Sandra Humble, director of retailer Linthorpe Beds and guest Bed Expert, talks about changing colours, bed sizes and natural product fillings.
Goodbye 2024
Well, that’s another year done and dusted, was it good, or indifferent for you? It was pretty good for us at Linthorpe Beds. As ever, the retail bed market remains like the British weather, unpredictable! But we thrive on that and quickly move with trends as and when the customer demands.
Design and customer preferences
At the beginning of the year there was still the “sea of grey” upholstered bases, headboards and bed-frames but by the end of the year subtle changes are at last on the horizon going towards the warmer neutrals of beige, caramels and creams. My research has led me to believe this will become more and more apparent right through 2025 and accent colours being more earthy tones of greens, tans and terracotta.
The mattress side of the business is still varied from customer to customer however more and more customers now ask more questions about sustainability and where the “internal fillings come from. Does size matter? Oh yes, apparently it does, the customer is wanting larger beds as we are finding that 5’ is now the most popular size people are wanting for their master bedroom and those who can take a bigger bed have no hesitation on going for 6’ sizes.
Plant base products and the natural sourced fillings are both in high demand but don’t let us forget the foam products that the customer still loves, so all I can say it’s a very mixed bag.
In 2025, for our bricks and mortar stores we will continue to gradually bring in the new of colours and models as and when the suppliers have their full colour swatch and fillings available – it had been slower than normal due to supplier issues with the new colours.
For our online offering this is an easier job as we don’t have to sell off the old merchandise which is quite challenging to say the least.
2025
We at Linthorpe Beds have had our best year ever, led by our new Managing Director Cherelle Curtis, who is definitely bringing in a fresh new feel to the company. We have just finished giving our flagship store at Portrack Lane, Stockton, a new roof and a general face lift throughout giving the store an even better and modern look. During 2025 we will be looking to complete the same at our other two branches at Bishop Auckand and Darlington.
2024 brought us a new government with some very challenging changes to the payroll for 2025, which will affect everyone in retail and warehousing. The changes in IHT, will this lead to the silver pound being spent or saved? Some are saying they are going to spend, spend, spend as their estate is over the threshold while others are saying they are just going to ride the storm. Like I said at the beginning, like the British weather, unpredictable!
So, to round up, the changes for 2025 include:
New colours.
New offerings for mattress fillings.
New Director.
New Government.
New Employee rates of pay on NI contributions.
Happy New Year Everyone!
