British Furniture Manufacturers Bucking The Trend

Forest Sofa Ltd has certainly had a good start to the year with January 2012 sales up by over 30% compared with 2011 sales, and up a staggering 55% on 2010.  

Building and maintaining relationships with key retail partners is a basic requirement for all successful businesses.  Forest Sofa Ltd sales uplift this year is testimony to the benefits of ensuring that this is done well.

Investment in advertising and the expansion of the sales team in 2011 has also contributed to the uplift.  

"2010 and 2011 were reasonable years given the climate, but we felt it was necessary to invest further in our promotions at a time when many others were cutting back. I feel we are seeing the benefit of that decision now."  says Ryan Mohieddin - Marketing Manager.

It is clear that 2012 can be good for UK manufacturers as a number of UK manufacturers from differing sectors report sales uplifts and a general level of increased positivity around UK manufacturing.

Increased labour costs from China, increased transportation costs, combined with UK manufacturers taking the lead on new product developments has helped create the circumstances for retailers and trade partners to look again at the UK for product supply.  

UK Engineering which suffered periods of contraction in the middle of 2011 is also on the up; there has been a general boost in the number of people being employed in manufacturing jobs, as the sector continued its recovery from the economic downturn, it has been revealed.  Data published in the JP Morgan Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index shows that conditions in the global manufacturing sector improved for the first time in four months in December, and now stands at 50.8, up from 49.7 in November.  Source The Sales Engineer.

With the Olympics on the horizon there are further opportunities for UK manufacturers, Forest Sofa keen to be a part of the approved sofa manufacturers supplying the Olympics with first estimate news that the venue with require approx 600,000 sofas before the summer of this year.

Another UK manufacturer that is also experiencing an extremely busy January 2012 is Mattinson Contract beds, another business that is also expecting to benefit from the hotel and accommodation refurbishments and new builds taking place in light of the hospitality boom expected for the Olympics.