and as a result of some of its British customers making preparations for Brexit.
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- BEDS & MATTRESSES
H Partners, the activist investment company that campaigned successfully for management change at Tempur Sealy International four years ago, has reduced its stake in the business.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Howdens, the major kitchen maker that sells to consumers through small builders and installers across its vast depot network, made late summer/early autumn gains as it continued to open new sites.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Food and general merchandise retailer Marks and Spencer Group (M&S) said weak clothing and home sales were contributing factors in weaker half-year results, during which underlying profits fell.
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- UPHOLSTERY
ScS, the national upholstery and carpets specialist, is primed to boost shareholders' earnings-per-share in a transaction that sees its former outright owner sever further ties with the business.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
The Danish company that bought a key supplier to the U.K. carpet industry has been given a week to offer solutions to competition concerns else antitrust regulators will step up their inquiry into the deal and could force its reversal.
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- SUPPLY & WHOLESALE
Difficult market conditions in the interior design sector made life tougher for furniture, lighting and home accents company Porta Romana in 2018–19, but cash climbed and EBITDA remained north of £2.3 million.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
After big promotion-driven gains in September and early October, sales of home merchandise at John Lewis & Partners fell sharply for the third straight week.
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- FLOORCOVERINGS
Matt Williams, CEO at smooth flooring and wallcoverings retailer Topps Tiles, has decided to resign and will leave the board at the end of the month. Current chief financial officer Rob Parker, also a Topps veteran, is his replacement.
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- REGIONAL
The company behind the Elphicks of Farnham department store business and a separate bed shop in Dorking cut its net loss in half in the period preceding the closure of its New Malden store this summer.
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- CASE GOODS
Made-to-measure cabinet maker and retailer Neville Johnson grew revenue and claimed a bigger share of a challenged market in the year to April 30, but profits declined on narrower margins.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Retail sales beat year-earlier levels in October after retailers — in particular apparel stores — slashed prices to stimulate activity, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
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- REGIONAL
A return to sales growth helped 2018–19 profits inch forward for Yorkshire and Teesside based floorcoverings retailer Calverts Carpets.
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- RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
Ecommerce group Shop Direct, owner of the Littlewoods and Very brands, has appointed former Clarks executive Ben Fletcher as group chief financial officer.
