Colourbank Carpets to open £2m Leicester warehouse

Jobs will be created as part of a £2m investment by a carpet and bed retailer in a new warehouse.

Colourbank Carpets and Beds said the site, which will be built in Crest Rise, off Lewisher Road, was needed because it had outgrown its main storage base.

The firm, which employs 40 people, has had a warehouse in Longfellow Road, near Saffron Lane in the city, for the past 25 years.

The new building will allow the retailer, which has a shop and showroom in Cavendish Road, to double its storage capacity.

Managing director Trevor Johnson, who founded the business, said building would start next month and should be completed by October – in plenty of time for the busy run-up to Christmas and the Boxing Day sales.

He said up to six jobs would be created at the warehouse, which would replace the one in Longfellow Road, plus two smaller storage units in the county.

The showroom in Cavendish Road will remain.

Mr Johnson said the total value of the investment, including the purchase of land, would be £2m.

He said: "We've been wanting to move for a year or two but we were waiting for the right location and we finally got one.

"We did consider getting a place off the shelf, but we now have planning permission for this site.

"We bought the plot before Christmas.

"At a time when there's a lot of doom and gloom out there, we're investing. The building is going to be nearly 18,000sq ft, but the important thing for us is that it will be 10m high, instead of the 3m height we've got in Longfellow Road.

"We'll be able to stack carpets much higher.

"We need extra space because we are selling higher volumes of products than we were, although during the downturn people have been ordering cheaper products."

He said turnover would be "slightly up" at £4m in the year to the end of March this year, and was expected to stay flat in 2010.

Sales at the firm – which mainly sells to the public but will have a trade counter in the new warehouse – have been hit by the housing slump.

However, turnover was maintained through the downturn as it was able to secure extra contract work, such as supplying carpets to schools and office buildings.

Mr Johnson said: "At a time when sales of carpets and beds have down nationally by up to 25%, we've been successful in comparison."

The new warehouse will be built by T. Watts.