Carpets of Kidderminster in Administration

More bad news for UK carpet manufacturing from a couple of weeks ago as long-established Axminster manufacturer, Carpets of Kidderminster have entered administration.

Jobs are of course under threat, but in the BBC article, a quote from the firm stated:

“The management remain optimistic regarding the outlook for the company,”

We dealt with them for a number of years and had some success with their Sarakhan collection, but it seems that in common with so many other British carpet manufacturers, they have found the going very very tough indeed during this recession.

Read Full Post »

Lifestyle Carpet Collection Part 3: Headlam Group

Farmhouse Twist: This one is a longer pile, slightly shaggy twist made from 100% polypropylene with an action back. It’s available 4m and 5m wide and is fairly good value at the likely selling price of £12-£16  per square metre.

It feels very soft, but it is still a twist and I expect it might flatten fairly easily so I would personally be looking at bedrooms more than lounge and stairs for this one.

Colours are similar to Village Twist with subtle, muted tones – probably at their best with a decent blue in ‘Bluebell’ and a decent ‘greigey’ ‘Graphite’. The now obligatory ‘Aubergine’ is seen yet again, but it lacks any real sharpness and looks a little lifeless to me.

Chic Saxony: Something very different is to be found with Chic Saxony. It’s a long, stringily-shaggy effort that reminds me of all of those shaggy rugs that are so very popular right now.

It does have a lovely soft feel to it and will appeal to those looking for something a little different for the master bedroom. It’s not really going to be ideal in heavy wear areas and the Lifestyle Collection confirms this by giving it a 5 Year Warranty in spite of it being about the most expensive carpet in the range – retails at £20-£27 per square metre.

I think this one is more just decoration for the stand in all honesty and I’m not expecting many sales. It’s just the kind of carpet that customers will invariably run their hands through, say “ooo look at that” and then buy something else instead.

Again it’s 4 metre wide, 100% polyprolpylene and made on an action back.

Waterside: A pretty thick Saxony, made to impress with its feel and touch and it arrives into a very cluttered part of the market. With mega-sellers like Mont Blanc, Colorado Springs and Montana competing with it, things will not be easy.

It is impressive and does have a very solid colour range to it. The black with grey speckles of ‘Liquorice’ will sell and sell as it has over the last year and it’s worth having on display just for that one really.

A great asset is that it’s available in both 4m and 5m wide, whereas many similar carpets at this sort of price do not offer that (Montana does) and I think this will propel the sales significantly.

It’s 100% polypropylene, action backed and ought to sell between £18 and £23 per square metre. It’s certainly a contender.

Read Full Post »

York Twist by Associated Weavers

One of the additions to Associated Weavers’ range that we saw in the Spring was York Twist and it’s definitely a worthwhile contender.

It’s a decent 100% polypropylene twist aimed at those who perhaps want a ‘wool look’ but maybe don’t have ‘wool money’. It’s a decent stab at replicating the look of a wool twist and although the feel of it does not absolutely convinvce, it’s not bad for the money you are likely to be asked. I’d reckon on £11-£15 per square metre and it’s pretty good value at that.

It is available in 10 neutral shades, comes 2,3,4 or 5 metre wide and features the usual 10 year stain and wear warranties that AW like so much.

I think it will sell very well for Associated Weavers, although our experience is steady rather than a massive rush. That particular price point in that particular type of carpet is mightily competitive right now.

Read Full Post »

Are You Going To Harrogate Fair?

This year’s Harrogate Flooring Show is almost upon us – it is being held between the 5th and 7th of September this year. In a move to persuade hard-working shop owners to make the journey, the operators have decided to begin on a Sunday this year.

I’m not sure whether to pop along there or not at the moment. Anyway, you can pre-regisiter by clicking the link above and if you do go then have fun.

Read Full Post »

Vintage Wilton by Balta Carpets

As promised in my recent post on Classique Wilton by Balta Carpets, I’m now going to take a look at its ‘bigger brother’, Vintage Wilton.

Once more we see Balta continue the theme of creams/beiges/browns across a full range of Wilton. It’s a real difference from the ‘traditional’ Wilton ranges that were prevalent a few years back. Whilst Balta are happy to be pushing colour in a lot of their new plain carpet ranges, they seem to be heading in the opposite direction with their Wilton.

Like Classique Wilton, it has a heavy domestic/general contract rating, but weighs in at an almighty 2520gr per metre, significantly ahead of Classique’s 1650 gr per metre and has a pile height of 10mm, as opposed to Classique’s 8mm – as I said it is the ‘big brother’.

At that weight it feels a lot more ‘meaty’ and handles beautifully. It’s dense, sharp and impressive. It’s 100% ‘B-Tron’ (Balta’s fibre) Polypropylene and comes in 4 metre wide rolls.

The designs are varied across the range. My favourite is the slightly ‘art deco’ looking ‘duo’ design pictured above. Aside from that, most of the popular bases are covered. A tidy pindot, a nice, subtle small square motif, a couple of floral sprays and an impressive panel. If you like this kind of thing then you ought to be able to find something you at least like and possibly love. Most of the designs are each done in three shades – so I believe that’s around 24 options in the range.

The price of this is obviously going to be higher than Classique and is likely to set you back around £25-£34 per square metre. Overall a high quality product and ideal for heavy wear. It’s heading towards wool axminster price-wise, but it is realistically quite a lot less than most of those and if you want a very high end man-made Wilton then this is a real option.

Read Full Post »

Domotex 2010: Hannover

Once again the huge flooring show has come around and once again I am not there! I’m a long way down the chain and nobody would pay my way, so I remain here in the sleet for another weekend.

I know a fair number of the Headlam head honchos are in attendance and fingers crossed that we will begin to see some innovative, bold and creative products filter through from this show.

I do have high hopes: surely the recession will motivate stronger companies to innovate and come up with products to drive our trade forward. What is is they say, necessity is the mother of invention? Something like that.

Until I hear back from those who were in attendance or get some feedback, then I’m as much in the dark as anyone else. I’d expect a good showing from Balta/Balterio and an increasing Chinese and Turkish presence will be as intriguing as ever.

I know what I want to see and that’s a lot more products around to provide the wow factor with customers. Recent products like Beach Hut, Splash and Polyflor’s wonderful collection of LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile), Expona and Bevel Line.

Should anyone feel the need to invite me to any future trade shows then I’d be happy to accept, although my impartiality is not negotiable! Las Vegas would be nice, but I can probably live without Birmingham 😉

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

Fusion Twist from Balta Carpets

Balta carpets had promised more colour into the UK market and are delivering on their part in funonthefloor with several new ranges.

The latest of these I got hold of today is Fusion Twist. Coming in a whopping colour palette featuring 30 shades to cover any taste.

30 Colours

Technically it is not a top of the range product, far from it in fact. It comes with a 5 year wear and stainfree warranty though and weighs in at 20oz (Dublin is 13oz, Bali is 15oz), so it’s not as bad as some and for a budget twist, it is pretty good value. It is only available felt-backed and 4m wide.

I’d reckon it will go out between £6 and £10 per metre and it will sell very well with landlords and for cheap kids’ bedrooms. It seems like it could well be the new version of Fiesta Twist, which was once a top seller at this kind of price.

Read Full Post »

Abingdon? You’re Having A Laugh

At one time, Abingdon were one of our biggest suppliers of carpet. That was when they were known as Carpets International. We would stock many rolls of a lot of their ranges, take their display stands and do very well with them.

That now seems like a long time ago (it was only about 7 years back). Yesterday I acquired their new sampling for the revamped (?) Stainfree Twist, Stainfree Heather and Stainfree Tweed ranges they run and what a massive disappointment they are.

Used to Sell Well

First off, a word to Abingdon about their samples – display stands tend to be 18″ wide or 27″ wide. Nine inch wide samples fit on these stands nicely, look good and sell the product. However, if you make them nine and a half inches wide, they look crap and don’t sell the product. Very careless of whoever made that decision. Now they don’t look the best on our display racks.

So to the carpet itself. Well the colours are certainly plentiful and varied and Abingdon certainly still believe in colour – it isn’t all beige and brown thankfully. The feel of this carpet though is unimpressive given its price. I’d say it will retail between £14.99 – £18.99 per metre and frankly for that money it is poor value. Talk all you like about the warranty, but the fact is that most comparable companies now offer similar warranties and at a lower price.

Wilkies Carpets list the pile weight as being 35oz for Stainfree Twist and 33oz for Stainfree Heather and Stainfree Tweed.  Compare that with Shepherd Twist by Balta at 45oz and likely to retail for less and Stain Defender by Domo at 40oz which will retail for way less. There are ranges aplenty that outscore these and Abingdon are merely trading on the brand name here.

One plus point is that it can be ordered 2m, 3m, 4m and 5m wide, but realistically the orders for us at least will be few and far between. I’ve put it out on the racks, but it looks well beaten by the other ranges either side of it.

It isn’t a crappy carpet, but it’s really not worth the kind of money you will be asked for it in my opinion. Oh and if you are offered Stainfree Style instead of these three ranges then I’d say avoid it – it’s a poor replacement and some colours are the same so be careful for unscrupulous traders trying to pass of the lightweight Stainfree Style (26oz) for the heavier weight Stainfree Twist.

At least it’s made in the UK though.

Read Full Post »