Independent furniture retailer Fairway Furniture has been hit by devastating flooding at its flagship Plymouth store less than a year after its £1.5m refurbishment was completed.
Overnight on the 28th August 2025, the Met Office reported an exceptional weather event localised over Plymouth deposited 42mm of rainfall in 1 hour – and 56mm across 3 hours – overwhelming an extensive network of storm drains designed to protect the store.
The sheer volume of water – estimated at almost 190,000 litres – rose to over a foot deep along the main entrance side of the store and overnight spread throughout the 30,000sqft store, causing extensive damage to the fabric of the building and the shop-fittings installed during the refurbishment programme. There was also significant damage the store’s product displays.
The store team, supplemented by staff drafted in from other sites alongside local flood restoration specialists Richfords worked tirelessly throughout Friday 29 August to remove the floodwater and begin a drying-out programme. The store reopened to customers on Saturday 30 August.
Managing Director Peter Harding commented: “Having made such a large investment into our flagship store, it is devastating to see so much damage. This type of unprecedented weather event delivered such vast quantities of water over such a short time that it overwhelmed our storm drain system designed to cope with a once in 40 year such event.
“I would like to pay tribute to our dedicated store team, those from our other sites and the teams from Richfords who all worked so hard to make sure we could reopen the following day, albeit with the store looking rather less pristine than it should.
“We are working with our insurers Aviva on completing the drying-out process, after which we will be scheduling works to restore the shop-fittings and store displays back to the clean, modern and high-quality style as they were when installed less than a year ago.
“For our customers, they can be assured that the vast majority of product ranges remain on display and that we will be here to serve them ‘come rain or shine’, now and in the future, as the South West’s leading independent furniture retailer.”
