The year the sofa trade changed hands

March

Interpath was appointed administrator of Westbridge Furniture in Holywell and Belfield Leisure in Ilkeston, both part of The Belfield Group, which had bought them out of a pre-pack only a year earlier. 291 of Westbridge's roughly 300 staff were made redundant and the creditors' shortfall across the two companies was later put at £19.6m.

April

Whitemeadow bought the Westbridge designs and IP for £150,000 and has been reintroducing the models since May.

May

PwC was appointed to Airsprung, the Trowbridge bed maker, with 71 of 202 jobs lost on the day; the administrators' report later put the group shortfall at £61.6m, including a £22.7m pension liability.

June

Howdens completed the £390m acquisition of DIY Kitchens.

July

NVM Private Equity sold Buoyant Upholstery of Nelson, 117 years old and more than 550 staff, to Ashwood Designs Group, which described the combined business as the UK's largest sofa manufacturing group. Also in July, John Lewis of Hungerford was sold by pre-pack for £100,000, with HMRC owed £1.9m.

August

Tetrad's management, with former owner Janus Cooper and a consortium of investors, bought the company out of Belfield, taking Clinchplain Foam and Fibre with it and ending Blandford Capital's involvement. Between 13 July and 25 August, Man Wah Holdings raised its stake in DFS from 4.1% to 8.1% in three stock exchange notifications; DFS reports full-year results on 24 September.

September

Headlam, the flooring distributor, entered administration with 154 jobs and 28 trade counters gone in the first week.