PROFESSIONAL FLOORING TRAINING

FITA provides short training courses, workshops and assessments for both commercial and domestic markets. Both our fully equipped training centres at Loughborough and Kirkcaldy are run by seasoned professional instructors with specialist knowledge of the flooring industry.

Vinyl

Carpet Fitting — Intermediate Carpet Fitting — Advanced

NEW! Carpet — Borders

NEW! Natural Floorcoverings

Sheet Vinyl Installation — Commercial — Basic/Intermediate

Sheet Vinyl Installation — Commercial — Advanced

Sheet Vinyl Installation — Domestic

Sheet Vinyl — Wetrooms Installation — Advanced

Linoleum Linoleum Installation — Basic

Linoleum Installation — Intermediate

Resilient/LVT Fitting — Basic

Resilient

Resilient/LVT Fitting — Intermediate

Resilient/LVT Fitting — Advanced

Wood Laminate and Floating Wood Fitting — Basic

Wood Fitting — Intermediate Wood Fitting — Advanced Wood Sanding and Finishing

Subfloors Subfloor Preparation — Commercial

Subfloor Preparation — Domestic

Supplementary

Cost-Effective Estimating and Planning — Commercial Profitable Measuring and Quoting — Domestic Moisture — Preventing Floor Failures

CARPET WORKSHOPS — ALL 1 DAY DURATION

Carpet

"Flowering of optimism" for flooring retail

Leading retail analysts GfK have reported an encouraging five point jump in consumer confidence for big ticket items such as flooring - the highest level for over a year.

GfK's Major Purchase Index which asks consumers if now is the right time to buy furniture, flooring and appliances rose five points to minus 28 - the third upward move in recent months, suggesting a positive trend. In February this year, this Index stood at minus 37. In April last year it was minus 32.

Joe Staton, Client Strategy Director at GfK, says: “As food and energy prices continue to rise, and inflation eats into wages, the cost-of-living crisis is a painful day-to-day reality for many. But are all consumers buckling under the pressure? On the evidence of April’s confidence figures, the answer is no. There’s a sudden flowering of optimism with improvements across the board. Mr Staton added: "The Major Purchase Index at -28 is higher than it has been for a year and will bring much-needed cheer to retailers as we head into summer. This is the third month in a row that confidence overall has improved; can we look forward to this momentum building for the year ahead?” he said.

Likewise doubles sales in 2022

Ambitious UK distributor Likewise plc has reported sales growth of 104% in 2022 and says it is now "clearly established as a leading company in the UK floor covering industry."

In its final results for the year ended December 31, 2022, Likewise reported that sales increased 104.4% to £123.6 million compared to £60.5m in 2021. Underlying profit before tax increased 84.8% to £2.56m from £1.38m the previous year.

Nearly 26% of the increased sales were down to organic growth with the the contribution of the two major acquisitions during 2022, Valley Wholesale Carpets Limited and Delta Carpets Limited making up much of the rest.

"The Group is now clearly established as a leading company in the UK floor covering industry and is well on target to achieve its medium-term targets," chief executive Tony Brewer told shareholders.

Likewise says its number of active customer accounts has increased by 27% and in a trading update on the current year, the company said: "The first four months of 2023 have been positive and [revenue] has shown a further increase of 17.8% over the corresponding period last year."

Victoria moves HQ out of Kidderminster

Major international flooring group Victoria plc has moved its registered HQ out of Kidderminster, the historic home of carpet, to a state-of-the-art office and warehouse centre in Worcester.

The new Victoria Head Office is located within the new, carbon-neutral, purposebuilt 185,000 square foot distribution and administration centre at the Worcester Six Business Park.

This fulfilment centre, one of the UK's first net-zero carbon warehouses, replaces the original UK flooring distribution site warehouse in Kidderminster, and, says Victoria "provides a larger and better equipped bespoke facility to match the strong growth performance of the Group."

The environmental credentials of the new site are impeccable. The buildings features solar panels which provide all of the site's electricity needs including 125kW of electric vehicle charging infrastructure with 32 charge points for electric cars and forklifts. A rainwater harvesting system to provide recycled water for use in the toilets and to wash delivery trucks, and lower energy consuming lighting and heating to ensure the warehouse does not use more energy than it creates.

As well as providing significant environmental benefits, the new site brings a number of operational benefits to the Group, using the latest technology to deliver higher productivity, improving logistical efficiency and improving customer service, says Victoria.

Victoria to deliver tenth year of growth

Victoria’s strong sales sales growth means it will have sold more than 200 million square metres of flooring (nearly 30,000 football fields) for the first time in the Company's history for the year ended 1 April 2023.

In a full year trading update ahead of the group’s results announcement in July, Victoria plc said: “Despite challenging macro-economic conditions, Victoria PLC, is set to deliver its tenth consecutive year of revenue and underlying operating profit growth with revenues for the year ended 1 April 2023 of more than £1.45 billion, alongside continued growth in underlying operating cashflow.”

It added: “Whilst the Group is not immune to the external factors that impact consumer demand or inflationary pressures, the Board is confident that Victoria's inherently low operational gearing, combined with price increases (where essential), cost savings, and tight supply chain management, will mitigate the financial impact of any macro-economic uncertainty in the year ahead.”

Man-made carpet leads flooring inflation

Price inflation for synthetic carpet is 50% more than wool ranges and almost double that of LVT according to a new "shopping basket tool" from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The average price of a square metre of man-made carpet was £24.18 in March this year, up 15% from the same month in 2022. Wool carpets have gone up 10% in the same period, from an average of £35.47 sqm in 2022 to £38.96 now.

This compares to the average price per square metre of LVT at £37.93 in March, up 9% since March 2022 despite the raw material and energy increases of the last year - and maybe reflecting an easing of some of the supply chain issues. Rugs showed the least price inflation with just 8% growth to an average price per sqm of £72.15.

Elsewhere in the home furnishing sector, the ONS Shopping Prices Comparison Tool shows that sofas are up 11% and beds up 10% while curtains have fallen by -3% year on year.

Carpet imports fall by a quarter

The slump in UK imports from Europe continues with a 25% fall in volumes in March – led by a further decline from Belgium.

The latest figures compiled by The Furnishing Report from HMRC data shows the volume of carpet coming to the UK in March was down 24% year-on-year at 14.6m sqm. High inflation in the sector meant that the value of these imports was down by a more modest 10%.

Belgium has been showing a steep decline in recent months and the March figures were no exception - down 21% in value to £18.8m while Holland perforrmed better with a 1.3% decline to £23.3m.