Established in 1999, Limelight Beds is a bed wholesaler based in Barwell, Leicestershire, that offers unique designs, exclusive models, a de-branded catalogue, and plain packaging to support customers’ own brands. Despite suffering some setbacks at the start of the year, Limelight is now cultivating greener pastures, sales director John Conroy tells Furniture News …
What sets Limelight’s products apart?
Our 35,000 sqft warehouse services both online and bricks-and mortar retailers. We import bed frames from factories around the world that we have long-standing relationships with, and this allows us to have full confidence in our products, which is key as a wholesaler. A manufacturer has a lot more control over their factory, so we need to make sure we work with the right companies – and all our ours have been fully audited.
On top of this, we are forward thinking. We aren’t looking to jump on a bandwagon and follow what everyone else is doing, we want other companies to follow us. We’re always thinking about where fabrics are going, what shapes are coming into fashion (and what’s going out!).
Our big focus currently is looking at more eco-friendly and sustainable products, and space-saving models. We recently launched a new clic-clac sofabed that has a smaller base to allow it to be a sofa in its day-to-day use, and added hidden legs to support it when it needs to be a bed. We’re always looking to try something new.
What prompted Limelight to become FSC certified, and how straightforward was the process?
Our largest customer approached us to source an exclusive range of bed frames, and they wanted to follow through their company-wide sustainable sourcing strategy. The process to become certified was a journey into the unknown for us, as it was the first time any of us at the company had gone through it. After we approached a certification body, we found that the Chain of Custody was the best fit for our business, and despite a little anxiety over internal policy writing and training staff, we completed the whole exercise and had approval within three months.
What does the certification mean for your customers?
It shows that Limelight is taking sustainable sourcing seriously! It is quite a large initial investment to become FSC certified, and that investment continues annually, so we want to ensure that all our customers know that we have the capability to provide these standards, and we’ll make use of the certification where possible. We already have two product ranges launching this year with FSC wood used for all the wooden components, and the plan is to continue this strategy for all new product launches moving forward.
Does the certification reflect a wider ‘green’ mindset within the business?
It is the second phase of our sustainable sourcing journey. Two years ago, we started offering recycled fabrics on our Polaris catalogue range, and that now covers 16 SKUs in four velvet colours. It has been so successful that one of our largest customers has designed an exclusive range using the same fabric and FSC wood, which will launch later this year. Each bedframe sold from these products is now utilising up to 190 recycled plastic bottles that previously might have gone to landfill.
Has the business had to overcome any significant obstacles this year?
We had a very difficult start to the year due to the issues in the Middle East and the Red Sea being blocked. We had to postpone our stand at the January Furniture Show as none of the products arrived in time. Even now this continues to affect us, as we’ve had to get used to different lead times from the Far East, so our ordering has had to adapt, and quickly.
Now we’re in the same boat as everyone else with shipping. The cost of freight is soaring, which is affecting all suppliers. The good news for us is that we have great stock levels, so we aren’t having to change our prices.
What’s in the pipeline?
We are in the process of deciding this. After the very successful launch of our new sofabed, I would expect a new version, potentially in one of our recycled fabrics. We are also looking at several new fabrics, as well as some quite vintage looks, to see whether it may be time to resurrect the designs.
Across our range, we’re looking at how we add more storage – whether that’s an ottoman, or drawers. We’ll also be showing at the January Furniture Show next year as well as some of the regional shows, so we need some exciting new products for this.
That said, if we’ve learned anything from this year, it is to try and be prepared for the unexpected. Never in a million years did we expect a Middle Eastern conflict to be the reason we couldn’t get product in for a furniture show, so hopefully the next 12 months brings a bit more stability!
