Accents can point way toward industry growth
Thomas Russell, Associate editor -- Furniture Today, January 4, 2004
Because of its durability, most furniture tends to hang around for many years, and sometimes gets passed down to younger generations. The heirloom nature of these pieces simply doesn't get people out shopping for new product as often as furniture makers and retailers would like.
Consider these figures from a 2003 report by North Carolina State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on competitiveness in the residential wood furniture industry: Despite larger homes and more second homes, Americans spent only $320 per capita on furniture in 2001, the study found. That's $30 to $80 less per capita than consumers in Austria, Germany or Luxembourg spent on furniture in the same year.
Admittedly, the latter are three small countries. But the study's authors said such comparisons illustrate the opportunity for the U.S. industry to grow its business.
In my view, makers and importers of occasional and accent furniture could help lead the way. Because of price and size, these products long have encouraged more impulse buying than their larger, more expensive counterparts.
The difference now is that some resources are starting to market product in less conventional settings, such as bedding stores.
Butler Specialty Co., for instance, has introduced a group of hand-painted headboards with a number of matching occasional products. The primary target for these products is the traditional furniture retailer. But the company plans also to market these goods to bedding and sleep shops.
Powell has sold headboards and small accent pieces to bedding stores for several years. But it too plans to expand on that strategy with a new group of cedar jewelry chests.
The concept has potential because the items are small and don't take up much space on the sales floor. More importantly, opening up another distribution point helps maintain and possibly increase consumer interest in home furnishings.
Madison Square Furniture is marketing a line of kitchen and bath products such as vanity sink cabinets, pantries and quilt racks in a gallery concept it pitched to retailers at the October market. Those same products easily could be marketed to kitchen and bath stores.
Pennsylvania House showed off its own kitchen gallery concept in October with a center kitchen cabinet and a lawyer's bookshelf that can be used for plates and other flatware.
While these products are smaller scale, they can fuel interest in an industry where price long has taken a lead role. Accent and occasional pieces also are helping restore some focus on beauty and quality, and they illustrate how furniture can brighten any room in the home, even the kitchen or bath.
If that helps spur interest in other product, then occasional furniture resources will have done something valuable for the entire industry, beyond simply boosting their own business.
Opinion columns are available online at www.furnituretoday.com.
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