Function a plus in wood at Las Vegas Market

Exhibitors pleased by traffic, orders

Tom Russell -- Furniture Today, February 11, 2009

LAS VEGAS — Many case goods vendors here say they've had strong early response to new value-added product at a time when retailers and consumers alike are cautious about big-ticket purchases.

While expectations coming into market were low, exhibitors have been pleasantly surprised by traffic, commitments and written business in bedroom and formal dining.
Storage remains a big selling feature in platform beds, as do docking and charging stations and built-in electrical outlets on case pieces such as media chests and nightstands.
On the dining side, features such as self-storing leaves and drawer storage for silverware also remain popular. Pieces such as curio display cabinets and servers and buffets with wine storage also continue to supplant larger china cabinets.
Collections here tend to be smaller in SKU count, but there are exceptions.
One is Lexington Home Brands' 50-piece Cimarron collection of bedroom, dining, occasional, home entertainment and upholstery. The company says dealers are responding well to the collection, which has English traditional influences and a 22-step, hand-rubbed Chatham finish.
Traditional and updated traditional looks also continue to do well at AICO. Officials there reported positive response to Lavelle, an urban French style group with a black finish accented with silver/gold tipping and crystal details, and also to Beaux Ville, a country French-influenced collection.
Universal Furniture also reported success with large- scale, traditional footprints, including its new Casa Verona collection. Dealers like the Italian-influenced nature of the group, which includes four-piece bedrooms retailing at around $4,000.
"We've had dealers asking us to do this look because they know we are great at it," said Dave Pinamonti, senior vice president of marketing and sales.
In Universal's Pennsylvania House brand, a 16-SKU transitional, solid-birch bedroom and dining room group is doing well. It includes four-piece bedrooms retailing at $2,499 and a leg table and four chairs retailing at $1,299.
Storage beds also are popular at companies including Broyhill, Coaster and Fairmont Designs. Coaster reports a strong response on a $1,499 American traditional-style wall bed with matching lingerie chests on either side of the headboard.
Fairmont officials said they are writing orders on an eight-piece wall bed in the Solutions program with optional underbed storage and bridge reading lights on the headboard.
Most vendors reported relatively strong traffic the first two days of market, especially from the West Coast.
First-time exhibitors that were pleased with traffic on the first two days included La-Z-Boy case goods resource Hammary and Furniture Brands International companies Drexel Heritage, Thomasville, Henredon and Maitland-Smith.
Hammary President John Labarowski said the Las Vegas showing was timed to follow the recent opening of its West Coast warehouse. He said Hammary had opened 10 new accounts by Tuesday afternoon.