The Cotswold Company, a leading British online retailer specialising in oak, pine and painted furniture, has today announced impressive festive sales – up 44.4% over the 13 weeks up to the 25th December – signalling a positive outlook for 2021.
To give context, gross orders for 2020 totalled £21,988,264 versus £15,229,427 in 2019. This despite a backdrop of a global pandemic and UK port congestion, bodes well for The Cotswold Company’s future success and growth. With consumers moving to support smaller, independent brands employing staff in the UK and British resourced materials over the last year, this is further encouragement for the online furniture retailer.
When comparing like-for-like sales percentages over Christmas, this puts The Cotswold Company ahead of Asos, Hotel Chocolat, Lidl, Dunhelm and Halfords. (Based on figures reported by Retail Week.)
CEO Ralph Tucker, who was appointed in February 2020, said “Christmas 2020 was like no other and, as we have throughout the year, we prioritised the safety and well-being of our colleagues and our customers whilst pulling together to deliver another impressive set of sales figures for The Cotswold Company. This is something I and the team are incredibly proud of. The Christmas period is always busy for us, but with a continued consumer shift to online shopping last year, this 44.4% increase fills me with encouragement for the future growth of the company.
Our business strategy has been and always will be to provide timeless, lasting furniture at a great price. This commitment to producing quality home pieces is why we have a loyal customer base that has grown exponentially over recent years. These 2020 Christmas sales figures provide me with further evidence that we have the potential to dominate the online furniture category. With bricks and mortar stores being shut for large parts of 2020, we understand that some new customers have experienced a digital-first way to shop for furniture for the first time and I believe the majority will have adopted a new way of purchasing.
Also consumer buying habits are changing, with the UK public making the decision to purchase from smaller, independent brands rather than big retailers and in turn support UK manufacturing and artisans. We expect to see this behaviour continue which is great news in building a diversified market and helping independent businesses to flourish.
Looking ahead, we are proud to say that in 2021 we will be planting trees to help offset our carbon footprint. We will plant over 50,000 trees, the majority within the UK, offsetting 20,000 tonnes of carbon.
Over the past 12 months, whilst we take great pride in our overseas partners, we have made a commitment to further champion British product. This is best displayed in our new luxury mattress range – The Pure Natural Collection. All elements for these mattresses are produced in the UK and assembled by a team of expert artisans at a small factory in Dartmoor. We use only the highest grade of natural Dartmoor wool from a privately owned family farm with over 100 years of experience in natural sheep farming.”
Founded in 1996, The Cotswold Company crafts forever furniture. Effortless yet beautiful designs, dynamic practicality, and real affordability is in everything the furniture experts do. The company is a family run business, based in Dartmoor, producing some of its goods including a new collection of luxury mattresses from a single workshop using a small number of skilled artisans. In addition, The Cotswold Company supports British products and suppliers wherever possible, using British wool within its mattresses and British Steel within its furniture.
Please do let me know if you would like to discuss these festive sales figures with The Cotswold Company team. I would be more than happy to set up an interview regarding Christmas sales, continued year on year growth, why independent brands are doing so well during the pandemic and the importance of investing in British products and services during Brexit.
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