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Home Furnishings Market Report 2008
Key Note Publications Ltd, June 2008, Pages: 106
This Market Report on home furnishings covers window dressings, bedding, bathroom and kitchen textiles, cushions and covers, and table linen. In 2007, UK retail sales of these items amounted to an estimated £3.59bn, having increased by 4.4% on 2006.
Household penetration is high, particularly in the largest sectors — window dressings and bedding — so the industry has benefited from the growing demand related to the rising number of households in the UK. However, as most purchases are for replacement purposes, they can often be deferred in times of economic slowdown, so the current economic gloom and the end of the housing boom are expected to have an adverse effect on the home-furnishings market sooner and more severely than many other consumer-goods markets.
By February 2008, even the department store chain John Lewis, until then one of the best and most consistent performers on the high street, admitted that it was being adversely affected by the downturn in consumer confidence. Homewares was the worst-performing area, with purchases linked to the housing market, such as carpets and curtains, the worst hit. These economic developments also deter investment, and Debenhams and IKEA have already announced their intentions to scale back expansion plans as a result of the housing market slump. Nevertheless, some UK companies are thriving. For example, Hillarys Blinds was listed as one of the UK's fastest-growing private-equity-backed companies over the past 2 years, while Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd, which owns the Rosebys chain, is intent on establishing the Rosebys brand in India and Eastern European.
The UK has a significant trade deficit in home furnishings, importing goods to a greater value than those it exports in every product sector. The textile industry is one of the oldest in the UK, but it now employs a fraction of the number of people it employed at its peak and large-scale manufacturers have almost disappeared, as the UK industry concentrates on sourcing, design, marketing and distribution.
Nevertheless, official statistics show that textile and clothing manufacturing industries in the UK employ around 116,000 people in 8,600 businesses, and had a total turnover of more than £9bn. Now that it is a truly global industry, and one that is labour-intensive, manufacturers can source labour in low-cost countries, and ethical manufacturing continues to be a political and social issue for the industry. In response to highly publicised concerns about pay and working conditions in developing countries, many of the largest UK companies have developed employment standards that aim to prevent exploitation.
In the current economic climate and with a falling house market, it is unlikely that growth at the level achieved in 2007 will be sustained. Indeed, we forecast an almost static market for home furnishings over the coming year, as hard-pressed householders tighten their belts and panic-stricken retailers discount heavily.
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