Lifestyle Carpet Collection Part 1: Headlam Group

Headlam Group’s (the group is a wholesaler/manufacturer) major launch this year has been the Lifestyle Floors collection. They are aggressively promoting their new launch in the form of lovely stands and lecterns that they are offering to place in shops across the country for a nominal fee. It’s great value for shops, so you will see plenty of these stands.

Ours was installed last week and we have 14 carpets on it. This rundown of the carpets will come in three parts. Today I’m looking at:

City Twist: This is a ‘better than most’ budget twist that is comparable to something like Revolution in terms of price and quality. It does feel a little more dense to me and it is a very colourful range, with ‘Sky’ and ‘Fuchsia’ definitely catching the eye at first glance. It’s 100% polypropylene and action backed and is available in either 4m or 5m wide rolls.

It’s a decent stab to do a reasonable twist for under a tenner and I have to commend it. You should pay £8-£12 per metre for it and it would be ideal for those on a budget or landlords who don’t want the ‘cheap and nasty’ look.

Revival Twist: This one is a heavier, heathered twist with a more subtle colour bank. I quite like the Crimson and Raspberry Jam, but if I’m honest then I am not blown away by this one in the least. It’s one of many similar at this sort of price.

It’s 100% polypropylene, action backed and available 4m and 5m wide. It should be priced between about £14 and £18 per square metre and I think that maybe a pound or two too much. I don’t think it stands up that well to competition at a similar price, like Cormar’s Primo Tweed, Balta’s Stainsafe Heathers or Lano’s Startwist Supreme. It’s not a bad carpet as such, but it’s not as good as its competitors to my mind.

Cosmopolitan Stripe: The much-vaunted ‘funky’ stripe of the collection (there is another, but it is a little more subtle) is a slightly shaggy twist with stripes of varying widths in some crazy colours.

Coffee and Tan are by far the best colours in the range and it features a truly rancid ‘Hot Pink’ shown below:

It’s 4 metre wide only, is made from 100% polypropylene and is felt backed. I’d be guessing it’s for kids’ bedrooms or playrooms, but you could use it elsewhere I imagine.

Time will tell if it will sell well, but customers have not been impressed by it in here so far, so I don’t think it’s going to work for us, but I might be wrong. Expect to pay around £9-£12 per square metre and it’s not a bad price for what it is and if you like the colours and designs, you could do a lot lot worse.

(Originally posted on the 31st August 2010)