A game of two halves

Market review from the show in Solihull

If BGNFS is a key fixture in the flooring calendar, then this year’s event was like a tough team talk in the dressing room at half time by the captains of the industry. Disappointing first half, but lots to play for in the second!

Plenty of innovation and creativity is lined up to tempt hard-pressed consumers to start spending in the “golden quarter” towards Christmas, but there’s no hiding that 2023 has been hard going so far.

A dismal start to the year showed signs of improving in the Spring, before poor weather and a congestion of bank holidays disrupted the game plan. Most commentators reckon the industry is down 10 –15% - and significantly worse in the entry level market.

No-one is panicking yet – the pandemic interiors boom still leaves some money in the bank for many manufacturers and retailers – but energy and raw material costs have taken their toll and the year needs to improve for sales after the Summer if the market is to gain strength.

So while the mood in Solihull was subdued, there's a sense that the second half of the season will "normalise" as consumers who spent up in 2022 return to the market and the cost-ofliving crisis and inflation hopefully starts to back off.

The presentations from manufacturers at the BGNFS demonstrated that manufacturers and suppliers have not been sat on their hands. Investment is all around among the main players with some key product development and innovations in service and marketing. Interestingly, many are growing their sales teams to secure future market share.

The pages that follow (and more next month) show just how much innovative activity there is out there.

It is striking that the premium market is doing well whether its carpet, smooths or even underlay – quality is selling well. If there are less buyers out there, make sure they spend more - trade them up!

In carpets, this means higher-end ranges are rolling out fast - and most noticeably this means wool. Natural fibre is exceeding expectations in sales performance so while wool houses are benefitting, it's interesting to see that mainstream mixed manufacturers like Cormar and Abingdon are further developing their wool portfolio (or in the case of Furlong, going "Beyond Wool" - see opposite). Wool loop especially has seen major developments.

In resilient flooring, many LVT portfolios have been overhauled during the lull to present well thought through collections which are less complicated for consumers to navigate and technology in this sector is ensuring top quality performance.

Service in terms of both distrubution networks - there are a lot of new warehouses in the flooring world this year compared to pre-pandemic – and portal technology to facilitate ordering and tracking has seen major investment.

NEXT MONTH, we'll publish a trends review based on the Solihull show which covers what's happening in design colour style texture patterns.