Start with what Loomcraft is
It matters, because it is the strongest card in the business and very little of it comes through on the social accounts yet.
Loomcraft is a manufacturer. Not a reseller, not an importer with a showroom. Weaving, converting, printing, coating and finishing, from a factory in Roodepoort, with two hundred–odd people on the payroll and a history going back decades.
Most of the names Loomcraft is measured against on the cut-length list are brand houses and importers. They buy their cloth. Loomcraft makes it. That is the one thing on the whole list that cannot be copied — and it is the biggest piece of unused ground on the account.
The audience is not the problem
This is worth saying early, because it is usually the first assumption.
| Followers | Following | |
|---|---|---|
| Hertex Fabrics | 76,500 | 1,396 |
| Warwick Fabrics (AU parent) | 57,100 | 2,794 |
| Stuart Graham Fabrics | 20,900 | 4,355 |
| Loomcraft Fabrics | 10,500 | 4,728 |
| Home Fabrics SA | 3,870 | 669 |
Loomcraft sits mid-table with nearly three times Home Fabrics' following. Ten and a half thousand people have already chosen to follow. The question is not how to get more of them — it is what those ten thousand see when they arrive, and whether any of them are the people who place orders.
What the account says when someone lands on it
There is room in the bio
It currently holds the name Loomcraft Fabrics and the website address. The space for a line on what they make, where they are, and how a designer or retailer opens an account is still free.
Hertex uses the same space for “Fabric since 1987. Stores countrywide”, a sister brand, and a prompt to tag them. Stuart Graham for “Inspiring Interiors Since 1982” and what they do.
The highlights could carry more
| Brand | Highlights |
|---|---|
| Hertex | Wallpaper · Upholstery · Curtaining · Internationals · Carefree |
| Stuart Graham | Client Work · CT showrooms · George Showroom · SA Decor & Design |
| Warwick | Trends · New arrivals · Collaborations · BTS |
| Loomcraft | Discontinued · Passion · PRINTS · 10.6 · Capetown@bianca |
The others are organised around what a buyer arrives looking for. Loomcraft's have grown up around how the team works — 10.6 and Capetown@bianca are clear inside the business but less so to a first-time visitor, and Discontinued currently sits first in the row. Renaming and reordering them is a half-hour job.
What is being posted
The cadence is good. Roughly a post every two days. Effort is not the issue.
These are the twelve most recent posts, the full window Instagram shows without an account:
| Date | What it is |
|---|---|
| 4 Sep | Springboks meme — “Never dropping the ball when it comes to dedicated service and supporting the BOKKE!” |
| 2 Sep | Text slogan — “QUALITY TEXTILES AT AFFORDABLE PRICES” |
| 31 Aug | Text graphic — “Happy Spring Day” |
| 28 Aug | Photo |
| 27 Aug | Photo |
| 26 Aug | “PVC CAR MAT UNBACKED — COMING SOON” |
| 21 Aug | Video credited to an individual account, not the brand |
| 21 Aug | “BOKKE FRIDAY — STRONGER TOGETHER” |
| 19 Aug | “CLASSIC UPHOLSTERY” — leather sofa |
| 18 Aug | “BALI LAPIS” — armchair |
| 17 Aug | Photo |
| 12 Aug | Photo |
Two of the twelve are rugby, and two more are a slogan and a seasonal greeting. So roughly a third of the month is not about the product. The ones that are — Bali Lapis, Classic Upholstery — are the posts a buyer could act on, and there is room for more of them.
The pattern underneath it
Spring Day greetings and rugby posts are written for someone browsing at home. Loomcraft’s buyer is a bit different — the interior designer, the upholsterer, the curtain-maker and the fabric retailer, the people deciding whose book to open, which is what the cut-length list measures. The warmth in the account is real; it is currently pointed at a slightly different room.
Three channels that are not being used
LinkedIn — already exists, not linked
931 followers, 53 employees listed. It is not linked from the website at all.
For a business trying to grow trade and contract work, this is where the buyers already are — and it is the channel with the most headroom.
Facebook — the published link does not load
The Facebook address printed on loomcraft.co.za returns “This content isn't available at the moment” to a logged-out visitor, so anyone following it from the site does not arrive anywhere. Worth a look from inside the account — it may simply need its visibility settings changed.
/loomcraft.fabrics.5Pinterest — nothing there
No account found. Pinterest is where interior designers and homeowners actively search for fabric, by colour and by texture, with intent. It is the one platform where a fabric catalogue is the native content.
TikTok — nothing there
No account under any obvious handle. Being straight about it: of the gaps here, this is the least urgent, and not where I would start.
What could not be measured
Said plainly, so nothing here is taken as more certain than it is.
- Engagement. Likes, comments, saves and reach are not visible without account access. No engagement rate is quoted anywhere in this document, because any figure would be invented.
- Posting history beyond 24 days. Instagram serves only twelve posts to a logged-out visitor.
- Several competitors. St Leger & Viney, Mavromac, Romo, Papini and others could not be confirmed on Instagram under their obvious handles. They are left out of the table rather than guessed at.
- Website page freshness. Every page reports the same sitemap date, which is a platform artefact rather than a real edit date.
With access to the accounts, all of the above becomes measurable in an afternoon.