Flooring supplier braced for record sales during second lockdown

The head of one of the UK’s biggest online flooring retailers has said the company is braced for one of its busiest months in business as households once again return to lockdown.

Paul Hambidge, founder and managing director of Nuneaton-based Factory Direct Flooring, has predicted that November will show a 70% increase in business to last year, based on the last quarter of trading in 2020.

This has followed a 50% increase in October and September trading, with profits looking to exceed half a year’s business from 2019 in just three months alone.

“From September to now is historically the busiest months for us anyway, but this is almost off the scale in terms of sales, which is just incredible for us all. And most importantly, it has meant I’ve been able to keep our entire workforce working for the last four months, when I know a lot of other businesses are unfortunately struggling due to the Covid-19 crisis,” he said.

Hambidge has added to cope with demand, the company doubled its stock levels.

“To put it in perspective, we used to have two trucks a week coming into the UK with laminate flooring, but currently that now stands at around seven a week. And with our new herringbone flooring, we have nearly sold out and have thousands of metres on order from customers across the UK.

“It really is incredible and people are looking to transform their whole homes, literally from the floor up on the run up to Christmas, and while some people have a bit more unscheduled time on their hands.”

Factory Direct Flooring, which has been running alongside its sister company Carpet World, for 32 years, has a retail store in Hinckley (which is currently closed in line with government guidelines) and warehouses in Nuneaton.

As a result of such growth over the past year-and-a-half, the company increased its warehouse storage size to 20,000 sq ft to keep up with orders.