27% of top 500 furniture and flooring firms in the UK are running at a loss

10th November 2009 | data | Of the top 500 British furnishing firms by sales volumes, almost a third made a loss in their latest financial year - with a further 90 companies reporting a pre-tax margin of between breakeven and 2%.

The research, compiled as part of the Furnishing Report Premier subscription service, covers accounts for financial periods ending between January 2008 and November 2009, suggesting the real time situation may be far worse, as many companies are yet to record numbers for the period following the start of the recession.

The combined turnover of the top 500 companies is £24.3bn* - who together produced a total £183.2m pre-tax profit, giving the UK furnishings trade a measly 0.07% pre-tax return for its efforts.

* figure includes parent companies and their subsidiary undertakings, and will be higher than other reported values of the UK furnishings industry as it includes the combined turnover of both suppliers and retailers - some of which will be trading with each other.