Halo Creative & Design, the circa £150 million turnover international furniture group, has increased its equity position in South East sofa manufacturer Dudgeon.

Expanding South East upholstered furniture chain Designer Sofas has emerged one of the largest and most profitable in the category in the country.

Wider gross margin helped mitigate a sharp fall in sales for upholstery vertical Natuzzi in the second quarter as revenue fell at a steeper rate than in the first.

Sofa manufacturer and wholesaler Scan-Thors (U.K.) returned to profit last year after a decision to bring more of its production in house yielded big margin improvements.

The owner of adjustable beds and riser chair maker Sitting Pretty had its business recapitalised last year in a transaction that vaporised £11 million of debt.

Employee-owned sofa maker Lebus Upholstery says its objective is to reduce debt amid a backdrop of more expensive borrowing costs following recent interest rates rises.

The build-out of upholstery brand Snug is gathering momentum with new monobrand stores and concessions inside branches of its owner ScS opening at a rate of one per week.

A U.K. operator of Natuzzi upholstery stores that is majority-owned by a franchisee delivered seven-figure profits and bolstered its balance sheet last year.

Upholstery group Belfield has appointed a new chief financial officer, filling a role that has been vacant since the departure of former Vita Group finance director David Meltham late last year.

Upholstered furniture manufacturer Whitemeadow cemented its position as the U.K.'s largest wholly-independent sofa maker last year, outperforming its domestic peers.

DFS has signposted the expected financial costs associated with the planned closure of its 24,000sqft Long Eaton manufacturing site, the smallest of the retailer's three sofa factories.

The buildout of the retail footprint of Sofology can lead to the brand becoming the second largest upholstered furniture retailer in the country, according to parent company and market leader DFS.

Upholstered furniture manufacturer and retailer The Sofa Library is to double store numbers with the opening of a new store on the South Coast.

Weak figures from key European source markets sent sofa imports to an eighth consecutive year-on-slide in July. Chinese imports also fell, but at a shallower rate.

Upholstery market leader DFS plans to consolidate production at its larger factories resulting in the planned closure of its Berkeley Magna plant in Long Eaton, and a nearby woodmill that supplies it.

Upholstery market leader DFS has agreed £250 million of new credit facilities in a refinancing that provides additional liquidity.

Sofa covers, re-upholstery and curtains company Plumbs made headcount reductions as it sought to find cost savings amid an increasingly challenging market last year.

Upholstered furniture giant Ekornes booked higher year-on-year revenue in the U.K. and Ireland in the second quarter of 2023 as it recovered from a slow start to the year.

Upholstered furniture vertical Arlo & Jacob is expanding its retail footprint with the opening of new showrooms in Cambridgeshire and Surrey in addition to a previously-announced store in Cheshire.

Falling orders and rising costs meant Acclaim Upholstery was unable to service its debts ahead of the private label sofa maker being placed into administration earlier this summer, according to a new report by restructuring advisors.

Heritage leather specialist Pittards, whose diversified activities include the supply of upholstery leather to sofa makers, has obtained more time to get a rescue deal completed.

Upholstery market leader DFS will later this year expand its footprint in the capital with a new store in the London Borough of Greenwich.

One of the largest suppliers of foam and fibre interiors used in U.K. upholstery production battled upstream challenges ranging from price hikes to chemical shortages through 2021/22, according to new accounts.

A second former colleague of CEO Rachael Nevins has taken a senior C-suite post at Westbridge and Tetrad owner Belfield amid a number of structural and functional changes at the private equity backed upholstery and soft furnishings group.

A combination of weak demand and key stakeholders working stock levels back to historic norms meant sofa imports dropped by almost a quarter in the first half of 2023.

Expectations that sofa production will resume at the Acclaim Upholstery plant have been raised locally after actions taken by the company that acquired its assets in the past week.

The closure of a southeast England vertically-integrated upholstered furniture maker has left HMRC with an unpaid debt north of £500,000.

Second quarter profits recovered for TCM Living as the upholstery group behind Dudley and Colchester sofa makers Ashley Manor and Alstons saw gross margin recover and mitigate lower sales.

Administrators handling the insolvency of Acclaim Upholstery have completed the sale of certain assets of the Long Eaton sofa manufacturer.

South West England upholstered furniture manufacturer Kingcome Sofas booked higher profits in the past year thanks to rising sales and the non-repeat of certain costs.

ScS said it expects to report full year profits in line with market expectations after it enjoyed improved trading in the second half of its financial year.

Donna Bellingham has returned to the furniture industry after being appointed chief executive at heritage Yorkshire furniture manufacturer Shackletons.

Danish upholstery conglomerate Hjort Knudsen recorded its first deficit in a quarter of a century last year as its manufacturing operations were disrupted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It says it is already trading profitably again.

A near year-long slide in the number of sofa units arriving at U.K. ports came to an end in May after an increase in container loads of goods arriving here from China.

Cousins Olivier and Antoine Roset have succeeded their respective fathers Michel and Pierre Roset as co-CEOs of Ligne Roset as the high-end furniture company enters a new phase in its near 100-year long history.

The cost price of the average U.K.-manufactured sofa declined last year according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in a sign end users were trading down to more inexpensive models.

Trentside Products, a key supplier of components to the U.K. sofa manufacturing sector, has agreed to buy fellow upholstery supplies business Allsave Textiles in a deal that expands its product offer.

U.K. manufacturing group Dunham Massey has acquired sofa maker Ashwood Designs from its private shareholders in a deal that represents its second takeover in the furniture sector inside eight months.

Sofa market leader DFS says it expects underlying 2022/23 profits to meet previous guidance despite the market being "significantly worse than expected."

The layoff of the entire workforce of private-label sofa maker Acclaim Upholstery doesn't mean manufacturing operations will not be resurrected, according to people briefed on the situation.

A Derbyshire sofa maker set up two years ago by the former works manager of one of DFS' largest manufacturing plants is looking to expand the scope of the business by collaborating in direct partnership with retailers for the first time.

All 128 employees of private-label sofa maker Acclaim Upholstery Company have been made redundant after the company was placed into administration last week, restructuring advisors have now confirmed.

Employees of private-label Long Eaton sofa manufacturer Acclaim Upholstery were told of the company's insolvency at a meeting last week.

Sofa retailer ScS began a roll out of the Paloma Home upholstery collection across its retail stores on Monday, part of an exclusive tie-up with Paloma Faith, the singer, actor and creative director.

The parent company of upholstery brands Alstons, Alexander and James, Ashley Manor, and AMX Design has joined The Furniture Makers’ Company (TFMC), the City of London livery company and charity to the furnishing industry, as a corporate member.

Upholstered furniture producer Leisure Furnishings shrugged off rising costs to return to profit last year on the back of a £4.3 million jump in sales.

Wade Spring's output climbed by almost a third last year as the Long Eaton supplier fed high customer demand at the time from the upholstery and bedding manufacturing sectors.

The management team that acquired Acclaim Upholstery Company just over three years ago are hoping to complete a restructure of the private-label Long Eaton sofa maker after it late last week filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators.

Contract and domestic upholstered furniture company South West Upholstery has secured almost £1 million in new debt funding to build production capacity.

Upholstery manufacturer Celebrity Motion Furniture has successfully completed its company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with a better-than-forecast return for its creditors.

Upholstered furniture market leader DFS has re-energised its presence on a key Scottish retail park after moving into a larger store.

Upholstery fabrics supplier Mobus found profit growth last year as wider gross margin helped counter the impact of a return to pre-Covid level output.

A foam and fibre conversion business part-owned by one of the U.K.'s largest upholstered furniture manufacturers has returned to profit in the past year.

The value of the worldwide upholstered furniture market is back to pre-pandemic levels but will still fall back in real terms this year, according to a respected source of global industry data.

Upholstered furniture imports into the U.K. declined again in April on weak figures from all three of the country's largest trading partners in the category: China, Poland and Italy.

Upholstery brand Sofa.com will build its concession footprint back closer to pre-pandemic levels with the opening of a remodelled space later this autumn.

Jane Bednall is stepping down as a non-executive director at DFS Furniture later this month, the upholstery market leader announced Friday morning.

Delcor, the manufacturer and retailer of premium sofas and armchairs, has launched into the riser recliner chair market in one of the biggest changes at the company since a takeover two years ago.

The U.K. sofa industry faces a severe shortage of upholsterers in the next decade according to data that shows how around one in five of all exponents of the profession are fast approaching retirement age.

Mobus Fabrics has opened a distribution office in North Carolina, describing it as a strategic move designed to better serve its growing regional customer base across the residential, contract and hospitality sectors.

Natuzzi chairman Pasquale Natuzzi said revenue was "not at the level we aspire to" as the Italian upholstery conglomerate recorded a €3.3 million net loss for the first quarter of 2023.

Upholstery brand Zofa has followed its ecommerce launch earlier this year with the introduction of a flagship showroom in the North of England.

Norwegian furniture conglomerate Ekornes has appointed experienced branded consumer goods leader Tine Hammernes Leopold as its new CEO.

Higher costs hit Buoyant Upholstery's profit margins during a period of supply chain upheaval in which the Nelson sofa maker said it managed to successfully keep disruption to customers to a minimum.

The Far East upholstery manufacturer behind the Kuka brand booked higher profits last year despite revenues coming under pressure.

Upholstered furniture and beds retailer Willow & Hall maintained bottom line momentum as it built on a return to profit with another gain last year.

Upholstery conglomerate Man Wah Holdings booked lower profits through 2022/23 as the impact of cheaper raw material costs was countered by a drop in revenue.

The value and volume of upholstered furniture arriving in the U.K. from overseas declined again in March, largely as a result of weak data from China.

TCM Living, the upholstery group behind the Ashley Manor, Alstons and Alexander & James brands, found margin in the first quarter but lower revenue and one-off restructuring costs meant profits still declined.

Upholstery giant Man Wah Holdings has been ordered to pay only a fraction of the damages a jury awarded last year after an intellectual property dispute with furniture components manufacturer Raffel Systems.

The Branded Furniture Company (TBFC) agreed an extension to its furniture license with Orla Kiely ahead of new product being shown at its Open House Event this week (May 9–12, 2023).

First quarter U.K. and Ireland revenue declined in line with the global trend for Stressless brand owner Ekornes in the three months to end March.

South Wales upholstered furniture manufacturer Ashwood Designs has appointed Gary Thompson as sales director.

A Scotland based ecommerce trader has become the latest supplier of upholstery to fall foul of the U.K. flammability regulations with four of its models said to present a serious fire risk.

Profits declined at one of China's largest diversified furniture manufacturers last year as rising costs chewed away some of the benefits of double-digit revenue growth.

The Chinese furniture group that acquired Stressless brand owner Ekornes in a highly-leveraged buyout back in 2018 has introduced a new private equity minority shareholder as part of a refinancing of the Norwegian company.

Buoyant Upholstery, one of the U.K.'s largest sofa manufacturers, has invested over £215,000 on the installation of 700 solar panels on the roof of part of its Lancashire facility.

The CEO of Natuzzi says the upholstered furniture giant is planning to offload more assets in deals akin to the disposal of a foam plant in southern Italy just over two years ago.

Furniture retailer Loaf is to break store size records for the second time this year as it expands its footprint in the North of England later in 2023.

Swarupa Pathakji, a longtime director of both value retailer Original Factory Shop and its private equity backer Duke Street, is to join the board of ScS as a non-executive director.

The chief executive of the upholstery group behind G Plan, Parker Knoll and Duresta says supply chain challenges have eased and demand returned to normal, putting it on the path to improved profitability.

The family of one of the great-grandsons of the founder of fabrics group Romo has bought out another great-grandson and his family in a transaction that concentrates ownership of the circa £100 million business.

Upholstered furniture vertical Arlo & Jacob is to expand into northwest England with the opening of a Cheshire showroom later this year.

Cheaper shipping costs failed to prevent an eighth straight slide in upholstery import volumes in the first quarter with all three major source nations sending less product to the U.K.

Natuzzi recorded a net loss in the final quarter of 2022 citing higher interest rates as having increased borrowing costs as well as impacting consumer demand around the world.

Upholstered furniture conglomerate Natuzzi has postponed the release of its fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial results because of further verification work required at its Chinese joint venture.

Raw material price inflation and shortages impacted gross margin at Long Eaton sofa manufacturer Acclaim Upholstery through 2021/22 with it unable to immediately pass on rising costs to its largest customer.

Keith Wilson, who was instrumental in the buildout of La-Z-Boy's U.K. expansion including the takeover of Colne sofa maker Furnico, is to retire.

Duresta has opened a standalone Long Eaton showroom in a move that the prestige upholstery manufacturer hopes will provide an advantageous sales aid for its retail partners.

Rising costs countered higher sales for upholstery and drapery fabrics supplier Warwick last year while cash declined after a large share buyback.

The Chinese upholstery manufacturer that a decade ago owned and ran a British furniture retail chain has posted weaker profits as a result of a reduction in output across its diversified activities.

The co-owned sofa-in-a-box brand Habbio and high-end upholstery business John Sankey have agreed new manufacturing licences after their hitherto production partner was placed into liquidation.

Wider gross margin and rates relief helped the wholly-owned retail arm of Natuzzi, which represents just a small fraction of the Italian sofa maker's total U.K. business, to cut losses through the pandemic.

The temporary closure of one of House of Fraser's department stores has reduced the number of concessions in the portfolio of Sofa.com, its co-owned sister retail brand.

Sofa Club, the upholstered furniture retailer that sells online and through dedicated lounges in the walkways of U.K. shopping centres, has agreed a two-person home delivery contract with Panther Logistics.

Relaunched modular sofa brand Snug has agreements in place with all three of its legacy upholstered furniture suppliers following its takeover by ScS earlier this year.

Graeme Sutherland, the longstanding sales director at Ashwood Designs and respected stalwart of the U.K. sofa industry, has died, the upholstered furniture manufacturer has announced.

Board change comes as planned following a management buyout two years ago.

Profits fell 71 percent for DFS in the six months to Christmas Day with the upholstery market leader battling rising costs and a fall in sales.

Trustpilot says Maker&Son "hasn't been playing by the rules" after the upholstery brand was said to have threatened reviewers with legal action regarding comments that had been made on its platform.

Upholstered furniture imports cratered at the start of 2023, reflecting a combination of weak demand in the autumn when orders were placed, along with full warehouses across the U.K.

Sofas from the three further upholstery collections sold under the Argos Habitat brand that didn't meet U.K. flammability regulations were also manufactured in Eastern Europe, it was disclosed late last week.

Correspondence has been delivered to U.K. and mainland European industry suppliers to the legacy Maker&Son upholstery business telling them they will not be paid what they are owed after all, despite earlier pledges to the contrary.

Upholstery manufacturer and retailer heads south for third consumer showroom.

Argos has added sofas, armchairs and footstools from three further upholstery collections to a product recall first announced a month ago when it revealed SKUs from its Tammy programme didn't meet U.K. flammability regulations.

Revenue growth helped mitigate raw material, labour and shipping cost pressures as the upholstery group behind the Ashley Manor, Alstons and Alexander & James businesses bolstered profits last year.

The sofa-in-a-box company that pioneered a paradigm shift in the way entry and mid-level upholstery was manufactured and shipped has launched into the outdoor category.

The just-agreed licensing deal between Maker&Son and The Hastings Sofa Company won't imperil outstanding orders or the interests of the existing supply chain, the upholstery brand says.

The owners of The Hastings Sofa Company have agreed a deal with Inc. & Co for them to become the licensee of the Maker&Son brand in the U.K. and Ireland.

Rising input costs countered an improvement in underlying demand at the U.K. upholstery factory acquired by U.S. furniture giant La-Z-Boy in the first financial period since its autumn 2021 buyout.

Maker&Son suppliers with lorry loads of unpaid-for furniture waiting to be delivered to customers are braced for more change in the way the embattled upholstery brand operates.

Consumers who bought sofas sold by Mark Harris Furniture that do not comply with U.K. flammability regulations are to be contacted directly by restructuring advisors after the company was placed into administration last week.

Darren Baird and Joseph Baggott have joined upholstered furniture manufacturer Ashwood Designs as operations director and finance director respectively.

U.S. upholstery conglomerate La-Z-Boy saw revenue inch forward in the three months to January 29, 2023 on the back of a stellar performance from its company-owned retail business in its domestic market.

Delivered sales growth returned in the U.K. and Irish markets for Stressless upholstery brand owner Ekornes in the fourth quarter in an otherwise testing period that led to the downsizing programme announced in January.

The value and volume of Chinese sofa shipments to the U.K. declined at the end of the year as buyers continued to turn to alternative manufacturing sources closer to home.

Profits climbed at Sherborne Upholstery last year as the West Yorkshire furniture manufacturer broke a sales record that had lasted since the before the financial crash of 2008.

A furniture investment company controlled by Ayiaz Ahmed, the businessman who sold the Collins & Hayes (C&H) brand for £2 million in 2017, has defaulted on the terms of a settlement agreed with a specialist litigation funder.

Sofology has promoted Gisela Lancaster, who first joined the upholstery retailer from the home shopping retail sector nearly two years ago, to lead its buying team.

Michael Tyler Furniture has appointed Kai Winders as managing director in a move that returns the South Coast sofa maker to its historic management structure, with a designer leading the company.

Losses widened at upholstery brand Swyft as it continued to scale its business ahead of a later debt-for-equity swap that helped the company cut borrowing.

Upholstery brand Sofa.com maintained high double-digit margin last year despite rising costs weighing against the impact of big sales growth.

The upholstered furniture manufacturer behind brands including Sofas by Saxon and Timeless Chesterfields enjoyed the strongest financial year in its history through 2021/22.

ScS, the U.K's second largest upholstered furniture retailer, said it has reversed negative order momentum to make gains since the start of winter, though cash reserves have declined through the period.

Fabrics supplier Blendworth International more than doubled its turnover through Covid after pivoting to making personal protective equipment (PPE) for the NHS. But the abrupt termination of a five-year contract started a spiral towards insolvency.

Sofa-in-a-box brand Swyft has eliminated millions of pounds of borrowing as part of a debt-for-equity swap and broader investment that will lead to TV exposure for the fast-growing upholstered furniture company.

Industry-wide supply chain issues resulted in operational challenges and a downturn in margin as profits tumbled for upholstered furniture supplier La-Z-Boy U.K. last year.

Upholstery retailer Sofas & Stuff is expanding its collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) with the launch of a second collection, called Drawn from Nature.

Direct-to-consumer and wholesale upholstery brand Sofacompany booked high profits despite margins taking a knock from the after-effects of Covid last year.

The upholstery group behind the Ashley Manor and Alexander & James brands has begun a consultation with employees at its East Midlands factories as it explores a strategic proposal to transfer production to Dudley.

Furniture group Actona has revealed it paid well above book value for the takeovers of European sofa producers SITS and Theca last year in deals that made it one of the world's largest upholstery producers.

Upholstered furniture company Kingcome Sofas has completed works at its Devon factory designed to boost capacity and make the business more productive.

Six-figure profits helped bolster the balance sheet at Delcor in the first period since a change of ownership at the high-end upholstery business.

Upholstered furniture import volumes declined again on the back of continued weak data from China, the largest source of overseas-made sofas sold in the U.K.

Upholstery vertical Sofa.com has agreed a new third-party retail tie-up as it looks maintain and build its retail footprint amid the evolution of its concession network in sister chain House of Fraser.

Direct-to-consumer sofa business Maker&Son has made roles redundant as part of plans to restructure and stabilise the embattled upholstery retailer.

A handful of upstream raw material and semi-finished product suppliers face a shortfall on their debts following the insolvency of a small but long established sofa maker in the West Midlands.

A mid single-digit decline in order intake at DFS in the second half of the 2022 calendar year masks a big improvement in the past three months, according to the U.K. sofa market leader.

Former Tetrad owner and md Janus Cooper will join longtime colleagues Nick Murphy and Annabel Simmons as they introduce the Encore Sofa Company to a widespread trade audience for the first time this month.

Aberdare sofa maker Ashwood Designs has praised its customers after a period in which it saw record demand combine with unprecedented upstream supply chain disruption.

National retailer ScS is the new owner of modular sofa business Snug after it acquired the brand, domain names, website, intellectual property and stock from the administrators of the predecessor operating company.

The operating company of modular sofa brand Snug has filed a notice of intent to appoint an administrator as potential bidders such as ScS look to complete a deal for either the company or its assets.

Upholstered furniture retailer ScS is among the suitors targeting the acquisition of Snug, the sofa-in-a-box brand that built sales north of £30 million during the height of the pandemic.

Ekornes, the China-owned upholstered furniture maker and owner of the Stressless brand, is to shed about a quarter of its global workforce and consolidate its Far East manufacturing operations in response to the weaker market.

Nichola Hornby Bell has joined West Midlands sofa maker Alpha Designs as sales director, succeeding Barry Webb, who will retire following a handover period.

A secured lender to embattled upholstery business Maker&Son has filed a second notice of intent to appoint an administrator (NOI) as it seeks to protect its position.

Profits rose by nearly a fifth last year for the U.K. market leader in the supply of flame retardant fabric coatings for the upholstered furniture industry.

Upholstered furniture and floorcoverings retailer ScS has expanded its store footprint in the north of England with the opening of a ninth store in Yorkshire.

Revenue climbed by more than a third for Dudley upholstered furniture manufacturer ACL 2002 through 2021/22 amid rising costs that impacted profits.

West Yorkshire upholstered furniture distributor Scan-Thors (UK) said the acquisition of new production facilities in mainland Europe has helped provide surety of supply and negate input cost pressures.



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