This is a guest article by Lee Townsend, Purchasing & Operations Manager at Limelight Beds.
Limelight Beds’ 35,000 sqft warehouse services both online and bricks-and mortar retailers. We import bed frames from factories around the world that we have long-standing relationships with, and this allows us to have full confidence in our products, which is key as a wholesaler. A manufacturer has a lot more control over their factory, so we need to make sure we work with the right companies – and all ours have been fully audited.
On top of this, we are forward thinking. We aren’t looking to jump on a bandwagon and follow what everyone else is doing, we want other companies to follow us. We’re always thinking about where fabrics are going, what shapes are coming into fashion (and what’s going out!). Our big focus currently is looking at more eco-friendly and sustainable products, and space-saving models.
What prompted Limelight to become FSC certified?
Our largest customer approached us to source an exclusive range of bed frames, and they wanted to follow through their company-wide sustainable sourcing strategy. The process to become certified was a journey into the unknown for us, as it was the first time any of us at the company had gone through it. After we approached a certification body, we found that the Chain of Custody was the best fit for our business, and despite a little anxiety over internal policy writing and training staff, we completed the whole exercise and had approval within three months.
What does the certification mean for customers?
It shows that Limelight is taking sustainable sourcing seriously! It is quite a large initial investment to become FSC certified, and that investment continues annually, so we want to ensure that all our customers know that we have the capability to provide these standards, and we’ll make use of the certification where possible. We already have two product ranges launched in 2024 with FSC-certified wood used for all the wooden components. The plan is to continue this strategy for all new product launches moving forward and we’ll be launching three more FSC-certified products at the January Furniture Show at the NEC 19 – 22 January 2025.
Does the certification reflect a wider ‘green’ mindset within the business?
It is the second phase of our sustainable sourcing journey. Two years ago, we started offering recycled fabrics on one of our ranges. It has been so successful that one of our largest customers has designed an exclusive range using the same fabric and FSC-certified wood. Each bed frame sold from these products is now utilising up to 190 recycled plastic bottles that previously might have gone to landfill.
Find out more about Limelight Beds here: https://www.limelightbeds.co.uk/