In this ever mutating business world it is crucial to find other markets to sell your products in order to avoid hitting a plateau and here at Gallery Fireplaces that message is very clear in the minds of our directors and sales managers.

For years now our sales team has been looking to expand our business over to the continent and they have done it successfully, our fireplaces and wood burning stoves as well as our fire baskets can be found in countries like Italy, France and Spain.

Talking of Spain, it is with great pleasure that we announce are newest authorized online dealer there, their name is Todo Fuego Stoves Costa Blanca.

Todo Fuego is an online store only, selling some of our top wood burning stoves (estufas de leña), gas fires (estufas de Gas) and fire baskets (cestos de leña) to the whole of Spain, offering free delivery and free site survey for those living in the Costa Blanca area.

For more information you please visit Todo Fuego Stoves Costa Blanca.

Fire baskets and Wood burning Stoves are the two best sellers in the fireplace industry, ask any shop in town and they will tell you stoves and fire baskets out sell traditional fireplaces by a reasonable margin.

Fire baskets don’t generate as much heat as a wood burning stove, but they add a special touch to that old fireplace or you can put them in any corner of your living room to enhance the room’s decoration.

Wood burning Stoves have a more traditional style and might not suit a room that has been decorated in a more contemporary way, but boy, they sure bang out the heat. Most stoves can burn wood for up to 10 hours without the need of refuelling and with the new airwash system they stay clean.

If your room has an alternative heating system, fire baskets are favourite. Imagine that romantic evening curled up in front of the fire and your favourite DVD, or friends round for supper, what could enhance the atmosphere more than a beautiful fire basket glowing in the corner. Fire baskets can also be a feature in the summer, just decorate with logs and pine combs.

So it is up to you decide know which one will suit your needs; fire baskets add a nice touch to any room but can cost a few extra pounds to run and don’t generate as much heat. On the other hand, wood burning stoves can run at a very low cost, generate up to 9kW of heating power not to mention they are also eco-friendly.

If you are thinking of an effective, economic and eco-friendly way to heat your living room, wood burning stoves are the ideal solutions to your problem.

Wood burning stoves can be nine times as efficient as an open fire (3x as much heat with a third of the wood burnt), they generate between 9 - 13kw of heat and burn wood up to 10hrs without refuelling. All of those advantages in an essentially environmentally friendly way.

The heat generated by a wood burning stove is evenly distributed through the room and the room tends to be warmest in the whole house.

Contemporary wood burning stoves use a process called double combustion which makes them clean to use, the stove reaches temperatures at which most of the substances in the smoke are also burnt, that is the reason for the name double combustion.

In theory, stoves can be easily installed by buyers but problems can occur during the installation process, such as positioning of the chimney pipes and concerning distances of the stove and flue pipes from inflammable surfaces and other problems, so make sure you read all the documentation that comes with your wood burning stove.

The Spring edition of the Celebrity Angels magazine is on the shelf in most good newsagents and Super Markets.  This issue offers real relevenat advice in the current housing climate.  Anne Maurice (house doctor) tells you how to get the best price for your home and self made millionaire (through property developing) Gary McCausland predicts the future of the housing Market.

The March edition of BBC Good Homes features an article about a couple with three young children who redesigned their Edwardian home in South London.  As well as replacing several ceilings and adding a basement they refitted three bathrooms one of which includes a waterproof TV fitted into the wall at the end of the bath! (I like their style).  They put in a Fireplace into their master bedroom which is from The Gallery Collection.  It is the Asquith in Limestone with the Crown cast Iron insert and gas fire (shown on page 65).

The March edition of BBC Good Homes has some great advice on revamping bedrooms, decluttering homes and how to to use the latest colours (blues, greens and pinks).  Also room makeovers, budgets buys and best home buys.    One of the features is the House of the Month owned and built by Sarah and Colin Knightley. Its a fantastic open plan bungalow in Devon which they built in 2006 after demolishing the original property.  Sarah has created a cosy interior at the same time as using contemporary light and neutral colours and to re-create the look in her living room (shown on page 57) you can choose the Gallery Tiger Plus Stove from £540.

The traditional Cast Iron Fireplace will never go out of fashion, and if you fancy one for your home you can get a fantastic deal on the Gallery Fireplaces Palmeston 48” Full Polished Cast Iron.

A Contemporary Fireplace complete with contemporary gas basket is also available in the Spring Offers.

Fancy grabbing yourself a Spring bargin? clear out the glutter, spring clean and redcorate with a fresh new Firebasket.  The trendy contemporary Zen basket is now on offer at your local Gallery Fireplace retailer.

Sales of retail goods rose in January, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said, after shops cut prices to encourage consumers to keep spending.

On a like-for-like basis, retail sales rose 1.1% compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase since May 2008. “These surprisingly good figures give some reason for optimism,” said Stephen Robertson at the BRC.

The BBC New Channel reported that ‘Clothing and footwear saw the biggest rise in sales, up 6.1%,’ according to the ONS.

Obviously savvy shopper have keenly opted to make their main purchases during the Jan sale (and why not, I did).  However roll on the Spring Sales I say!

If you are still thinking about purchasing a Fireplace at a bargain price then the Gallery Spring Sale is almost upon us.  I will keep you posted.