Online retailer Furniturebox has become a major supporter of a charity that helps households hit by the cost of living crisis save money on reused sofas, cookers and fridges.
The Chippenham-based firm gifts £120,000 worth of returned items each year to furniture and white goods charity KFR, which has seen a 25% rise in activity over the last year.
Furniturebox, which was launched by schoolfriends Monty George and Dan Beckles when they were aged just 18, is now Devizes-based KFR’s biggest donor.
Monty said: “We live in a throwaway society. This has been a concern of ours for a long time.
“Several years back we contacted a number of local charities to inquire whether Furniturebox could donate customer returns. KFR were keen to take us up on that.
“It is fantastic to hear of the vital work they are doing helping those most in need and positively reducing our carbon footprint by recycling household items.”
KFR manager Daniel Thompson said the charity was helping increasing numbers of middle-income households hit by rising inflation and interest rates.
He said: “We have seen people in our showroom who would never have dreamed of buying second hand.
“We are here to help anyone who is struggling and everyone is being a bit more clever with their money. We are enabling people to refurbish their homes but in an affordable way.”
He said the charity was also a lifeline to first-time buyers who had borrowed to the hilt to buy their place and were now looking at ways to save when kitting out their homes.
“We need donations to survive and the best thing people can do is give us their unused white goods which we will refurbish and give to a good home and massively save on our carbon footprint at the same time,” he added.
The support of local companies such as Furniturebox was vital to KFR, said Daniel, with donations this year in line to help up to 1,000 households and provide a carbon saving of almost 40,000 kg.
“Furniturebox has made such a massive difference to us. We are completely self-funded and will go out of business without donations,” he added.
KFR has 16 part-time and full-time staff based in a 15,000 sq ft warehouse where the reused furniture and white goods are available to buy at heavily discounted prices.
The team has two full-time engineers who repair and refurbish donated white goods, which are typically less than three years old.
A cooker from a leading brand that retails at more than £1,000 new can be bought by a family in need for as little as £100 with a six-month warranty.
Sofas which sell for as much as £2,000 in the shops can be snapped up in immaculate condition for £130.
KFR, which began life in 1995 as the Kennet Furniture Project, gives away 4% of its turnover – amounting to £2,500 a month this year – to those most in need.
Latest figures show that 336 households benefit from free gifts a year, including 214 white goods such as cookers or dryers and 196 items of furniture.
Those helped include rough sleepers who have been given a home, victims of domestic abuse and those living in extreme poverty.
Furniturebox was recently ranked 59th in the Sunday Times 100, which identifies and celebrates Britain’s leading entrepreneurial businesses, having achieved sales of £15.9m last year and growth of 70.96% over the past three years.
The firm launched in Salisbury in 2015 but moved to an 88,000 sq ft purpose-built warehouse off the M4 at Chippenham, pictured, earlier this year.
Pictured, above, KFR worker Harley Binns in its warehouse. Below, KFR manager Daniel Thompson, centre, flanked by Furniturebox’s founders Dan Beckles, left, and Monty George
