MFI Group Limited is a UK furniture retailer, operating under the MFI brand. The company is one of the largest kitchen and bedroom furniture suppliers in the UK, and operates primarily in retail parks outside the city. Anecdotally, it is said at one stage that one out of three Sunday lunches in England is cooked in the kitchen of the MFI, and 60% of English children are conceived in the bedroom of the MFI.
After success in the early decades, he encountered recurring financial problems accompanied by several ownership changes, and on 26 November 2008, it was announced that the business had been placed into administration. Merchant Equity Partners, headed by Henry Jackson, was the last company to own it, before being sold to management in September 2008 for a "small profit".
Business stopped trading on December 19, 2008, after the administrator failed to find a buyer.
The company struggled to make a profit during the 2000s, because chains like B & Q and Argos introduced their own line of furniture, and the IKEA rival chain (which arrived in Britain in the last half of the 1980s) expanded. After closing, the MFI brand was purchased by Victoria Plumb, and relaunched as an online retailer on November 30, 2011 only to stop trading again in July 2015.
After changing the image in 2015, Victoria Plumb became VictoriaPlum.com and announced that it was extended to other home product categories. As part of this expansion, VictoriaPlum.com announced on March 17, 2016 that it will revive the LKM brand name, to represent an exclusive collection of cheap and value-for-money room furniture.
Video MFI Group
Histori
The Retail Business MFI was established in 1964 as an M ullard F urniture I by two Englishmen, Noel Lister and Donald Searle, previously traded in goods surplus war. It's named after the girl's wife Searle. The company became a public company in 1971, as MFI Warehouses (Group). An external manager, Derek Hunt, was recruited soon after.
In the 1980s, the group began a partnership, especially in 1985 with Asda. Asda's relationship was soon dissolved due to concerns about the company's future, and there was a management purchase in October 1987. In November 1988, the MFI acquired Schreiber Furniture.
With the advent of shopping outside the city during the 1980s, MFI Retail opened a number of stores in such developments. In 1985, it was the first tenant of the Merry Hill Shopping Center at Brierley Hill in the West Midlands, opening a new store, which, within four years, is part of the largest shopping complex in Western Europe.
MFI Retail earned a new rival in October 1987, when the Swedish furniture retailer IKEA started trading in the UK, and thrived over the next few years. Soon after, retail B & amp; Q expanded into the furniture market, and emerged as a surprise for the new business. Nevertheless, the MFI Group was still developing in November 2002, when it took over the Sofa Workshop.
During 2004 to 2005, serious and publicized IT issues affecting customers damaged MFI Retail credibility, and the finance director and chief operating officer left the Group.
In 2005, it was clear that MFI Retail wealth declined. Although the UK economy is still strong and the recession is not even on the horizon, it is reported that sales for 2005 have fallen to Ã, £ 742 million compared to Ã, Â £ 854 million in 2003. In September 2006, the MFI Retail business was acquired by Traders. Equity Partners for Ã, Â £ 1 after that the parent company changed its name to Galiform.
In December 2006, Argos took over MFI as the UK's largest furniture retailer. MFI Retail was the subject of a second management purchase in September 2008, but at this stage the UK economy was in recession, unemployment increased and retail sales declined. The future of the MFI looks bleak.
On 25 November 2008, the BBC first reported the possibility of MFI Retail going into administration, with the MFI wanting a three month free lease period from the landlord. Then the next day, it was announced that no agreement was reached and PropertyWeek reported that Menzies Corporate Restructuring had been appointed administrator. On November 26, 2008, after the board meeting, the MFI went into administration. Company can not confirm what will happen to consumers with pending orders. On December 19, 2008, all 111 MFI stores closed with a loss of 1,200 jobs.
Maps MFI Group
Operation
MFI Retail operates more than two hundred stores across the UK, all between 15,000 & amp; 30,000 square feet (2,800m 2 ). House delivery amounted to more than fifty million items a year, going to 2.5 million households in England and Northern Ireland.
Businesses have sought to improve many aspects of its operations, including a greater focus on customer service; updating and upgrading various products; improve floor space utilization; build closer supplier relationships; investment in logistics, IT, supply and product development systems and improving internal communications.
It offers a variety of furniture for bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, lounge, dining room and home office. It's mainly related to self-assembling furniture. Its products are mainly aimed at value-oriented customers with the brand "Hygena", and those who earn higher with the brand "Schreiber". The MFI is also one of the largest installed equipment suppliers in the UK with its own "Diplomat" brand.
New and exclusive for MFIs is the "Space Genie" range which is an intelligent storage solution for kitchens and bedrooms. MFIs sell beds directly from Silentnight, Rest Assured and Layezee, and also sell furniture from The Chair Company. Other MFI brands include "Viva Sofa" and "The Bath Co."
Criticism
MFI Retail has been criticized, due to the frequency and duration of excessive sales. In a six month survey by consumer magazine Which one? , it appears that four out of five kitchens in "sales" are never actually sold at a higher price, which is a discount claim made.
Which one? states that "MFI pricing policies deceive their customers by thinking that they are getting a better deal than them, in some cases the price is completely misleading." MFI ads about such sales are also criticized for using phrases like "Quick! Stay four more days" or "The price is too good to last" even though new sales are almost always launched soon after.
MFI Retail is also known as one of the first companies investigated by the BBC Watchdog program. The program tries to buy the kitchen for the  £ 600 worth advertised by the MFI, even though the price only really includes the kitchen unit and not the equipment shown. When the Watchdog crew arrived at the company branch, they were immediately confronted with a manager who drove them from the shop.
Controversy
In September 2007, MFI Retail was forced to pull a television commercial featuring a woman slapping her husband's face twice and yelling at him for leaving the toilet seat. Those who complain feel that the ad underestimates the issue of domestic violence against men. ASA concludes that it "is likely to cause serious or widespread violations to viewers and can be seen to justify intimidation, domestic violence and aggression as an acceptable way to resolve the issue".
ASA goes so far as to state that "it could also cause social, moral or psychological harm to children" and they "fear that it has been broadcasted altogether". As a result, advertising is prohibited.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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