NEWS
Brexit impact warning after Stokers sees profits leap Stokers saw pre-tax profits more than double in the past financial year. Pre-tax profits jumped from £2.528m to £5.6m in the year to 30 April 2021. The four-store interiors group saw sales increase from £41.6m to £47m, helped by the opening of its £12m 80,000sqft Lucas Furniture store in Aylesbury. ‘During the year the company was forced to close all of its stores on several occasions due to the pandemic. lt was apparent when we re-opened after each imposed closure that there was significant pent-up demand, and trade for these periods was significantly above what we would normally expect for those times of the year. This trend has continued as consumers continue to release savings built up during the past 12 months and divert spending away from other expenditure such as overseas holidays. The boom in the housing market and the switch in spending habits to home refurbishments has helped to fuel this trend,’ it says.
‘The company is however aware that when overseas travel restrictions begin to lift there is likely to be a shift in this consumer spending away from consumer goods to reflect the pent-up demand for holidays and overseas travel. The company is also aware of the uncertain economic outlook. In addition to the issues in the labour market caused by Brexit, the worldwide boom has caused significant issues with supply chains. There are huge supply-side pressures, with increased costs in wages, shipping and direct input costs. All these will contribute to significant inflationary pressures, which will increase prices and dampen consumer demand. ‘The risks of Brexit have still not gone away. lt is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit staff to fill jobs in the operational side of the business and this in part is hindered by the intransigence of the government to allow EU workers to fill these positions.’
van Dam issues Ikea price warning
Viccarbe’s Ears
Steelcase snaps up Vicacarbe Steelcase has bought furniture manufacturer Viccarbe in a deal that could be worth €49m. Twenty-one years after Victor Carrasco and Daniel Benedito founded the company in Valencia, it will become part of the US$2.6bn Michigan-based group. Steelcase is paying €30m upfront (less an adjustment for working capital), with a further €19m payable over five years based on performance targets, milestones and continued employment. Viccarbe had sales of €14.5m in the year to September.
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Ikea’s parent company has warned that profits will fall unless it increases prices. Inter Ikea saw profits fall 17% to €1.4bn in the year to the end of August despite a 6% increase in sales to a record €41.9bn. ‘For the 2022 financial year, we’re looking at supply disruptions still, we’re looking at raw material increases still, we’re looking at energy
Interiors Monthly December 2021
increases still,’ says Martin van Dam, Inter Ikea cfo. ‘It will be more difficult… it eats away our margins in a massive way.’ The group has not increased prices since 2019, but van Dam indicated increases were unavoidable. He says shoppers may not feel the full increases depending on how much franchisees absorb.
‘We really want to stay as low-priced as possible. We can’t let this period of time make us different. We want to absorb as much as possible these price increases. But there comes a moment that it becomes impossible for us to hold it back any more. It’s something we don’t like,’ he says. Limited stock was letting down customers, he adds.
renu to the rescue Interfloor supplied 286 rolls of its renu underlay for the COP26 climate conference, which will be returned to the company’s Haslingden, Lancashire site to be re-granulated and made into new rolls of renu. ‘As a company we are all rightly concerned about how we treat our planet, and we are proud to be supplying COP26 with a product that meets not only the values of the conference but our own ideals too,’ says John Cooper, Interfloor ceo.
