After 12 months in the wilderness, one of Brighton and Hove's best-known independent furniture stores has finally found a place to call home.

A year ago, family-run Martha's Barn was turfed off its premises in New England Street to make way for the arrival of supermarket giant Sainsbury's.

Owner John Fletcher found new premises in Norway Street, Portslade, but was soon embroiled in a dispute with Brighton and Hove City Council over the right to sell furniture from the site.

Despite spending £40,000 refurbishing the building, his retrospective bid for planning permission to use the building for retail purposes was dismissed by councillors.

An appeal was subsequently rejected, forcing Mr Fletcher to seek new premises.

Happily, he and his team have found a new home at Brighton Marina and have secured the future of the business which was founded in Hove in 1992.

The move to the Marina means Martha's Barn can once again focus on its core business - manufacturing and importing made-to-measure furniture.

The furniture store was a thriving business in New England Street, with a £1 million annual turnover, 16 staff and a separate manufacturing plant in Peacehaven.

In the past year trading has been tough, with a sharp dip in performance, but John said he was confident the business had left its recent troubles behind.

He said: "The past 12 months have been torrid in terms of all the uncertainty and not knowing whether we were staying or going.

"And then we found ourselves having to look for new premises and everything that entails while trying to run a business.

"So the past year has not be good. It was a bad move to Portslade but we expect things to pick up now.

"The Marina is a lovely place to be and the first week's trading has gone very well indeed, it has been quite a success.

"We had one customer who had arrived at the Marina from Belgium on a yacht and took one of our coffee tables back with him.

"In many ways, it's a better fit for us than New England Street because our customers are quite upmarket I suppose."

Brighton Marina, now owned by Pierre-Yves Gerbeau's X-Leisure, now consists of more than 40 shops, bars and restaurants, ten leisure sites and a hotel.

Wednesday, August 3, 2005