Stainfree Panache by Abingdon Flooring

I was fairly critical of Abingdon’s relaunched Stainfree Twist earlier this year, but another new launch of theirs, Stainfree Panache seems a lot more promising.

Shown above is the gorgeous Damson colour, which is clearly the standout colour of the range. Used in promotional literature and the top sample in the sample book, it’s today’s colour (apparently).

The carpet itself handles nicely, a sumptuous saxony – fairly dense and fairly thick made from 100% polypropylene. It feels smooth and comfortable and will grace the master bedroom nicely, I imagine.

One bonus here is that it is 4m and 5m wide and there is a shortage of saxonies available wider width, so this is a welcome addition on that front.

As usual Abingdon cover it with their 10 Year Wear and Stainfree Warranty (if you care about such things), but with reasonable care this carpet should perform well enough in the medium to long term. It will, like all longer pile carpets, flatten over time but that’s the price you pay for longer pile carpets!

It should go out between £17 and £22 per square metre, which is about right for this carpet in my opinion – decent value.

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Christmas Rush?

I’m not going to bombard you with pointless stats to back up my point here, but I would just like to say that our pre-Christmas sales have been nothing startling, but they have been a little better than last year’s.

When this year began, most people in the trade felt we would need to batten down the hatches and the year would be very bleak indeed. In the end I think the year has been grey rather than black. Sales have picked up a little in the second half of the year for us and we do seem to have picked up some newbuilds lately and loft conversion after loft conversion (don’t you just love all those winding stairs!).

If you look at Headlam Group’s share price then it has recovered from its earlier malaise in the first half of the year and Carpet Right have reported better than expected results.

The much hoped for shot in the arm for independent retailers from Yourfloors has not really materialised yet, but I think this is not something that will happen in a year – it’s an ongoing project and it will grow steadily over time.

Sadly another disappointing raft of price rises hit us on 1st November and with the VAT increase in 2010, we are under a lot of pressure on price. No matter what manufacturers say about ‘not selling on price’, ticket prices on carpets must be kept in line with customers’ expectations. The problem is that most other things they buy are not increasing in price and in many cases are actually falling in price. Floorcoverings have risen dramatically in the past 18 months and it could not have happened at a worse time for the trade.

The Euro and the Dollar and the price of oil are blamed, but why the latest increase? I don’t buy a lot of the excuses made and retailers have been squeezed hard this year, that’s for sure.

My hopes for 2010 are that a gradual and slow upward curve will continue. I’m hopeful that the housing market will pick up and we will begin to get people on that property merry-go-round again.

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