Carpetright was founded by Lord Harris in November 1988 with the first store in Canning Town, London operating from a central warehouse in Barking, Essex
During 1990’s the Company moved its head office and warehouse to Rainham, Essex and set up two small semi-automatic cutting tables, which were able to provide 1,000 cuts a week. By the end of that year Carpetright had 71 stores trading from 210.000 square metres giving a turnover of €42 million and a profit of €455.000.
In 1993 Carpetright floated on the London Stock Exchange and by the end of April 1996 had expanded rapidly with 246 stores, 420.000 square metre of trading space, a turnover of €210 million and a profit of €28 million.
In November 1998, Carpetright celebrated its 10th birthday with a very successful birthday trading celebration. This milestone highlighted the huge change in size which had been achieved in Carpetright’s first 10 years. It now had 308 stores, 912.000 square metres of trading space, a turnover of €315 million and a profit of €26.7 million.
In January 1999 selected Carpetland and Allied Carpets stores were purchased and rebranded as Carpetright and 30 new Harris Carpets stores were opened.
