Member Article

Furniturebox gifts £120,000 worth of returned items each year to Wiltshire furniture and white goods charity as cost of living crisis bites

Chippenham-based online store Furniturebox is the biggest donor of KFR which has seen a 25% rise in activity over the last year as hard-up households look to save cash on cut-priced, reused sofas, cookers and fridges.

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.

“We are a lifeline to first time buyers who have borrowed to the hilt to buy their place and are 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.”

Thompson said the support of local companies such as Furniturebox was vital to the charity.

He said its donations in 2023 would help up to 1,000 households and provide a carbon saving of almost 40,000 kg.

Thompson said: “Furniturebox has made such a massive difference to us. We are completely self-funded and will go out of business without donations.”

Monty George, co-founder of Furniturebox, 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 enquire 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 has 16 part-time and full-time staff based in a 15,000 sq ft warehouse in Hopton Park Industrial Estate 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 which 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 shops can be snapped up in immaculate condition for £130.

It collects reusable items for free from homes throughout Wiltshire and has recently started a service doing house clearances following bereavements.

The not-for-profit charity 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.

Thompson gave the example this week of a woman on carer’s allowance looking after her husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s who bought a tumble dryer for £120 which would cost up to £700 new.

KFR, which began life as the Kennet Furniture Project back in 1995, has helped tens of thousands of Wiltshire households over almost 30 years of operation and also employs many local people.

One of its recent recruits is Harley Binns, a former pupil at Devizes Comprehensive who was unemployed and struggling during the pandemic when he was taken on by KFR under the Kickstart initiative and is now a warehouse operator.

Harley, 24, said: “I appreciate the opportunity KFR has given me to break away from a cycle of bad behaviour I had acquired and am not proud of.

“KFR has been an important support and provided a brilliant opportunity to build my confidence. I am not at all sure where I might have ended up without this job, certainly not in a good place.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jules Stenson .