Big Lots testing Rose Hill's SimplyFits RTA line
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, February 15, 2004
OKOLONA, Miss. — OKOLONA, Miss. — SimplyFits, Rose Hill's new ready-to-assemble upholstery program, is getting its first retail test, and the company is preparing for an aggressive rollout this year.
Closeout and discount chain Big Lots is testing a SimplyFits transitional frame next to an identical Rose Hill assembled model, both priced at $399.
"We're going to see how a $399 RTA sofa does next to a $399 assembled sofa," said Hunter Bigham, Rose Hill's vice president of sales.
Big Lots is conducting the test in 50 of its stores. If it's successful, Bigham expects the program will be expanded to more of the chain's nearly 1,400 stores in 45 states.
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Big Lots operates more than 45 freestanding Big Lots Furniture stores, and over 680 of its closeout stores also carry furniture.
"This could be quite a significant step for SimplyFits," Bigham said. "We were pretty confident the concept would appeal to nontraditional furniture channels. We've already seen the interest there from major mass merchants and others."
At the end of March, SimplyFits will be featured for an hour on QVC, one of the cable TV channels devoted to shopping. Bigham will make his national television debut as Rose Hill's spokesman.
SimplyFits, which employs the FastLoc fastener system developed by Techna Industrial Design in High Point, was developed as a complement to the RTA occasional tables and wall systems that Rose Hill imports. The company already produced assembled upholstery at its factory in Okolona, Miss., but, Bigham said, "We were looking for a way to break down upholstery to go with our collapsible wall units and tables."
The advantages of RTA upholstery seemed strong enough to justify the effort, even in light of a similar but unsuccessful concept developed nearly 10 years ago by a Masco furniture unit.
"It just seemed we had some strong benefits and flexibility to offer both the retailer and the consumer," Bigham said, noting that a truckload of SimplyFits contains 300 seats compared with about 180 for most promotional assembled upholstery.
For consumers, SimplyFits is easy to move, and it can be broken down and put back together as many times as desired, he said.
"And you won't know the difference when you sit in them, aesthetically or in terms of comfort," he added.
The FastLoc system will work with any of Rose Hill's upholstery frames, but the company will start with an initial six-frame lineup and expand to about a dozen by the end of this year.
While Rose Hill intends to develop SimplyFits to suit big-box retailers such as Big Lots, the company is eager to see how its existing base of traditional furniture stores responds to the concept.
"The question is, what's it going to do in a furniture store?" Bigham said. "Is the story going to be good enough? Is the flexibility of the mechanism enough of an attraction to make it a significant value?
"We think it is, and we want to have the legitimacy of that furniture-store floor. We want to have the slot for both assembled and RTA."
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