The South West’s biggest independent furniture retailer Fairway Furniture has been hit by devastating flooding at its flagship Plymouth store less than a year after its £1.5m refurbishment was completed.
Overnight on the 28th August, the Met Office reported an exceptional weather event localised over Plymouth which deposited 42mm of rainfall in just one hour – and 56mm across three hours – overwhelming an extensive network of storm drains designed to protect the store.
The sheer volume of water – estimated at almost 190,000l – rose to over a foot deep along the main entrance side of the store and overnight spread throughout the 30,000 sqft location, causing extensive damage to the fabric of the building and the shopfittings installed during the refurbishment programme. There was also significant damage to the store’s product displays.
The store team, supplemented by staff drafted in from other sites alongside local flood restoration specialist Richfords, worked throughout Friday 29th August to remove the floodwater and begin a drying-out programme, and the store reopened to customers on Saturday 30th August.
MD Peter Harding comments:; “Having made such a large investment into our flagship store, it is devastating to see so much damage. This type of unprecedented weather event delivered such vast quantities of water over such a short time that it overwhelmed our storm drain system designed to cope with a once-in-40-year such event.
"I would like to pay tribute to our dedicated store team, those from our other sites and the teams from Richfords who all worked so hard to make sure we could reopen the following day, albeit with the store looking rather less pristine than it should.
"We are working with our insurers Aviva on completing the drying-out process, after which we will be scheduling works to restore the shopfittings and store displays back to the clean, modern and high-quality style as they were when installed less than a year ago. For our customers, they can be assured that the vast majority of product ranges remain on display and Fairway Furniture, 184 Billacombe Road, Plymouth, PL9 7HE will be here to serve them ‘come rain or shine’, now and in the future, as the South West’s leading independent furniture retailer.”
Founded in Plymouth in 1856, Fairway Furniture is the trading name of Harding & Sons, a sixth-generation family business among the oldest furniture retailers in the UK. It has stores across Devon and Cornwall – alongside a growing ecommerce offer – all of which offer nationwide delivery.
Annual sales are approaching £12m and the company currently employs 65 people across its five sites.
