more customers, realising they were still in work, decided they could once again open their wallets, but what is going on in the floor covering marketplace? Palmer Market Research have for thirty years been monitoring the flooring industry and in a recent report had both good and bad news. The good news is that there has been an upturn in the last two years with the market growing by 5%. This, however, needs to been seen in context as the current figure of a market size of 66.1 million sq. m. compares less favourably to that of 2007 which was then 78.50 million sq. m. The forecast report for the next four years is varied as Palmer reports that there is to be a fall away in 2014 followed by a slow growth through 2016 ending up with a slightly smaller market than quoted in the 2012 report. It may now be time to reconsider your future plans, particularly if you specialise largely in domestic carpet cleaning. Now might be the time to redouble any effort you are putting into
commercial carpet cleaning. There has been a reasonably strong growth in carpet tiles in offices, so marketing to Facility Managers might be something to consider and there has also been a growth in the sales of fitted carpets to the leisure industry where, as you know, they are likely to be subject to heavy use and require regular cleaning. Going back to the subject of high street shops, we see that not all retail store chains are suffering, so is there anything we can we learn from the more successful companies? On the one hand there are the discount shops like the pound shops and my personal favourite, TK Maxx and supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi. However, others such as Halfords and John Lewis are also clearly prospering. So is there anything we can emulate? Certainly, some of these retailers represent the perceived saving of money when shopping, which Continued on next page
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