NEWS

The BFM has announced the dates and a new venue for the 2021 BFM Fabric Show London. Subject to small indoor trade events being permitted, the show will take place on 8th and 9th June, at Twickenham Stadium

The Children’s Furniture Company

has appointed Derek Lovelock as its chairman. Derek previously held leadership positions at Mothercare, Mama’s & Papas, Jack Wills, Oasis, and Warehouse’s parent company, Aurora Fashions

Rehau, a construction material and surfacing specialist that employs more than 20,000 staff at more than 170 locations worldwide, is mourning the loss of its founder and honorary president, Helmut Wagner, who passed away last month at the age of 95

Hypnos has announced that its commitment to carbon neutrality and environmentally friendly product design has seen it awarded The Planet Mark - Carbon Neutral Certification, a benchmark aligned with the UN Decade of Action

Proposte 2021, due to take place this April, has been rescheduled to 7-9th September, to be held at Villa Erba, in Cernobbio, and overlapping with Italy’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile

The NBF has welcomed four new members to its marketing committee: Ian Lambert, marketing director, Silentnight; Nick Williams, sales manager, Sweet Dreams; Chris Ward, group marketing director, Hypnos; and Paul Little, MD, CPS Group

CONFIDENT DUNELM TO UPSCALE FURNITURE OFFER

Dunelm has reported sales growth of +23% across the 26 weeks to 26th December 2020, despite the impact of store closures in the retailer’s Q2. Digital sales grew by +111%, while the number of active customers grew by +4.4% (driven primarily by online growth).

CEO Nick Wilkinson comments: “Beyond the near-term uncertainty, we have never been more confident about the future. Dunelm is a market leader with a challenger brand mentality, in a large and growing segment. We have a clear runway to grow active customers and their frequency across our total retail system and to realise our long-term ambitions.” Nick says Dunelm continues to make good progress on its Customer 1st plan, and has deepened its customer insight – now recognising that around 40% of its sales are derived from 12% of its customer base.

On the evolution of Dunelm’s product range, Nick adds: “We will continue to raise the bar in our core product offer as affordability and sustainability become even more important – offering customers value they can believe in. We will help our customers ‘live well’ from home by introducing new desks and chairs, dinnerware and storage. We will build further scale into our furniture offer through the development of our sourcing capabilities, fulfilment capacity and improvements to the in-store selling experience.

“To date in the current quarter, we have been covering approximately 70% of our prior year sales through our home delivery and Click & Collect services. At this level of sales, we are making a modest weekly loss.”

BFC ASKS GOVERNMENT TO EXTEND INDUSTRY ASSISTANCE

Britain’s furniture industry is calling on the Chancellor to extend Government help to the sector in his 3rd March budget. In a letter to the Rishi Sunak, the chairman of the British Furniture Confederation (BFC) Jonathan Hindle said that if the UK furniture industry is to return to pre-pandemic levels of business – supporting 330,000 jobs and worth nearly £17b of annual consumer expenditure – the Chancellor must: extend the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) until the end of June 2021; extend the VAT deferral period until June 2021; and extend the business rates holiday for another three months.

In his letter, Jonathan points out that many businesses across the industry have only been able to continue employing staff at current levels because of the JRS, and that without the support of furlough payments, many would be forced to make significant redundancies.

With VAT deferrals until June also critical to business survival, the letter further asks the Chancellor for Q1 VAT bills to be deferred for 12 months.

In calling for the business rates holiday to be extended, Jonathan points out: “With orders for domestic furniture being predominantly in-store rather than online, furniture retailers are critical to the survival of many furniture manufacturers. It is therefore vital that the Government does all it can to allow retail businesses to continue trading, so that when restrictions are relaxed, orders for furniture can commence again and manufacturing businesses across the UK can respond.”

FURNITURE VILLAGE INTRODUCES VIRTUAL IN-STORE SHOPPING

Britain’s largest independent furniture retailer, Furniture Village, has launched Virtual Village, its new 3D virtual store.

Offering a “fully immersive shopping experience”, customers are invited to browse the virtual showroom accompanied by expert advice, live from the shopfloor, via phone, LiveChat or video call. They can then ‘walk’ around the store, browsing products and zooming in for a closer look. Every product is shoppable, with all details, options, lead times and prices available at the click of a mouse, plus a handy shortlist option, too.

Peter Harrison, founder and CEO, comments: “Our 54 stores may be closed but our Virtual Village is well and truly open for business. We’re the first independent furniture retailer to embrace experiential retail at scale and I’m delighted by how seamless it is. Virtual Village brings the discovery and excitement of in-store shopping to the digital environment. It’s great to be on the front foot with new technologies that genuinely engage customers and help with the decisionmaking process.”

Charlie Harrison, commercial director, adds: “It’s with real agility that we’ve brought Virtual Village to life. It’s wonderful to see our business thinking and behaving in such a multichannel way. I’m particularly proud of how quickly our retail teams have pivoted to online – jumping onto LiveChats, hosting video appointments and really embracing an online-first mindset.”

SCS “CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC”

ScS has issued a half-year trading update covering the 26 weeks ended 23th January 2021. Gross sales increased +13.9% to £182.3m, due to significant order intake growth in June and July following the first lockdown, together with the strong trading in Q1 of the current financial year.

The group’s online sales channel continues to make good progress, with the half year seeing an increase in order intake of +98% YoY. As of 23rd January, the group’s order book stood at £90.5m (including VAT) – up £16.8m YoY.

“Whilst it is too early to provide clarity on the outlook for the weeks and months ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic given the strong trading experienced by the group following the first and second lockdowns,” reads the update.

“Given the tactile nature of our products, the majority of customers chose to wait until stores re-opened to try our products in person before making their purchasing decision. This resulted in the business benefiting from pent-up demand, coupled with an increased level of investment by UK consumers in their homes. The group has built a robust balance sheet and continues to focus on cost and cash management to ensure we maintain this resilience in these challenging times.”

SATRA LAUNCHES TECHNICAL WEBINARS FOR FURNITURE AND FLOORCOVERINGS

SATRA Technology has extended its regular programme of technical webinars to include more topics of specific interest to the furniture and floorcoverings sector.

Keeping up-to-date with legislation is a difficult and time-consuming task, so SATRA’s experts will highlight the key requirements that must be met. The webinars are free to attend, and will each present a specific topic, followed by a Q&A session.

Planned webinars include: An introduction to the Furniture & Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations (25th February); Furniture and the General Product Safety Regulations (10th March); and Flooring and the UKCA mark (12th May).

LECTRA POISED TO ACQUIRE RIVAL TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST

Manufacturing technology specialist Lectra has announced plans to acquire the entire capital and voting rights of its rival, US-based Gerber Technology.

A key Industry 4.0 player in the fashion, automotive and furniture industries, Lectra designs smart industrial solutions that help brands, manufacturers and retailers develop, produce and market their products. The acquisition, if and when consummated, would allow Lectra to complement its market position and continue to enhance its offerings based on Industry 4.0 technology, enabling its customers to boost the productivity and profitability of their operations.

Gerber’s CEO Mohit Uberoi, who would assume the role of special advisor to Lectra’s chairman and CEO, Daniel Harari until the end of 2021, says: “Gerber Technology and Lectra share a long history of innovation and excellent customer service that, brought together, will create an even stronger company that provides best-in-class technology solutions and services to our customers globally.”

Daniel adds: “We will have investments in innovation and technological capabilities that will be highly beneficial to the industry. They will allow us to create long-term value for our customers and our shareholders. Together, we will be able to grow and expand the services we provide to our customers and help them accelerate their digital transformation.”

FURNITURE STORES TO RE-OPEN IN APRIL, INDICATES GOVERNMENT ROADMAP

The Prime Minister has announced his roadmap for the easing of Covid-19 restrictions across England.

All shops – including those classed as ‘nonessential retail’ will be permitted to open from Monday 12th April, should varied conditions be met, namely: the vaccine programme goes to plan; the vaccine sufficiently reduces mortality rates and hospitalisation; there is no surge in hospital admissions; and no new variants fundamentally alter the risk of lifting restrictions.

The current aim is for all restrictions to be lifted by 21st June at the earliest. The Government plans to pilot events including work conferences from April, to help inform its approach to handling large groups in time for the summer.

Scotland plans to enable the resumption of clickand-collect orders on 5th April, and the re-opening of ‘non-essential’ shops on 26th April. GNG Group has invested in new mattress machinery, and has appointed David Fletcher (ex-Belfield Group) as key accounts director for its Bed Division and Komfi brand

Online homewares

retailer Cox & Cox has reported sales growth of +74.5% YoY for its financial year ended January 2021, which culminated in sales growth of +85.4% YoY in Q4

Harvey Roberts (exArlo & Jacob, Gautier, Farrow & Ball) has been appointed MD of Hydeline Furniture, the business behind recliner brand Hydeline and holistic furnishing concept, At The Helm

The NBF is offering bed retailers a flexible digital and print marketing resource for this year’s National Bed Month, designed to help maximise sales whatever this month’s restrictions

The BFM has warned of the potential for further foam shortages this year. According to the trade body, two major producing plants are planning to carry out planned maintenance in spring and summer

Furmanac has obtained a High Court judgement against Spring Craft Ltd, of Dewsbury, to prohibit the manufacture and distribution of imitations of two of its upholstered beds

Furniture Village is to implement companywide lateral flow testing for Covid-19, making it one of the first UK businesses to adopt testing at scale