Karl Walker, Managing Director at sofa manufacturer Lebus Upholstery, reflects on the recent January Furniture Show, changes within its senior management team and how this shapes the business for future growth.
The January Furniture Show 2025 marked a number of key moments for Lebus Upholstery. The business expanded its product offering significantly while in terms of personnel, it was the final JFS for furniture industry veteran and Director of Sales, John Wakeman, ahead of his retirement.
John’s time isn’t exactly over at Lebus just yet though, as he will remain in a consultancy capacity for the year while the company transitions its senior management team, which also includes a couple of other retirements too.
Karl explained: “2025 brings considerable change within our senior management structure. John Brewster, our long serving Operations Director, retired in February after over 30 years with the business. John was part of the original team which steered Lebus out of administration in 2005, after the demise of Christie Tyler, and oversaw the tripling of production over the next decade.
“The company wish him well in retirement and acknowledge that the business would not be what it is today without the “JB factor”.”
John is replaced in the Operational Director role by Eddie Flude, a highly experienced production professional with a lifetime of furniture experience, most recently as Operations Director overseeing the DFS production facilities. “Eddie has fitted seamlessly into the role and adds considerable strength to the new Board moving forward,” Karl added, continuing: “Meanwhile, our other John (Wakeman) also retired in February after 12 years with the business.
“John played a key role in the growth of our independent sector and the development of our sales force. John remains in contact with the business should we require his expertise in the future and is succeeded by Jamie Carney as National Sales Manager.
“Jamie has worked in Lebus for over 30 years in both operational, upholstery and sales roles, with his success in the Yorkshire/Northeast territory having been exemplary and we wish him every success in his new role.”
During JFS, the Lebus sales team presented John Wakeman with some professional oil paints and a desk top easel, led by Lebus’ recently crowned Sales Person of the Year 2024, Anthony Quinlan. Another retirement announcement comes from Jim Morey, Lebus’ longstanding Southern Agent, who retired at the end of 2024.
Karl said: “Jim had been with the business for over 27 years and made huge contributions to the growth of the business over that period. We are delighted to have secured the services of Manu Mediratta to replace Jim in the Southwest area. Manu has already made significant inroads into the territory and will be a great addition to the team.”
From people back to products, Karl said that JFS was a positive show for Lebus. “JFS turned out to be exceptional. We broadened our product offer considerably with many models and features which would not have been associated with the Lebus offer.
“This certainly resonated with our customers as we achieved very strong depth and width of distribution across the country. We were mindful that we had to maintain our value ethos and managed to achieve many key price points, which again appealed. The follow ups post show have also been very encouraging.”
The success comes off the back of a “challenging” year for the business and industry as a whole, with Karl indicating that significant changes within the customer base and the inevitable slowing of consumer demand has presented a constant challenge the sector. However, with a bumper JFS under Lebus’ belt, the year ahead looks promising despite further challenges to combat.
“While we have maintained much of our capacity throughout the year it has been at the cost of margin, Karl said. “The year has started strong with order intake back to 21/22 levels, which reflects the huge amount of groundwork we did during 2024 and we are cautiously looking to expand our capacity further as the current growth looks ingrained.
“However, the clouds on the horizon are coming from Government with the National Insurance (NI) increases, above inflation minimum wage, high interest rates and stubborn inflation, which hardly create the environment for companies like ours to make large investments in this climate. It is inevitable that prices will head north from April. My belief is that we are uniquely positioned to maintain our competitive and value proposition.”
