Flooring Industry News March 2022

The National Flooring Innovation Awards 2022

Entries are now open for The National Flooring Innovation Awards. The competition sets out to identify products and services that are genuinely new and exceptional in the sector. Award categories cover not only flooring products, but also recognise achievements in service, technology and marketing.

The industry’s prestigious awards scheme was launched by The Stocklists magazine in 2018 to great acclaim and welcomed across the industry as an exceptional, independent award scheme.

Find out more on the Flooring Innovation Awards website.

Domotex shelves Autumn plan and announces for 2023

Domotex, the world’s largest flooring trade show, has set dates for its Hannover event in January, abandoning plans for a smaller event later this year.

The Domotex organisers at Deutsche Messe had suggested a “compact” September event in 2022 to maintain in contact with the industry after missing two events to the epidemic, but the idea was scrapped.

The next event will be held from January 12 to 15, 2023.

Full details from The Stocklists.

Double digit growth for flooring retail in 2021

Despite lockdowns in the first quarter of the year, flooring retailers enjoyed double-digit growth in 2021 as buyers returned to physical locations and invested in their houses.

According to The Furnishing Report, the sector’s sales increased by about a third to £9 billion in 2021, with more than 80% of those purchases made in-store. Although internet sales were down a third due to the return to face-to-face commerce, they were still 73 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Full details from The Stocklists.

Furnishing spend grows despite inflation concerns

According to the latest figures from Barclaycard, consumer expenditure on flooring, furniture, and home improvements grew substantially in January amid mounting concerns about rising costs of living.

While card spending increased 7.4% in January compared to the same month in 2020, the furnishing industry experienced a 16.9% gain. Overall, data from Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all credit and debit card transactions in the United Kingdom, shows that spending on non-essential items grew at a slower pace in January (6.1%) than in December (11.5%), owing to a combination of continuing Covid concerns and rising living costs.

Full details from The Stocklists.

CFJ/CFA Awards entry deadline extended

The 2022 CFJ/CFA Awards entry deadline has been extended from Thursday 31 March to Friday 15 April.

Full details in From CFJ.

The Flooring Show 18-20 September 2022

The Flooring Show is the largest and only event dedicated to the flooring sector in the United Kingdom. Every year, tens of thousands of merchants, contractors, distributors, fitters, designers, and developers visit to network, interact, and conduct business.

See 250+ companies from across the world in one spot, learn about current industry trends, gain new skills, and find the latest goods with all of the major suppliers exhibiting.

Full details from The Flooring Show.

Flooring inflation powers ahead

Consumer price inflation in non-carpet flooring is running at 20%, ahead of the overall inflation rate of 6.2 percent.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the furnishing industry saw record inflation of 14.7 percent in February, following a pattern that has seen prices climb every month since July.

Carpets and rugs are almost in line with average inflation at 6.6 percent, while non-textile categories are at 20.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in January, indicating a growing reliance on import costs.

Read the article in The Stocklists.

“Strong rebound” sees 15% sales growth at Headlam

Headlam, Europe’s largest flooring distributor, has claimed a robust sales resurgence and a return to profitability, calling 2021 a “really promising year.”

In its final figures for the year, the UK-based company claimed revenues for 2021 were up 15.4 percent to £667.2 million. “Due to the inflationary climate during much of the year,” gross margin grew to a new high of 33.0 percent.

Profits were £24.4 million in the year ended December 31, compared to a £20.3 million loss in 2020 owing to Covid effects.

Read the article in The Stocklists.

FURTHER READING

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