Wall-to-wall exports as Newmor hits milestone

Welshpool-based Newmor Wallcoverings is this year marking 50 years since its launch by John Morris – the grandfather of current managing director Toby Morris – in Newtown in 1967.

And it sees great potential in the current shape of business, with a particular eye on the devaluation of sterling in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The company currently rakes in sales of around £25 million a year, and was last year recognised for its performance in overseas territories with the International Trade Award at the Shropshire Business Awards.

Now the company, which makes a variety of wall coverings for commercial customers, is looking to invest further in the business, and to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the pound's post-Brexit weakness.

As well as appealing to overseas companies who see Newmor's products becoming cheaper when translated into their home currency, domestic tourism is booming.

Hotels

That means hotels are likely to want a new look, and when they do Newmor expects to play a pivotal role.

Speaking in the company's boardroom in Welshpool – decorated with a wallpapered frieze of the 60s classic movie Dr Strangelove all along one wall – Mr Morris said new opportunities could be on the way.

"For us it is important to keep developing and investing," said Mr Morris.

"We are targeting some fairly big export markets for the coming year – the likes of Saudi Arabia, India, the USA. We are putting direct employees into Saudi Arabia and India.

"It has been our way of developing the business. We used to have distributors in China, but if you have somebody that you can talk to and that is an employee you have more control over things.

"Saudi Arabia is a huge market and they want to get away from oil dependency and to double their religious tourism numbers, so that will mean they need hotels."

The company's portfolio contains a number of big name hotel operators, from the Savoy in London to widespread chains such as Premier Inn and Holiday Inn owner Intercontinental Hotels Group.

Newmor now intends to garner further sales by selling into into major growing economies around the world. It already leans heavily toward export sales, and now hopes to develop that further.

"If we got enough sales there's quite a lot of headroom in terms of capacity in this plant," Mr Morris added.

"We could put in another 13 people here, but we need to get the sales first, and we think there's an ideal opportunity in terms of sterling.

"It's not about making sure people are aware they can get a better deal from us, that there are tangible benefits.

"In terms of exports we could do very sharp numbers with customers in places like China and Turkey, they would traditionally be buying from America, but at the moment they have a 15 to 20 per cent discount on our product they didn't have pre-Brexit. The travel market in the UK is also buoyant because of the value of the pound, and that is also an opportunity in hospitality."

The company will mark five decades of Mid Wales business later in the year, with an event at Powis Castle.