In the next part of our ongoing sustainable series, furniture retailer Furniture Village and Flair Furniture, a Yorkshire-based furniture retail group trading as Bed Kingdom, both share its latest sustainability updates.
Furniture Village
Furniture Village detailed its latest progress on sustainability within its most recent results. For the year ended June 2024, total sales reached £348.9m, with order intake up 3% on a like-for-like basis in 2024. EBITDA resulted at £16.3m, up from £15.8m, while margin improved from 46% to 47.8%. The business ended the year with a cash balance of £40.6m, up from £35.2m.
Regarding its eco-efforts, Furniture Village has signed up to the British Retail Consortium Climate Action Roadmap, which is the retail industry’s commitment to deliver net zero in their own operations and the products they sell by 2040. “We are currently on track to deliver on our own commitment to be net zero,” the retailer said.
The business continues to monitor consumption on a monthly basis and remains committed to implementing additional efficiency opportunities as they arise. “All our new stores have been entirely illuminated by LED lighting since 2015 and in 2022/23 we replaced fluorescent lighting with LEDs at five additional stores,” Furniture Village said. “During 2023/24, we successfully converted 11 stores to full LED lighting with 20 more stores similarly converted by the end of Q1 2024/25.
“In addition, three of our fulfillment sites are fully illuminated by LED lighting and we are working o what is required at the remaining eight fulfillment sites currently using incandescent lighting in order to upgrade these to 100% LED lighting and bring the same energy efficiency benefits to this side of the business and complete our entire estate’s transition to full LED lighting.”
In October 2024, Furniture Village renewed its electricity supply contract for a period of two years with the supply again purchased via Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin. “We are also working with our energy consultants in relation to subscribing to a web portal solution that should enable almost immediate access to consumption data in order to better monitor our use and identify potential issues/opportunities.”
Furthermore, the business has continued to renew its entire car fleet to electric, which contributes to maintaining low emissions. The retailer said: “Following on from the work we did last year, replacing vehicles to achieve better fuel efficiencies, we continue to improve our telematics, with enhanced feedback on driver behaviours. This has helped us identify improvements in road speeds, awareness, braking techniques and idling times, thus reducing our carbon footprint event further.
“We have made productive steps with electric commercial vehicles by trialling vehicles from two manufacturers. We are about to commence trials with two more manufacturers and are excited to be close to making the step into commercial electric vehicles for home delivery in Furniture Village.”
Flair Furniture / Bed Kingdom
Flair Furniture, a Yorkshire-based furniture retail group trading as Bed Kingdom, was recently named one of Yorkshire’s fastest-growing companies, featuring on this year’s regional Ward Hadaway Fastest 50 list.
The Fastest 50 list celebrates the region’s fastest-growing businesses, with Flair Furniture securing its place thanks to significant growth and strong financial performance. Bed Kingdom was also named in last year’s list but has significantly climbed the rankings this year and is listed at 18th place out of 50 after achieving an average turnover growth of 50.77% – climbing from 45th position in 2024.
“The past few years have been a period of growth for Flair Furniture and Bed Kingdom. We are thrilled to be recognised in the Ward Hadaway Fastest 50 Awards,” said Ashley Hainsworth, Managing Director of Flair Furniture. “In recent years, we’ve also been able to reinvest in the business and open a new warehouse in Heckmondwike that enables us to hold more products in stock and significantly speed up customer deliveries. We’ve also been able to create new jobs in the region and expand our product offering into living room furniture and sofas.”
The furniture group is also increasing its focus on sustainability – working with more European suppliers to minimise the carbon footprint of products and expanding its Noomi range, which features FSC-certified products made from ethically sourced Scandinavian pine.
“Like many others we are adapting our packaging for all of our products to remove polystyrene completely,” the company added. “We are offering the customers the option for furniture repair where possible instead of just simply replacing items. The warehouse has recently made changes to reuse and recycle palettes to significantly reduce resource usage.
“Every Noomi order (Bed Kingdom’s range of sustainable range of FSC-certified bedroom furniture) protects five trees with One Tribe. With the success of the Noomi mattresses now being one of our most popular offerings – we are going to expand and invest in developing other sustainable bedding items such as toppers, and pillows.”
The e-commerce retailer also plans to install solar panels at the warehouse to sustain the building’s energy supply and will invest in a fleet of electric delivery vans in the near future.
