Matalan expands its home comforts range
Matalan, the value retailer, is to extend its move into selling furniture, lighting and home entertainment products throughout its stores in the UK.
The retailer already sells homeware such as vases, pots and pans, crockery and soft furnishings, such as cushions and throws, alongside own brand and branded value clothing and shoes.After conducting a number of consumer tests, it is to introduce sofas, ceiling and wall lights and home entertainment videos to its stores across the country.
The move comes as executive chairman John Hargreaves announced a cut in television and press advertising and a return to direct mail campaigns, following the departure last week of chief executive Paul Mason (MW last week).
TV and print will still be used for tactical ads, however Matalan’s latest campaign for Miss Sixty jeans, which have been sourced through the grey market, has resulted in a clash with brand owner Sixty UK.
Sixty UK managing director Steven Peters says that the company has managed to stop the route of supply from a source inside the European Union and is taking legal advice about the campaign.
He claims that the cut of jeans featured in the campaign had been deemed seconds because the waistband was too high and that these jeans have never been sold by Miss Sixty in the UK.
