News – Page 2 – Belfield Group

Belfield Workforce Support their Local Communities

At Belfield, we are committed to our outstanding workforce and in turn, they are proud to support the local communities they work in. Over the past year every business within the group has undertaken work to support regional and national charities through fundraising activities and donations to help those less fortunate than themselves. Here are some of the highlights.

At Westbridge, the staff have nominated four main charities to benefit from their endeavours – one for each site – which introduces a bit of healthy competition to the fundraising efforts!

Development organised a Christmas Jumper Day and raised £150 for Nightingale House Hospice, a charity based in Wrexham which provides specialist palliative care services for those with life-limiting illnesses.

WB2’s chosen charity is North Clywd Animal Rescue (NCAR). They recently donated sofas for the charity’s on-site, dog friendly café, Doris’s Bunker. Nicky Owen, Media Relations & Fundraising Manager said, “Thank you for the beautiful sofas, they are now in the café. They are amazing and make such a difference and our customers love them!”

In addition, WB2 staff also raised £900 from the sale of redundant scatters – meaning not only was money raised for a fantastic cause, but no waste was generated.

WB8 took part in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital’s annual Christmas Toy Appeal and sent car boot loads of gifts to children who were unfortunate enough to be spending their Christmas in hospital.

Giddo’s Gift, a charitable trust providing gifts or financial grants to teenagers and young adults suffering from Cancer living in North West England and North Wales, also benefitted from a Christmas Jumper fundraiser at Westbridge.

We are also very grateful to Marks and Spencer, who recently donated £10,000 to be split between NCAR, Nightingale House Hospice and Mind, in recognition of the work done by Westbridge in support of the Marks and Spencer ‘Plan A’ reset initiative.

Staff at Ilkeston have also been busy supporting local and national causes in the past few months.

In November, Paloma Faith contacted Home and asked if they were willing to donate some bedding to support a refugee family she was involved with in East London. Bedding was sent to Paloma for the family to help them set up home and start their new life in the UK.

Also in November, Home and Leisure combined to hold a cake sale which raised £307.00 for Cancer Research UK.

In December, to spread some festive cheer, the Curtain department organised a Christmas Jumper Day in aid of The Salvation Army and a collection for the local food bank, the Ilkeston Arena Community Food Bank. Both initiatives were really well supported by staff across the site.

As part of Home and Leisure’s ongoing support for Ben’s Den, an Ilkeston based charity which supports the families of children fighting leukaemia or cancer by providing caravans for holidays, Troy Smith (H&S Officer) is organising a 50-mile charity walk 2^nd – 3^rd April 2022 from Ladybower Reservoir to Pride Park Stadium. We will update on you how you can support Troy in the coming weeks.

Mental Health Matters

The Belfield Group has always placed great importance on the wellbeing of its employees.

In response to growing awareness about the importance of mental health, and particularly as a result of the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, in 2020 we introduced Mental Health First Aiders across the Group. We are now pleased to announce we have nearly 40 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the five businesses, on hand and ready to help and assist colleagues with their wellbeing.

As part of the ongoing initiative, we meet quarterly with the MHFAs to share our learnings and our experiences. In our recent meeting, we did a role play activity where our first aiders picked a mental health topic from a hat and, in small groups, acted out the scenario. After each role play, the rest of the group gave feedback on what they found useful, what they thought could be applied across similar scenarios, and whether they might approach things differently. Feedback from others and embracing different approaches has been a core success of this programme. The team found the role play an invaluable exercise as they could discover different ideas and approaches from each other.

Overall, the programme has been a great success and has given important support to our colleagues at a time of global uncertainty.

Westbridge 30 Years’ Service Awards – a track record of loyalty and long service.

19 January 2017 saw us present our first 30 years’ service awards to three employees who, even now, are still employed by the Company: Marie Jones – Manufacturing Manager, Ronald Cowley – Frames Team Leader, and Gillian Hughes – Sewing Machinist.

They were joined by the three founding directors of the company, Steve Hampton, Paul Hislop and Nigel Holifield, who also had in excess of 30 years’ service – indeed, Nigel is still with us today!

Since then, we have presented another 40 awards to various staff, the majority of whom are still part of our company. What an accomplishment for both the employees and the Company, demonstrating loyalty and commitment from both sides. Later this year we will present Lee Monaghan, Quality Manager, with his 30 years’ service award and we have a long list of colleagues to follow on from him.

Retaining our loyal and committed staff has always been a priority, and we continue to strive to achieve this for all our employees by providing them with job security, opportunities for development and, above all, treating everyone fairly.

M&S resets Plan A with pledge to cut it’s carbon footprint by a third by 2025 as part of it’s commitment to be fully net-zero by 2040

M&S has reset its Plan A sustainability programme, with a singular focus on becoming a net zero Scope 3 business across its entire supply chain and products by 2040.

M&S has reset its Plan A sustainability programme, with a singular focus on becoming a net zero Scope 3 business across its entire supply chain and products by 2040. The retailer has set out a detailed roadmap to net zero using science-based targets aligned to the UN ambition of limiting global warming to 1.5c. The ambitious target would see M&S achieve full net zero ten years ahead of the government’s UK-wide strategy and will require rapid decarbonisation of its business to cut its carbon footprint by a third by 2025, from a 5.7million tonne 2017 baseline.

Earlier this month, M&S CEO Steve Rowe met with colleagues from Westbridge Furniture, based in Holywell – one of M&S’s original 2008 eco factories.

To learn more about the M&S Reset and Westbridge’s role in attaining that ambitious target, click here:

H&S Update October 2021

We are committed and driven to be an employer of choice in our locations and ensuring the Health, Safety and Well-being of all our employees is our top priority.

We are proud that 6 of our sites have gone over 12 months without a lost time injury and our goal is to continue to drive these high standards of safety to all our sites.

Kayleigh Irwin
Group H&S Director

The Chateau by Angel Strawbridge launch first Children’s collection

In October 2021, Angel Strawbridge launched her first children’s collection, Le Cirque du Chateau. Based on “all the fun of the fair”, the whimsical design transports us back to the days when entertainment was simple and uncomplicated.

Fantastical animals are featured as playful circus characters, teamed with clowns and jugglers to recreate every child’s dream. Hand-drawn images teamed with pastel shades create a beautiful, calm and restful scene, whilst retaining a sense of fun and child-like delight.

Angel said, “I’ve been collecting vintage fairground memorabilia for as long as I can remember and for me ‘Le Cirque du Chateau’ evokes all the joy of a family day out: the sights, sounds and thrills of the circus or a traditional fairground ride – there’s nothing quite like it! This collection makes me smile!”

The collection comprises bedding (toddler and child sizes), ready-made curtains, cushions, lampshade and fabric. Le Cirque du Chateau is available through a range of independent stockists and as part of Next’s Brand Collection from mid-October.

Exciting design collaboration with Paloma Faith

In June 2021, Belfield Home unveiled their innovative design collaboration with Paloma Faith and launched the Paloma Home collection.

A carefully curated range, comprising three intriguingly named collections, Paloma Home is a striking blend of influences which come together to create a beautifully bohemian set up which is far from predictable: delicate Chinoiserie motifs are stalked by pouncing tigers; lush botanicals are contrasted with flocks of oriental birds. Each collection comprises wallpaper, bedding and cushions in contrasting and complementary designs.

‘Spiced Up’ adds a touch of drama through layering velvet tiger cushions against exotic botanical prints, whilst the crisp contrast of black and white stripes (Monochrome Stripe) act as a modern accent, slicing through the intricacy of the Vintage Botanicals design.

Cinematic influences and the hedonism of the music scene collide in the ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ collection. Clashing animal prints add to the sense of decadence. With tactile finishing touches such as braiding, piping and ruffles, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ makes for a multi-sensory experience.

‘Lady Muck’ is an unapologetically feminine collection. Intricate Chinoiserie prints with backdrops of sugared blossom and oriental jade create a sense of opulence, and layering bedding, wallpapers and blinds allow the creation of a boudoir-esque cocoon.

Reaction from the home design market has been overwhelmingly positive, with product set to feature in one of Sophie Robinson home makeover shows to be broadcast on Channel 5 in the new year.

Belfield backs campaign to ‘buy British’ this autumn

A new initiative to back British manufacturing and jobs is launching this week across the retail sector.

The ‘Buy the Best, Buy British, Save Jobs’ campaign (19 September – 18 October) is the initiative of the British Furniture Confederation, a body made up of the industry’s trade associations, and is aimed at encouraging shoppers to buy products that are made in the UK.

Gary Lasham, CEO of The Belfield Group said: “The Impact of COVID 19 has been devastating on our industry and we welcome any initiative that helps the sector to get back to normal as quickly as possible. In our upholstery businesses, we’ve been making our retail customers aware of the campaign and encouraging them to display the swing tickets on products in their stores. We have almost 2,000 people employed across our Group and they are also promoting the ‘Buy British’ message across their networks.”

“I would like to congratulate the BFC on this campaign and the supporting research that they have compiled which makes for interesting reading. It is reassuring to note that more than three-quarters (78%) of those questioned in their survey said their buying decision would be influenced if they knew buying British would help safeguard 93,000 jobs in the UK.”

Read about the full campaign here

Summary of some of the insights from the BFC’s Campaign

The home market is worth £12 billion a year.
Every extra £1m spent on British furniture could support up to 50 manufacturing jobs in the sector
More than three-quarters (78%) of those questioned said their buying decision would be influenced if they knew buying British would help safeguard 93,000 jobs in the country with women (83%) more likely than men (71%) to be swayed by that knowledge.
More than a third (34%) said that they’d be more inclined to support buying British furniture than they were six months ago (before COVID).
The buying decisions of those in the 35 – 44 age group were more likely to have been effected by COVID 19 with 38% of that group saying they’d be more inclined to buy British furniture now than they were six months ago, before the pandemic (average

2020 Furniture Show a Belfield Group Success

Earlier this year, we returned to the Furniture Show at the NEC with brand new ranges from two of our businesses: Tetrad and Westbridge. Occupying stands in the premium hall, both businesses created showstopper stands with many new exciting sofa ranges on display. For all five days of the show, our staff were inundated with interest from customers hailing from all corners of the UK.

_{Tetrad stand featuring the Montana}

Our MD of both businesses, Nigel Holifield, said: “Belfield Group had a fantastic week at the Furniture Show this year with our Westbridge and Tetrad brands. Getting such positive feedback from customers is a testament to our design and development teams who, yet again, managed to come up with new products that were commercially successful and yet also stood out in what can be a crowded marketplace. I was also delighted that Tetrad was once again shortlisted for the Product of the Year, this time with the Montana sofa, proving that they are still leading the way in design innovation.”

_{Westbridge stand}

Westbridge, one of the largest stands at the show, was delighted with the response from existing and new customers. Nichola Bell, Westbridge’s Sales Director said: “I have been working on this show for what seems like an eternity, but when it comes, it is the best week in my working year. I get to meet all my customers – new and old – and hear which products they like, and more importantly which ones they will be ordering. Now the hard work has begun as we gear up production and start to deliver on all the interest at the show!”