Feeling The Heat

Welcome to the first blog from Lefton’s Furniture Group, Blackpool

We’ll keep you up to date with our special offers, promotions and anything any furniture buyer may need to know. It’s also our chance to showcase manufacturers, our new products and along the way we’ll introduce you to our staff members. In fact anything we think you should know, we’ll tell you. There may be weeks when we have a rant about things happening which affect us and in turn you, the customer, but hopefully there will be good times along the way which we can share with you.

Manufacturing in the UK has taken a severe beating during the recession with even the oldest furniture manufacturers suffering. One which certainly pulled at our heart strings was the loss of H J Berry & Sons. They had traded since 1840 and were the oldest chair manufacturer in Britain. Their product was made by skilled craftsmen and was high quality. It’s a sad loss for our store display and also to the local area as they were based not too far from us.   news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/8511825 We can only hope the election will invigorate the economy a little here in the UK .

Bad news from America shows many importers and manufacturers think the rising cost of raw materials will result in higher prices for finished goods and they are forecasting price increases of anywhere between single figures up to 15% within the next 12 months. As we all know what happens in America follows through to the UK . Although we held off as long as possible, once the VAT increase came into force together with all the notifications from manufacturers of their price increases we have had no option but to increase our prices. We do our utmost to offer the best possible price and are keeping our prices as low as we can whilst still offering good quality items, drop into the store and see for yourself or visit our website at http://www.leftonsgroup.com./

So after months of waiting the election was finally called for May 6th. Over the weekend support for the Lib Dems grew after the performance of Nick Clegg in last weeks first debate and after subsiding slightly in polls earlier this week they now have their highest support so far with 34%, a gain of 3%. The Conservative party has lost 2% of the vote and now has 31% with Labour trailing on 26% after a loss of 1% www.ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog. It’s interesting to see a report on www.google.co.uk/election2010 shows Gordon Brown and his Chancellor Alistair Darling are the most googled leader and Chancellor, however it is the Conservative Party with the most hits. Nobody seems to be doing much searching for Nick Clegg but his Chancellor Vince Cable is ahead of George Osborne for the Conservatives. Peter Mandelson was here in Blackpool last week on his campaign trail but he found time (or was it a charm offensive?) to stop off for a twirl around the dance floor of the Tower Ballroom and an ice cream at the end of the pier http://www.guardian.co.uk/.   He would certainly have had his work cut out as Blackpool is very much, or at least was at the last local elections a Conservative stronghold with a majority of 27 seats to Labour’s 12 and Lib Dem’s 3.

Whatever happens on May 6th and whoever comes out on top after all the shouting is over we can only hope the voting public are rewarded with a Government who delivers the promises they were elected on.

Good news for us – none of our staff are trapped abroad due to volcanic ash, although if the disruption carries on until weekend we may have a certain member of staff who will be having an extended holiday due to Eyjafjallajokull  http://blogs.news.sky.com/theweathergirls/Post:d0cf7a8b-c0ba-493f-8aa0-f4159cc4780d
Furniture is usually transported by land and sea so hopefully no deliveries will be delayed by this but if you are expecting furniture from us we’ll keep you informed as usual. If you are looking to furnish your home abroad you don’t need to worry when buying from Lefton’s, we use the best carriers and shipping etc so there will be no delays for any international orders due to volcanoes!! In fact we have just made a successful delivery to Marbella in Spain and the customers are delighted with their purchase of Holtkamp Moreno http://www.leftonsgroup.com/website/living/multimediaCabinets.php?catID=10&page=1

So with the UK feeling the heat of recession, the politicians feeling the heat of the election campaign and it seems a lot of the world feeling the heat of the chaos caused by Eyjafjallajokull, whatever the weather there’s certainly plenty of hot talking points at the moment.