MFI is back from the dead: Furniture company that collapsed two decades ago will be resurrected after Victorian Plumbing made £3million swoop

Daily Mail​

16-05-2025

A homeware retail giant that looked consigned to the history books looks like making a comeback after a £3million swoop by new investors.
Kitchens and furniture firm MFI became a favourite for homemakers across the UK since first opening in the mid-Sixties - only to collapse when recession hit in 2008.
Intense competition from DIY rivals such as Ikea was also blamed for MFI's failure, 44 years after starting out as a mail order service in 1964 as Mullard Furniture Industries.
Yet now its shops could be returning to high streets and retail parks following new investment from Lancashire-based online eCommerce company Victoria Plumbing.
That firm took over MFI in May last year and has now revealed plans for relaunches in the second half of 2026.
The brand is touted to newly trade as a standalone online homeware coming, offering accessories for bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms and hallways.
Victorian Plumbing insisted in a statement to investors that the new MFI would have in charge a 'dedicated and experienced management team'.
It remains unclear whether and which physical stores could open or reopen - but the 'reinvented' MFI is expected to make use of two warehouses previously vacated by Victorian Plumbing in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.
During its heyday, MFI had more than 200 stores across Britain, while also carrying out 50million home deliveries per year to 2.5million households.
It was suggested that, at the company' peak, a third of Sunday lunches across the country would be cooked in MFI-furnished kitchens.
The company had been founded in 1964 by British entrepreneurs Noel Lister and Donald Searle, adapting Mullard from the maiden name of the latter's wife.
The pair, who previously traded in war surplus products, launched MFI as a mail order business then three years later opened a first shop in Balham, South London.
Their company grew to become the largest furniture retailer in the UK, with a value of £1billion at one point.
Despite homeware market dominance for the following decades, the new millennium brought difficulties - intensified by the rise of rivals Argos and B&Q as well as expansion across the UK by Swedish retailers Ikea.
The MFI Retail group was bought by Merchant Equity Partners for just £1 in September 2006, and then went into administration in November two years later after failing to secure a three-month rent-free period from property landlords.
All remaining 111 shops closed their doors in December that year, with 1,200 jobs lost.
But now its new owners are declaring MFI back from the dead, with optimistic promises put to investors yesterday.
Victorian Plumbing founder and chief executive Mark Radcliffe said: 'I am very excited about the upcoming reinvention of MFI, allowing us to tap in to more of the £20billion UK homewares market.
'Our dedicated and ambitious team, decades of e-commerce knowledge and best-in-class proprietary software, together with the recognisable MFI brand, will help to deliver our strategic ambition over the medium term.
'Having invested significantly in preparing the business for future growth last year, I am pleased with the group's strategic progress in the first half.
'We are fully operational in our new purpose built warehouse and have continued to improve our customer proposition, while expanding product range into other rooms within the home and taking significant market share gains in a subdued trading backdrop.'
Mr Radcliffe set up Victorian Plumbing in 2000, having previously made money selling mobile phone accessories on eBay.
His 540-employee firm acquired the MFI brand as part of the purchase last May of competitor Victoria Plum who had previously ran it as an online service between 2011 and 2015.
Since 2023, Victoria Plumbing has been the sponsor appearing on the shirts worn by League One football club Bolton Wanderers.
The new promises to revitalise MFI come against a backdrop of high street retail mainstays struggling to survive.
It was recently revealed how more than 13,000 shops shut their doors for good in 2024 – an increase of 28 per cent on the year before.
That was the highest figure since the Centre for Retail Research, which compiled the report, began collecting the data in 2015 - and industry experts forecast 17,350 more stores would close this year.
Business leaders have raised alarm about Chancellor Rachel Reeves' hikes in National Insurance contributions and minimum wages which came into force last month.