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Toronto: All thumbs up

Robust activity points to solid year

By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, January 20, 2002

TORONTO — TORONTO — Factory executives hailed last week's market here as the best in recent memory, with placements and orders pointing to a very solid — although probably not record-shattering — year ahead.

Final figures aren't yet available, but organizers said attendance for the first two days of the four-day Canadian Home Furnishings Market was up about 20% over last year.

"This market was surprisingly good," said Ron Dennis, vice president of sales and marketing for bedding major Simmons Canada. "Traffic was up and there appeared to be a lot of optimism on the part of retailers. While we don't think 2002 will be a record year, the feeling is that it will be a very positive year."

Steve Wallace, regional sales manager/Canada for Lane Home Furnishings, also cited excellent traffic and said, "Retailers were ready to buy any time you demonstrated value in your products and programs. We had terrific growth in our business last year and we're looking for more of the same in 2002."

"We had a terrific market," said Gerry Modjeski, executive vice president of upholstery maker Sklar-Peppler. "Retailers told us that this December was one of the best Decembers they've had in a long time. There was a slowdown after Sept. 11 but business seems to have come back. Consumers seem to be spending more on their homes — that's an important trend."

"I think business at retail turned out to be better last year than many stores expected," said Craig Dunlop, president of bedding producer Sealy Canada. "Retailers who came into our space were nothing but optimistic about 2002. They had no inventory issues; they had no product issues. They were ready to do business."

Boxing Week, the key sales period between Boxing Day (Dec. 26) and New Year's Eve, turned out to strong for most Canadian retailers.

"Most of the retailers we saw said they had a great November and December and they had better-than-average traffic for their Boxing Day sales," reported Michael Dunlop, vice president of sales and marketing for bedding and upholstery maker Therapedic Sleepking/Crown Design of Toronto. "So if we offered them the right product at a price where they can make money, they were ready and open to buy."

Factory executives also pointed out that many Canadian retailers didn't attend either the April market in High Point or the Toronto June show because business then was lackluster at best. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, many also skipped High Point in October. So, for a sizable number of retailers, particularly small independents, this was the first market they had attended in almost a year.

Thus, stores not only had plenty of open-to-buy but an urgent need to refresh their floors in nearly every category. Manufacturers said it had been at least several years since they've seen retailers so uniformly upbeat and optimistic about business prospects, and so ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

"Retailers are demanding new product," said Christian Ladouceur, vice president of marketing for ready-to-assemble furniture giant South Shore Inds. "There was no resistance on any issue. They were really ready to buy."

"They came in and worked the showrooms very hard," said Mark Wiltshire, vice president of sales and marketing for La-Z-Boy Canada.

"There was a very high demand for new looks, new fabrics and new leathers," said Robert Vlessing, president of upholstery resource Coja Leatherline. "This was the best market we've had in probably 10 years."

Jean François Michaud, executive vice president of the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Assn., sponsors of the show, noted that with about 450 exhibitors, this market was completely sold out.

There's consequently little room to accommodate more vendors, although the Toronto International Center of Commerce plans to expand Hall 5 by 35,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Michaud believes requests from current exhibitors for more space will eat up all that added space.

The QFMA's priority for next January's show is to attract more buyers, particularly from the United States and abroad, he said.

This elegant chaise from Superstyle won a Trillium award and lots of buyer attention at the just-concluded Toronto market.

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