Family owned Forrest Furnishing has bounced back into profit in its most recent financial year helped by a near 11 per cent rise in turnover.
Annual accounts for the long-established Glasgow business, still one of the largest independent furniture retailers in the UK, show turnover increasing from £7.5 million to £8.3m in 2014.
Writing in the accounts owner Ken Forrest said: “The directors regard this as a healthy increase on like-for-like sales whilst having to compete with the Commonwealth Games in the summer months and the uncertainty surrounding the referendum in September.”
That rise in sales also helped push the company back into the black for the first time this decade.
According to the accounts recently filed at Companies House it had recorded a pre-tax loss of £177,667 in the prior financial year.
But for 2014 pre-tax profit came in at £181,123.
That is the first profit the company has posted since the £58,070 recorded in accounts covering a shortened period between February 1, 2009 and the end of December that year.
Forrest had been highly profitable in the years prior to the financial crisis.
Staff costs in the most recent financial year were steady at £1.4m with average monthly employee numbers also stable at 67.
Directors’ remuneration edged up from £142,933 to £146,565.
Net debt widened from £328,370 to £474,589 as a result of a negative cash flow during the year.
The company’s balance sheet shows it was holding more than £1.5m of stock at the year end.
The directors said they are moving closer to completing the sale of its Macdonald Furniture site on Cathedral Street in central Glasgow.
It was reported earlier this year the site may be turned into student accommodation and all staff working there had been offered alternative employment within the business.
Writing in the accounts Mr Forrest said: “Over the past two years the company has been approached by several parties to sell its MacDonald Furnishing store for redevelopment.
“The company is now in the process of selling the store and has now transferred the business and staff to the expanded and newly refurbished South Street showroom.
“We anticipate the sale should be completed in the near future.”
In his report of the activities of the business Mr Forrest, who has been running the business since taking over from his father David in 1972, indicated he is hopeful of another good year in 2015.
He wrote: “Given the results to date the directors are confident that the year will be profitable.”
Forrest started trading as a corner shop in the Whiteinch area of Glasgow in 1944.
Its current showroom spans more than 50,000 square feet on two levels.
Brands it sells include Parker Knoll, G Plan, Morris Furniture and Ercol.
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