How is the bespoke fitted furniture market faring in these difficult economic times?
Certainly the market has suffered, along with all the other home improvements during the recession and has been particularly affected by the downturn in the housing market. As always we have had a long hiatus while people consider whether to move house or extend or improve the home they already have. I call this the change over from movers to improvers and over time although the proportion in each camp will vary the size of the market seems to stay much the same. However with the uncertainty over job prospects and the tighter restrictions on lending, even the improvers are a little reluctant to show their hands.
Statistics are hard to find on this little niche of ours because what we do is specifically bespoke and fitted but spreads across several much larger markets, including bedrooms, home offices, living rooms, home entertainment units and home cinema.
The largest market segment for fitted furniture is in kitchens but it is a segment that we barely touch upon.
The only relevant market in which I can find any meaningful statistics is the bedroom furniture in which the fitted or built in part is relatively small, albeit growing. In 2009 the total UK market for bedroom furniture was estimated to be in the order of £620 million, down 10% on 2008 and projected to reach £635 million in 2010. These figures are for fitted and free standing bedroom furniture of all qualities and include imported as well as home manufactured. This does not give us a value for the bespoke, built-in market or for fitted furniture in other rooms of the house but it probably a reasonable extrapolation to assume that our particular niche will have been affected similarly and our experience suggests that this is the general trend.
Unfortunately, I cannot find any useful data for 2007 and before but my guess is that, given the demise of some of the major players who made up the overall market (MFI in particular) and numerous smaller players who have sadly folded their tents and crept away, that the total market has probably shrunk by between 20 and 30% since the height of the property boom and will take years to recover it’s former strength.
However, the anecdotal evidence suggests that we are turning a corner and, particularly at the luxury end of the market there is everything to play for.
I know that high earners like bankers and senior executives have taken a battering in the press and that many of them feel beleaguered but whatever the excesses, there can be no doubt that these are the people that, along with sports heroes and pop stars, who spend the most on their homes and will, hopefully, be buying high quality bespoke fitted furniture in the recovery years. I for one look forward to the trickle down effect to us who are further down the food chain.
