Why buy from Long Eaton Sofas rather than a retailer?

At Long Eaton Sofas®, we are the manufacturer of the handmade upholstery you see on our website and if you visit our showroom. This is very unique as most furniture stores you visit will be having their upholstery made for them. The biggest difficulty for customers in a retail shop is to understand the construction of a sofa and chair because it is impossible to see what is hidden underneath the fabric. At Long Eaton Sofas the factory is next to the showroom and we encourage customers to take a tour and see exactly how your new furniture will be made.

At Long Eaton Sofas®, we only use hardwood in our frames. All our joints are glued, screwed and dowelled to ensure they are incredibly strong. For this reason we are able to offer a 30 Year Guarantee on our frames.

The images above show you a mass produced Plywood and OSB wood frame that is stapled together. The frame in parts are already showing signs of coming away from each other in just 12 months of use. On most imported sofas, many retailers only give a one or two year frame guarantee or non at all.

At Long Eaton Sofas®, if you order a sofa that has loose back cushions the inside back of the frame will be webbed to provide support for the back cushions. These are set at an equal distance to ensure continuity wherever you sit back and enough support to make sure the fabric does not stretch and go baggy with use.

This mass produced sofa had 2 webs (one on each half of the sofa). This would provide little or no support to the back cushions. The insulator was also only stapled to the frame in minimal positions, so was very baggy and starting to crumple  after only 12 months of use.

At Long Eaton Sofas® all our frames are insulated and the inside arms are webbed to provide strength and support as you sit and lean into the arm. This is done before the foam is then added by the skilled craftsperson upholstering the sofa from start to finish.

The mass produced sofa had cardboard on the inside arm that was then folded over the top of the arm and stapled to the frame. The foam was then stapled to the cardboard and due to it being so thin the staples had gone through the other side and so the foam had already started coming away with only 12 months of use. 

When upholstering at Long Eaton Sofas® we ensure all staples used are not on show and use upholstery techniques to ensure the finished product is of the highest quality possible.

For speed the mass produced sofa had raw staples on show where the upholster had just stapled the final fabric to the frame.

We know when purchasing a sofa it is very difficult to know what is underneath the fabric or leather you can see on the display models in store. Hopefully the above images can give you an indication of the difference of buying a sofa from a retailer where it is being manufactured for them to hit a price and by coming to a direct manufacturer like ourselves where the emphasis is to make the highest quality upholstery but still at a competitive price.  

The majority of upholstered furniture sold in Britain is sold by high street retailers and out of town stores. The vast majority is imported from low wage economies, so the retailer can apply an extremely large mark up to make a tidy profit. In most cases, the retailer will only be paying the original manufacturer a third to 40% of the price they charge the buying public. Therefore, the manufacturer may only receive £499 if the retailer is selling the sofa at £1,499. In December 2024 over £600 million of furniture was imported by retailers. The largest proportion from China and a 36% increase on 2023.

By buying direct from Long Eaton Sofas®, you can get a very high quality sofa from £1,349, which a retailer would want to sell to you for anything between £2,699 and £3,399. Usually customers visiting our showroom soon appreciate the quality and value they can get by buying from us, rather than a retailer.

We are very proud of the Craftspeople that manufacture our High Quality Upholstery, with many of them working with us for over 20 years and some over 30 years. To further enhance your customer visit to our showroom we have installed Glass doors to the entrance of our factory so you can see our skilled craftspeople working on our beautiful upholstery. If you would like a tour of our factory please ask a member of the team, who will be more than happy to show you our manufacturing process.