Sofa giant succumbs: DeCoro ceases trading and production stops at vast Chinese plants

16th January | upholstery | One of the first companies to put Chinese furniture manufacturing on the world map has ceased trading. Sofa manufacturer DeCoro has been the subject of intense rumour regarding its financial position for nearly a year following the collapse of two of its major US stockists.

The firm’s owner Luca Ricci has always fiercely denied the rumours, but it is now thought that he and other members of the management team have returned to Europe and that production has stopped at the company’s two vast factories in Shenzhen, which together cover 2.9m sq ft.

The UK retail fallout from DeCoro’s collapse will be limited, as 90% of the company’s business was in the USA. However, some containers with DeCoro stock are currently at UK ports awaiting onward delivery to retail stockists. It is also understood that the firm’s exhibition space at Interiors Birmingham next week has now been taken by the JDP Group.

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Read the BBC’s interview with Luca Ricci in DeCoro’s heyday back in 2003
Ricci denies rumours of DeCoro troubles again (November 2008)