UK Upholstered Furniture & Beds Market to See 2% Growth by 2028 Amid Shifting Consumer Demands

The UK upholstered furniture and beds market is forecasted to have a marginal increase of +2% in 2028. The 16^th edition of the UK upholstered furniture and beds market report presents our forecast from 2024 to 2028 for the following products:

• Upholstered furniture – the product mix includes sofas, armchairs, sofa beds and convertibles, and action or motion furniture.
• Beds and mattresses – the product mix includes mattresses, bedsteads, headboards and bedstead ends, bunkbeds, adjustable/electric beds, children’s beds and cots, and hideaway/fold-away/guest beds.

Upholstered Furniture and Beds Market Landscape

The upholstered furniture and beds market has been impacted by recent economic shocks and uncertainties. Nonetheless, the improvement of the economic situation, particularly lowering interest rates, may have a positive effect on consumer expenditures thanks to potential improvements in the UK housing construction market.

A mature market with well-established companies, price competition is fierce in this market, and low-cost imports puts further pressure on UK manufacturers. New consumer demographics and characteristics are causing shifts in the upholstered furniture and beds market.

Further, distribution channels continue to develop new solutions to appeal to customers and compete with internet shopping. In the midst of on-going economic uncertainty, we expect the market to experience slow growth until 2028, with sustainability at the forefront of innovations.  

Market Driven by Consumer Demands

The upholstered furniture and beds market is driven by consumer confidence.

Following economic disruptions, starting in 2019, the market experienced a sharp decline in 2020 – -20% marginal growth, and picked up in 2021 – +24%, after a period of economic recovery. Despite recent economic uncertainties continuing to impact household expenditures, the market is expected to stabilise itself in the next five years with a marginal growth of +2% in 2028 reaching £2,025m Manufacturer Selling Price (MSP).

New trade agreements with non-EU countries may bring more opportunities for market actors in the future. The cost-of-living crisis impacted consumers expenditures, with high levels of inflation experienced in 2022, which had a strong impact on the market.

Additionally, consumer characteristics are changing in the housing sector, in turn impacting expenditures on household furnishing and furniture through different effects observed in this report edition. For instance, multi-generational household is increasing faster than single person household, whilst living space in UK houses is shrinking, thus impacting the type of product purchased and replacement cycles.

Technological development in the UK aims at accelerating the manufacturing process to compete with high levels of low-cost imports, but also new features to increase product comfort, convenience, and extend design ranges.

Finally, consumer awareness is high in this market, and sustainability strongly influences consumer decisions. Therefore, the upholstered furniture and beds market sees a push, mainly from manufacturers and suppliers, for ESG actions and sustainable supply chains, with certification schemes playing an important part in this phenomenon.

The upholstered furniture market remains larger than the beds market, although the beds market retained greater stability throughout past and current economic uncertainties.

With consumer characteristics changing, the upholstered furniture market product and material mix is slowly shifting towards contemporary, and more modular, designs, with an additional focus on storage.

Price competition is strong, and imports retain a large part of the market, particularly for the upholstered furniture market. Comfort and design options are important sales drivers in the beds and mattresses market, although product convenience is now also a feature of this market.

Major Players in the Report

In the upholstered furniture market, major manufacturers include TCM Living Ltd, Belfield Group Ltd, 1869 Ltd, and DFS Trading Ltd. In the beds and mattresses market, leading suppliers are Silentnight Group Ltd, Tempur UK Ltd, Hypnos Ltd, Harrison Spinks Beds Ltd, and Sleepeezee Holdings Ltd.

Distribution Channel Analysis

The distribution of upholstered furniture and beds in the UK is dominated by three different channels – furniture multiples specialists, furniture multiples general, and digital and multi-channel retailers operating through mail order, catalogue stores and internet.

Besides these three channels, upholstered furniture and beds can also be distributed by department stores, variety stores, furniture independents, direct sales, DIY outlets, and grocery stores.

Internet shopping has grown over the past five years, and considering the maturity of this market, we find more and more distributors focusing on niche products.

Nonetheless, in-person shopping remains a strong feature of the upholstered furniture and beds as it inspires but also allows a feel of the product. Thus, distributors are expected to enable consumers’ vision through different product display methods.

Major furniture multiples specialising in upholstered furniture and beds products are DFS Furniture PLC, Sofology, and Dreams PLC; and for furniture multiples operating as general furnishers, we find IKEA Ltd, Furniture Village Ltd, and Dunelm (Soft Furnishings) Ltd as important player in the UK market.

Regarding digital, catalogue, and mail order retailers, some major distributors include Argos Ltd, LW Holdings Ltd, Freemans Grattan Holdings Ltd, and Wayfair (UK) Ltd.

Upholstered Furniture and Beds Market Projections from Barbour ABI

Since 2020, we notice an upward trend in the housing construction market.

Considering the UK’s housing shortage, new public and private housing is in demand, and following restrictions in 2019, RMI work has been significantly growing in the past five years.

Therefore, with a projected growth in the housing construction sector, although slow due to on-going economic uncertainty, and the usual furniture expenditures associated with new housing and RMI work, we project stability for the upholstered furniture and beds and mattresses markets in the next five years.

We expect the beds and mattresses to have a larger marginal growth of +3% in 2028, compared to the upholstered furniture market with a marginal growth of +2% in 2028.  In the short-term at least, both markets remain challenged by growing import prices, high energy costs, and a particularly competitive environment. To differentiate themselves, market actors may focus on design and trends, convenience, and comfort to appeal to customers.

Finally, we notice innovations in the mattress sector, pushed onto the markets by new entrants, as well as changing market practices, impacting materials for instance, caused by a push for sustainability.