Barker & Stonehouse opening in Midlands

Mar 27 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

BARKER & Stonehouse is expanding into the Midlands, bringing the number of outlets owned by the Middlesbrough-based furniture company to eight.

The new Nottingham store is due to open in the autumn and will site alongside existing stores in Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Gateshead, Darlington, Leeds, Knaresborough and Hull – the latter has been open for 18 months.

Managing director James Barker said: “We’re not in any great hurry to expand, we’re just doing things steadily.”

Mr Barker, whose grandfather Charles Barker co-founded the upmarket furniture firm which is still in family hands, has recently returned from a 10-day, 14-flight buying trip to the Far East, taking in Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

“It is important, there are quite a lot of exhibitions there. We’re always very interested in going there because the development is quite phenomenal,” he said. “We have development relationships with various suppliers and factories.” The business has been sourcing furniture from the Far East for around a decade and buyers also look for products worldwide. “People’s tastes are getting more diverse. They are less corralled on a particular local avenue and they are much happier to make up their own minds. They are mixing things more,” said Mr Barker.

Although furniture is often considered a “discretionary spend”, Barker & Stonehouse, which employs 380 people, is confident of weathering the credit crunch and the slowdown in the housing market. “We are reliant, to some extent, on people moving house but it works the other way too, with people buying things to furnish their homes if they are not moving,” he said. “The flip side to that is a lot of our customers will be earning quite good money on their savings.

“Things are never quite as bad as they seem. People talk themselves into situations if the media pushes the point too much.”