UK furniture making in numbers, 2026

The industry

FIRA's spring 2026 statistics digest gives these figures for UK furniture making:

• about 6,700 furniture manufacturing businesses, employing around 72,000 people
• UK manufacturers' sales of £10.8 billion in 2024
• a wider furniture sector worth more than £39 billion in 2023, employing more than 235,000 people
• household spending on furniture and furnishings up 3.2% to £20.15 billion in 2025
• furniture exports up 4.7% in 2025, faster than imports

FIRA's autumn 2025 digest put the UK's furniture trade deficit for 2024 at £7 billion, with China supplying about 40% of imports.

The contract sector

Commercial Interiors UK, the trade body for contract furnishing, was known until 2022 as the British Contract Furnishing Association. Its 2026 survey of accredited members, with 67 responses, found that:

• three in four (74.6%) name hospitality as their main market
• one in four supply furniture
• 85% export
• the supply chain is the most-cited challenge, ahead of energy costs and tariffs

The association estimates its members' combined turnover at more than £2.8 billion.

Where we fit

We are an accredited member of Commercial Interiors UK and a manufacturer member of the British Furniture Association. Our sofas, sofa beds, beds, headboards, tub chairs, footstools and banquettes are made in our own workshops in Salford and Blackburn, employing over 65 people across the two sites. How we work.