Growth in new markets key for manufacturer Graham & Brown
LANCASHIRE wall coverings manufacturer Graham & Brown is expecting trading to be flat this year, before investment in fast-growing international markets starts to bear fruit in 2014.
The family-owned Blackburn company, which has 600 staff in the town, exports to 75 countries, said demand in its home market and in Europe was recovering slowly after the recession.
G&B said it had continued its drive into Eastern Europea by opening a further showroom in Baku, the oil-rich Azerbaijan capital, under its strategic partnership with OMID. The retail store is Graham & Brown’s sixth in the country and biggest.
It has also said it had opened its eighth international sales office in Melbourne, Australia, to service its expanding relationship with Bunnings, the country’s largest hardware retailer. Its small Chinese business has grown sales over 30% in the current year.
Despite traction in emerging markets, the business however said demand in major European economies remained weak overall, while the UK – which accounts for 48% is still in recovery.
As a result, the group, which generated total sales of £87.8m last year, said it expected overall trading to be broadly flat over 2013, before improving in 2014.
The group said its profit improvement in 2012, when operating profit increased to £6m from £1m in the previous year thanks to restructuring and cost reduction measures, had enabled it to continue investing both in the UK and overseas to drive long-term growth this year.
Chief executive Andrew Graham said: “Our principal focus remains the delivery of our strategy, which is about securing incremental growth in established markets and long-term sales growth in key emerging markets. We’re confident that the global strength of our “Made in Britain”, design-led brand and our expanding global footprint will help us achieve this.
“Closer to home in the UK and continental Europe, we expect any recovery in the home decoration market to be slow and steady rather than fast and furious.”
He added: “We’ve made significant investment for growth in the last year, including a new logistics and distribution centre and an international website due for launch in October. We’re confident this will help us take the Graham & Brown brand to more customers in more markets across more channels in 2014 and beyond.”
The company’s flagship Graham & Brown brand includes ranges developed with designers including Kelly Hoppen, Barbara Hulanicki, Marcel Wanders, Julien Macdonald, Steve Leung, Wayne Hemmingway and Laurence Llewlyn-Bowen. It also owns the Superfresco and Contour brands.
It operates 280,000 sq ft manufacturing, design, marketing and logistics facilities in Blackburn, as well as sales offices in the US, France, Holland, Russia, Canada, Australia, Dubai and China.
