The specialist retailers are both planning to reopen stores after the government changed its guidance to what is classed as ‘essential’ to include homewares retailers, a clarification from its previous definition of ‘home and hardware’ stores.

Furniture Village plans to open all 46 of its branches this Saturday after testing social distancing measures across several of its shops over the past week, while DFS is set to open a handful of its shops on Friday.

Ikea is also believed to be planning a small trial of store openings this weekend, while ScS has said it is aiming to reopen stores “as soon as practically possible”.