Midlands independent maintains margins with sales creeping above £16.4m

25th September 2009 | retail | Fourth generation furniture independent Lee Longlands will maintain and possibly extend its strategy of opening clearance stores as it recorded its third successive positive profits return since its reorganisation in May of 2006.

The firm, a pillar of independent furniture retail in Central England, grew sales fractionally to £16.4m to the end of May and now has three clearance outlets, in Reading, Milton Keynes and Merry Hill, running alongside its other stores in Leamington Spa, Abingdon, Birmingham, and Cheltenham.

It made a pre-tax profit of £14,656, although this is thought to include a substantial £300k+ rental payment to its parent firm Lee Longland Holdings. In the three years to May 2006, pre-tax losses ranged from £259k to £1.21m. Back in 2004, the firm's turnover was £14.57m.