ScS

Last updated

ScS Group plc
Company type Public limited company
LSE:  SCS
ISIN GB00BRF0TJ56
Industry Retail
PredecessorSuite Centres Sunderland
Founded1894;130 years ago (1894)
Headquarters Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
[1]
Products Furniture
RevenueIncrease2.svg £317.4 million (2019) [1]
Increase2.svg£14.3 million (2019) [1]
Increase2.svg£11.3 million (2019) [1]
Number of employees
1,829 [1]
Website www.scs.co.uk

ScS is a home furnishings retailer in the United Kingdom, specialising in sofas, carpets and flooring, dining and occasional furniture.

Contents

History

ScS was established in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in 1894, as a family owned home furnishings store. [2] By the 1980s, there were eight ScS stores in the North East of England. [3] In 1993, a management buy out enabled the business to expand out of the region, and become a prominent upholstered furniture retailer throughout the United Kingdom, with a focus on gaining presence in large retail parks.

As part of the company's growth strategy, in 1997, the business was listed on the Official List and, as ScS Upholstery plc, was admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities. Over the following ten years, the number of ScS stores grew to 95, supported by nine distribution centres.

2007–2008: Impact of Economic Downturn

The ScS brand was adversely affected by the economic downturn in 2007 and 2008. Constraints on consumer lending and reduced disposable incomes saw a decrease in demand for ‘big-ticket’ items such as large home furnishings, manifesting in trading difficulties for ScS and pressure upon financial resources.

This was compounded by the withdrawal of credit insurance that had covered suppliers against ScS’ debt to them, and in 2008, ScS collapsed into administration. In order to generate a significant cash investment, both immediate and long term, ScS was sold to Sun Capital Partners in July 2008. [4] Under new ownership, ScS increased their share of the upholstered furniture market from 5% in 2009 to 7.9% in 2013. [5]

2011: Expansion of interest free credit

In 2011, ScS expanded their four years interest free credit offering to include all of their products.

This year also saw a change of products being offered, as carpets were also added to their core range

2014: Partnership with House of Fraser

In May 2014, a pilot partnership with United Kingdom department store chain House of Fraser commenced, [6] with ScS concessions opening in three stores in the North East of England. Following its success, the concessions were rolled out at a further thirty six House of Fraser stores, under their ‘For Living’ brand during 2014. [6] The House of Fraser For Living website was launched in September 2014.

In November 2018, this arrangement was discontinued, due to House of Fraser going into administration. They pulled out of the stores on 16 January 2019.

2015: Return to Stock Market

In January 2015, ScS returned to the stock market, [7] with an opening price of 185p an share. [8] The stock market return was directed by Alan Smith, former chief executive of Somerfield. [5]

ScS currently has 101 stores located in England, Scotland and Wales, in addition to an online store at ScS.co.uk, first available in 2009, but relaunched in July 2014.

Products

Expansion of product range and rebranding

In 2010, the ScS product range was expanded beyond upholstered furniture, to include dining and occasional furniture. The ScS product range was further expanded in 2012 to include flooring. The additions of these new products catalysed the rebranding of ScS as ‘Sofa Carpet Specialist’. [9]

Third party products

Until 2009, with the addition of La-Z-Boy products to the range, ScS sold no third party products. A second third party brand, G-Plan, was added in 2010.

Parker Knoll, the latest addition to the third party brands, was added to the range in March 2014.

Own brands

In 2010, ScS launched its first own sofa brand, SiSi Italia. A second own brand, Endurance, was added in 2012, which encompasses upholstery and flooring products. Over the following years, Inspire, Living and Signature were added along with Brand tie ins with Ideal Home, and Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upholstery</span> Covering of furniture with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather

Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebraska Furniture Mart</span> American retail store

Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) is a home furnishing store in North America that sells furniture, flooring, appliances and electronics. It is the largest of its kind in North America. NFM was founded in 1937 by Belarus-born Rose Blumkin, who was known as Mrs. B., in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Under the motto "sell cheap and tell the truth," she worked in the business until age 103. In 1983, Mrs. B. sold a majority interest to Berkshire Hathaway on a handshake deal with Warren Buffett for $60 million.

G Plan is a British furniture brand. It began as a pioneering range of furniture in the United Kingdom produced by E Gomme Ltd of High Wycombe. The success of G Plan led to E Gomme becoming one of the UK's largest furniture manufacturers, with profits increasing sixfold between 1952 and 1958 when it was floated as an IPO. Since 2005, G Plan has been a subsidiary of Sofa Brands International.

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is an American publicly traded consumer retail company that sells kitchenware and home furnishings. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. The company has 625 brick and mortar stores and distributes to more than 60 countries, with brands including Williams Sonoma, Williams Sonoma Home, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, West Elm, Mark and Graham, and Rejuvenation. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. also operates through eight corresponding websites and a gift registry.

Somerfield was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth-largest food retailer. The Somerfield name was replaced by the Co-operative brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GUS (retailer)</span> Former British retail, manufacturing and finance conglomerate

GUS plc was a FTSE 100 retailing, manufacturing and financial conglomerate based in the United Kingdom. GUS was an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's name before 2001, while it was also known as the Glorious Gussies amongst stockbrokers. The company started out as Universal Stores, a mail order business created by the Rose family. In 1931, Isaac Wolfson joined the mail order company and would, through a series of takeovers, turn it into a retail, manufacturing and financial conglomerate, becoming Europe's biggest mail order firm and with over 2,700 physical stores. His son, Leonard Wolfson, followed him as chairman, to be succeeded by his nephews David Wolfson (1996–2000) and Victor Barnett (2000–2002). During the 1980s, the business divested much of its physical retail and manufacturing subsidiaries under Leonard Wolfson to concentrate on mail order, property and finance. In October 2006, the company was split into two separate companies: Experian which continues to exist, and Home Retail Group which was bought by Sainsbury's in 2016.

La-Z-Boy Inc. is an American furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan, United States, that makes home furniture, including upholstered recliners, sofas, stationary chairs, lift chairs and sleeper sofas. The company employs more than 11,000 people.

Habitat is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DFS (furniture retailer)</span> British furniture retailer specialising in sofas

DFS Furniture plc, trading as dfs, is a furniture retailer in the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland specialising in sofas and soft furnishings. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Palliser Furniture is a family-owned furniture manufacturing company headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethan Allen (company)</span> American furniture chain

Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. is a manufacturer and retailer of home furnishings, incorporated in Delaware with executive offices in Danbury, Connecticut. As of June 30, 2023, the company reported net annual sales of $791.4 million.

B&B Italia SpA is an Italian modern furniture company whose products are sold worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Furniture Industries</span> American retailer

Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. is an American home furnishings manufacturer and retailer, headquartered in Arcadia, Wisconsin. The company is owned by father and son team Ron and Todd Wanek. Ashley Furniture manufactures and distributes home furniture products throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OMNOVA Solutions</span> American chemical company

OMNOVA Solutions Inc., is a global manufacturer of laminates, performance films and coated fabrics. OMNOVA was founded in 1999 when GenCorp spun off its Decorative & Building Products and Performance Chemicals businesses into a separate, publicly traded company. OMNOVA's world headquarters is located in Beachwood, Ohio; with additional sales, manufacturing and distribution locations throughout Europe and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allied Carpets</span>

Allied Carpets was a small retail chain specialising in floor coverings, mainly carpets (80%) and then also laminate and wood flooring and curtains, in the United Kingdom. Following financial difficulties and several changes of ownership, the company was dissolved in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stollers</span>

Stollers is a British-based home furnishings retailer. It is located at Walney Road, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is currently one of the largest single site furniture stores in the country.

Furniture Brands International, Inc., was a Clayton, Missouri-based home furnishings company. The company began in 1911 as International Shoe Company with the merger of Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company and Peters Shoe Company. In 1966 the company changed its name to Interco as the result of diversification, and once the company exited the shoe business, adopted the name Furniture Brands International. Some of the brands it owned in the furniture industry included Broyhill, Thomasville, Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Hickory Chair, Pearson, Laneventure, and Maitland-Smith. In 2013, Furniture Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell most of its divisions. New owner KPS Capital Partners announced the formation of Heritage Home Group on November 25 of that year.

Sofa.com is a UK-based company founded in 2006 whose primary business is selling sofas, sofabeds, chairs and beds online. It has 3 showrooms in London as well as Nottingham, Bath, Glasgow, Harrogate and Guildford. More recently, it has also opened concessions in some House of Fraser department stores. The company was purchased in January 2019 by Frasers Group for "a nominal sum".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arhaus</span> American furniture chain based in Ohio

Arhaus, Inc. is an American retail chain that designs and sells home furnishings online and through its retail stores and catalogs. The company is headquartered in Boston Heights, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furniture retailer</span>

A furniture retailer, furniture store or furniture shop is a retail businesses that sells furniture and related accessories. Furniture retailers usually sell general furniture, seats and upholstered suites, and specialised items produced for a commission. They may sell a range of styles to suit different homes and personal tastes, or specialise in particular styles like retro style furniture.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Csc Group Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "Company Details". ScS. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "History". ScS. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Wearden, Graeme (3 July 2008). "ScS rescue leaves shareholders in cold". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  5. 1 2 Kleinman, Mark (9 January 2015). "Ex-Somerfield Chief To Lead Sofa Chain Float". Sky News . Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  6. 1 2 Farley, Paul (23 May 2014). "House of Fraser announces brand partnership with ScS". Furniture News. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Hardesty, Jamie (28 January 2015). "Sunderland sofa firm ScS returns to the Stock Exchange". Bdaily. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "ScS stock market return opens door to retail IPOs". Retail Week . 28 January 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "Did you know... that ScS has rebranded itself as a Sofa Carpet Specialist following the introduction of carpet departments to all stores in 2012?". Retail Week . 26 April 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.