Flooring Industry News May 2022

Awards entries ready to be judged

The 2022 CFJ/CFA Awards, which will be place on Friday, September 9 at Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire, are now closed for entries.

The installation category of the awards concluded on Friday, April 15th, while the product and individual categories ended on Friday, April 29th. Finalists will be notified and presented to our independent judging panel on Thursday, June 23rd, where winners in all installation categories – as well as the overall installation of the year award – will be determined.

The Survey Monkey competition, which ended on April 29, will choose the winners for product of the year, producer, and distributor.

Read the report on the Contract Flooring Journal website.

Flooring sales still surging

Flooring sales continue to break records, despite increasingly pessimistic economic and consumer spending expectations.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that sales in March were 26.8% higher than February, 155 percent higher than March 2021, 160 percent higher than March 2020, and 105 percent higher than March 2019.

The results are a 14-year high for flooring sales, and March marks only the second time monthly sales have exceeded £280 million.

Read the article on The Stocklists website.

Flooring inflation still surging

Retail price inflation for flooring continued to grow in April, according to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics, rising from 7.4 percent to 9%, the second highest rate in the previous year.

Carpet and rug inflation increased by 1%, from 5.6 percent to 6.5 percent, while other floorcovering inflation decreased somewhat, from 17.9 percent to 15.5 percent, for the second time.

According to the ONS, total inflation in the furniture industry is still high, but it declined somewhat in April from 17.2 percent to 16.5 percent.

Read the article on The Stocklists website.

Consumer confidence falling

According to top retail researchers GfK, consumer confidence has reached an all-time low, with key purchase choices for goods like furniture and flooring dropping even further.

“In May, the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer recorded the lowest headline score since our records started in 1974, with a headline score of minus 40 “Joe Staton, GfK’s strategy director, agrees.

“This implies consumer confidence is currently lower than it was throughout the global financial crisis, the economic effect of Brexit, or the Covid closure,” he explained. “Consumer confidence is on the decline, and nothing on the economic horizon suggests that this will change very soon.”

Read the article on The Stocklists website.

The unmissable show for the flooring industry – Harrogate 18-20 September

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 gather to network, interact, and do 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.

Read the article on The Flooring Show website.

Industry perspectives on future working practices

Futurebuild recently cooperated on a piece of study for the construction sector with the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), which provides insight into how working practises might evolve and improve in the future with a focus on worker health.

The whole paper delves into topics like making use of data and technology; creating work that prioritises users and allowing individuals to exercise responsibility.

Read the article on the Contract Flooring Journal website.

FURTHER READING

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