About 10 years ago, (probably longer) I bought 2 sofas from a Glasgow store called Forrest Furnishing, in all that time I've only had to have new loose covers made (owing to living with 5 cats) the sofas themselves were very sound, it would also have been cheaper to buy new from one of these large retailers, but I reckon if you are looking for something to last a while, you would be better off buying from a smaller independent shop. I can heartily recommend Forrest (www.forrestfurnishing.co.uk) and also another Scottish retailer Sterling I've had excellent service from both of these companies over the years and cannot recommend them too highly. I know that you are down in Stockport but if you fancy a quick run up the M6/M74 you could give them a go - takes me about 4 hours from the east side of Edinburgh to get to Chester - Glasgow would be nearer to Stockport