Lifestyle Carpet Collection Part 4: Headlam Group

Cottage Berber: This one has been selling like hot cakes. It’s a 100% wool berber made at a super low price and is doing the job for us and a lot of other retailers, if stocks are anything to judge by. It also bears a striking resemblance to range we’ve always done well with – Corsa.

It’s a boucle design, which I’ve shown below and is basically a smallish looped wool berber in the style of those that have been so very popular everywhere for the last few years.

At the price, you can’t go far wrong if you like this kind of carpet and you understand what you are buying. The appearance of this carpet will be very ‘rustic’ as they say in the trade, so if you like a neat, precise, sharp looking carpet then you are barking up the wrong tree with this one. I never like this kind of thing on stairs – the cheaper wool berbers just don’t stand up long term and are also often prone to ‘pilling’ as it is known, where fibres will need to be cut as they protrude from the surface of the carpet and this is not a fault as such (although it makes your new carpet look absolutely awful).

Personally I find them difficult to work with, difficult to maintain, but very easy to sell and therein lies the dilemma for the retailer I suppose. I do always warn customers about the drawbacks of a carpet like this one, but they do often go ahead with the purchase anyway. It is officially rated Heavy Domestic, as opposed to ‘Rustic Retreat’ from the same collection, which is only rated General Domestic. I’d not really be optimistic about either on the stairs, but that is just my opinion of course.

California Dreams: This is a very very well known carpet to all and sundry in the trade. It has been in production (though I don’t believe the weight is exactly what it once was) for many years now and it has gone from being a very big seller for us, to being just ‘steady’ nowadays.

It’s an all nylon shadow pile (the label says 100% polyamide to avoid using ‘nylon’ – the ‘n’ word in UK carpet it seems) and does have a very appealing soft touch, but it doesn’t come across as being lightweight at all. The carpet is fairly heavy and dense and you could use it just about anywhere around the home, and we frequently do.

It is what is known as a ‘tonal’ shadow, which means that not only is there a pattern cut into the carpet as with most shadow piles, but the colour has what I might describe as an ‘iced’ look. There is a lot of variation of shade within the colour of the carpet and this creates a very appealing look. It contrast markedly with the manufacturers’ (Associated Weavers) sister product to this, ‘New Territories’ which has a solid colour).

It is manufactured in 4 metre and 5 metre wide rolls and should be more or less instantly available through the Lifestyle Collection (as they all should be). I’d estimate cost at £19-£26 per square metre and I recommend it as just about the best shadow of this kind at this price.  The nominal pile weight is 36oz, but handle a sample for yourself and you will be impressed I’m sure.

Stately Homes: This is a heavy woven wilton and comes in a good variety of traditional and modern designs. We have a tradition floral ‘ispahan’ design, a very traditional ‘Arabian panel’, which I’ve shown below and also a small square motif and an eye-catching cameo.

The colours are very traditional for man-made wilton and this carpet bears an uncanny resemblance to Balta’s best-selling Wiltax. I like the look and feel of this dense, comfortable wilton and it really impresses as much as this sort of thing ever will. It’s a very good all-rounder for those who want a traditional look without either buying cheap rubbish or running to the expense of a wool Axminster or similar, as it will retail at around £24-£32 per square metre.

Like most, it is available only 4 metres wide off the roll. However there is one glaring error in the sampling in my opinion. A 5 year warranty? What? When far inferior carpets in the range are getting 7 and 10 year warranties? Very strange and I don’t understand that one bit. This is indeed a heavy man-made Wilton and is suitable for heavy domestic areas – genuinely. I’m mystified as to the 5 year warranty which really seems like an anomaly to me. It really ought to last significantly longer than that.

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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.

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Classique Wilton by Balta Carpets

We’ve seen a resurgence in the sales of Wilton this year, with several of the recently launched ranges in natural shades selling well. The ‘old-style’ greens/blues/reds of mainstays such as Balta’s Wellington Wilton and Super Wiltax have now been overtaken (for us at least) by these new, more subtle ranges. I know Wiltax is a major seller, but the figures are skewed by commercial sales – I’m talking purely domestic here.

One of the best examples is Balta’s Classique Wilton. It’s a very varied range, with a pindot,  a small square motif a floral ‘ispahan’ style design and a lovely panel which is shown below:

It works for heavy domestic (yes, really) and general contract wear would be fine. It weighs in at 1650gr/m2, which I believe is around 50 oz in old money, with an 8mm pile height. It’s 4 metres wide only (when will Balta match Lano’s 5 metre wide Wiltons?) and is 100% Polypropylene.

It looks good, feels good and fills a bit of a void. It will retail at between £18 and £27 per metre** I would say and is reasonably good value at that kind of price. There is a ‘big brother’ of this product that Balta have launched, called ‘Vintage Wilton’ and we will take a look at that very shortly on this blog.

We recently fitted 3 new retirement apartments in the same complex in this range, so it’s definitely appealing to our slightly more senior customers. I was dubious about displaying too much pattern in the shop this year, because last year less than 5% of our carpets sold were patterned (wilton, axminster, cut pile print) and that came as a real shock when we looked at it. However, we’ve left a fair amount of pattern on display and while it doesn’t really fully justify the amount of space we give it, it doesn’t do too badly – especially considering the recession we are troubled by currently.

** Why are my prices on here so vague? A couple of reasons really. I don’t want to ‘unveil’ the trade price (in spite of a large number of emails to me, I refuse to do this!) and also there is a huge variation regionally in carpet prices.

Remember though that if you are buying carpet (or any flooring) then the only price that really matters is the fully fitted price. Don’t be fooled by low prices on ‘offers’ by traders – you have to make sure that those artificially low prices actually translate into a competitive fully fitted price.

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Penhurst Wilton by Lano Carpets

Recently I was quite critical of a Wilton range by Lano Carpets, called ‘Ceylon’. I wasn’t thrilled by the design or value of the product and I thought that its only real saving grace was that it was available in both 4m and extra wide 5m rolls.

Contrast that with a brand new range I’ve just received from the same manufacturer called ‘Penhurst Wilton’. It’s in two designs, a small motif square design and an all-over flowery ‘Ispahan’ design.

It handles very well and the colours and designs are sharp and on the money. There’s some lovely browns, a gorgeous blue and the natural tones are highlighted by the clever use of colour within the pattern itself. It works well and really stands out. Where carpets like this often fall short is that the patterns are insipid and dull – this breaks that trend.

Undoubtedly, Wiltons like this one inevitably sell a lot less than they once did these days, but this is a clear effort to stem the tide. Lano have added the ‘Stainless’ badge to this one and backed it up with a 10 Year Warranty and the promise that it is ‘Bleach Cleanable’ – be careful with your Domestos though!

I do like this carpet and I expect it to sell well. It should go out at around £18-£25 per square metre and is man-made from 100% Heatset Polypropylene. For an equivalent wool product (assuming you actually like wool) I think you would be likely to be at least £10 per square metre more.

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Lano Carpets and 5m Wide Wilton

The last few years has seen the explosion of choice available in 5m wide domestic carpet. Mostly these have been twists and berber, with the odd saxony and print thrown in for good measure. Where once I would be looking for the best place to position the seams for the customer, now I lazily show them 5m wide carpets and that usually does the trick.

Ceylon Wilton 5m Wide

Until now I had never seen a 5m wide Wilton. I’d read that Ceylon from Lano Carpets was coming out 5m wide, but now we have seen both this and another range from Lano, which a Headlam Group sales rep showed me this week.

The problem I have with them is price. We really need to be selling this out at £27+ per metre. To me that is over the top for the quality of the carpet – it’s just not worth it. Speaking impartially and looking at what else is around at what price, this carpet should be being retailed at £16-£18 per metre tops. If you have £27 per metre to spend on a carpet then this is not a great choice in my opinion. You can buy an Axminster for a little more and have yourself an 80/20 that will outlast this polypropylene Wilton comfortably.

Lano seem to be backing this to sell big for them and I will be surprised if it does. A rep for an Axminster manufacturer came in last week and I showed him the Lano and told him the price and he immediately told me that he did a nice 80/20 Axminster for £2 per metre more and he’d whisk me up some samples as soon as possible. I couldn’t argue with his reasoning.

Only around 2-3 years ago we were selling Wilton very simiar to this for £16-£17 a metre and it was hardly flying out of the door back then. The escalation in the price of a style of carpet in decline is staggering to me. On top of that we are now pretty much bereft of any budget Wilton to show our elderly customers who aren’t looking to break the bank (we used to call it Granny Carpet). All the stuff we could sell between £10-£15 a metre is now no more – it wasn’t great but it served a purpose and filled a real hole in the market.

Nice Ad

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