Belfort steps into Geographic world
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 21, 2004
Dulles, Va. — Dulles, Va.— Like one of the Seven Wonders, a piece of Belfort Furniture was transformed into a must-see destination last month.
The Washington-area retailer used 3,000 square feet in its Belfort Galleries showroom here for the national debut of Lane's licensed National Geographic Home Collection.
With a display featuring a West Indian, tropical and Egyptian flavor, Belfort staged a weekend event that drew thousands of consumers.
Belfort's visual display team, led by Heidi Nelson and Gary Cunningham, created a faux tropical getaway in one area, with a 10-foot thatched hut for the Panama sofa and seagrass tables from the line's Tropic Winds collection.
Customers could climb on a life-size bronze camel and, through the magic of blue-screen photography, go home with personalized photo postcards of their trip to Egypt — riding a camel in front of the Pyramids of Giza and decked out in pith helmets and safari vests.
Live Caribbean and African music added to the atmosphere. Three award-winning photographers from National Geographic, which also is based in the Washington area, were on hand to talk about their international travels, which inspired the licensed line. Customers who made a purchase received a free copy of the National Geographic book, "Through the Lens."
"It was one of the greatest retail events I have ever attended in my 25 years with Lane," said Bob Phillips, Lane regional sales manager. "The planning and presentation of the event was superb."
The launch helped Belfort to storewide sales that weekend of more than $900,000, one of its best non-holiday events ever, said CEO Mike Huber.
One customer bought the entire West Indies bedroom group — roughly a $4,500 ticket. Over the weekend, Belfort sold some 200 pieces of the line, an unusually large immediate response, Huber said. If sales hold up, he predicted, the National Geographic line could do $500,000 to $800,000 at the store in the next 12 months.
Some 2,000 consumers came through on the premiere Saturday, compared to the usual 700 or so.
"It was a lot of fun," Huber said. "We wanted to put on a really good show."
The new line features two collections. West Indies, inspired by National Geographic's archives of 18th and 19th century West Indian images and artwork, has early French, English and Dutch design influences in rich mahogany. Tropic Winds, a more casual elegant group, uses earth tones and natural fibers, including wicker and seagrass, with African patterns and tribal designs to create "the allure of the island paradise home."
Huber's wife is a close friend of National Geographic President John Fahey and when Huber first heard about the collection, he didn't really see what the connection might be between furniture and the National Geographic Society. He also worried about putting something in the store, only to have to tell his friend later that it was a loser.
He changed his mind when he saw the line and the price points that Lane was able to hit. "I knew it was going to be a winner," he said. It's in the bread and butter of Belfort's price spectrum, with the beds retailing in the $800 to $1,100 range, "very attractive and priced well," he said.
"What's nice about it is it's different, but not too different," Huber added. "If you have cherry or mahogany furniture, you can buy a unique piece, like the (West Indies) armoire, that still fits in and has a story behind it."
Belfort, which has about 75,000 square feet of retail space in four main showrooms and a clearance center on one campus here, is donating more than $4,000 in proceeds from the event to National Geographic's World Cultures Fund, which supports the study and preservation of world cultures.
