The recent boom in housing has led to an increase in consumer enthusiasm for home furnishings, with chains such as B&Q and Homebase greatly benefiting from a marked rise in sales. In turn, this factor has led to huge improvements in the economy as a whole, with consumers now much more willing to spend on bigger ticket items rather than choosing to save for a rainy day.
In fact, furniture and carpet sales have now reached their highest levels of sales growth in 17 years, largely fuelled by a lift in consumer confidence. According to a survey from the CBI, 100 per cent of furniture and carpet retailers surveyed had seen their sales increase in the past month – something which has not happened since August 1996.
This had a rejuvenating effect upon the retail industry as a whole, with overall sales rising at their quickest rate since June of last year. 46 per cent of retailers questioned reported a rise in sales, and despite 12 per cent claiming their sales have dropped in the past month this still leaves a healthy positive balance of 34 per cent – indicating that recovery has truly begun in earnest.
Chair of the CBI’s survey panel, Barry Williams, says; “It’s encouraging to see the high street on the road to recovery, with particularly strong growth from furniture and carpet retailers, department stores and recreational goods retailers.”
With these good results forecast to last into the Christmas trading period and potentially even beyond, retailers nationwide will be breathing a sigh of relief that the worst of the economic difficulties seem to be over. Hopefully, other areas of the retail industry will also experience growth of this magnitude and will therefore be able to reverse the damage done to ailing high streets across the UK.
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