The Flooring Show returns

The Flooring Show returned to Harrogate on Sunday after the 2020 show was, along with so many, cancelled because of the pandemic.

On the product front, launches were mainly limited to recolouring of existing ranges – as manufacturers continue to focus on fulfilling orders and keeping lead times to a reasonable time on bestselling collections – and bringing in ranges that had been seen in 2019 for an introduction to the market later that year.

The time has however given many manufacturers time to improve on what they were planning in 2019 and keep them on-trend for 2021, and to create numerous POS innovations. 

Attendance was far higher than many exhibitors had anticipated: expectations had been mixed with some worrying that Covid would give retailers a reason not to attend.

These fears proved unfounded as queues lengthened outside the main entrance before the show opened: so much so that shortly after the exhibition opened show staff were urging visitor to use the Hall A entrance to balance out numbers.

Once inside the venue, visitors caught up with fellow-visitors and exhibitors, and social distancing was largely forgotten: as was the wearing of facemasks and use of hand sanitizer, but visitors seemed sanguine. Exhibitors Interiors Monthly spoke to during the day were largely happy to accommodate this, with many saying they had masks but were not sure what to do if everyone around them was happy to carry on as if events were normal. There was disappointment among a small number spoken too on the issue, along with questions over what seemed to be an absence of checking that visitors had been double-vaccinated before being allowed into the building. 

Interiors Monthly was told by an exhibitor that organisers had informed them that UK Government guidelines were being fully followed and one in 50 entrants had been checked. Visitors were told last week that evidence of double-vaccination had to be provided before entry would be allowed.

To provide a context, mask wearing on trains run by provider Southern is much higher than that seen on trains run by provider Northern, but of course this depends on which train and carriage you are sitting or standing in; or in the case of shops what individuals feel is appropriate. Masks are still legally in force on public transport and in shops in Scotland and Transport of London still insists on wearing them (with the exemptions in place across the UK).

Image: Lifestyle Floors. 

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