Magnussen readies Ferrare line for April
By Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, October 6, 2003
High Point — Magnussen Home Furnishings plans to introduce the Cristina Ferrare Home Collections in April under a licensing agreement with Ferrare, an author, jewelry designer, TV talk-show host and former model.
A pair of bedroom, dining room and occasional groups in modern contemporary and European traditional styles will be the first of a number of collections Magnussen expects to develop with Ferrare in years to come, said Jeff Cook, the company's president and chief executive officer.
"We believe that Cristina naturally represents what Magnussen Home stands for," he said in announcing the licensing deal last week. He said consumer research indicates she will appeal to an important target group, adult women.
Ferrare and Magnussen came together early this year through a licensing agency. She has been cooperating in the design of the product and will travel to source plants in Asia to check samples, Cook said.
Ferrare will be in Magnussen Home's High Point showroom at this month's market, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 14 and 15, and will have some sketches to show. The first actual product will be shown in a private preview for select Magnussen retailers early next year, probably in February, and the collections will debut at the March premarket and April market.
"Cristina has been sharing her unique vision for the home for decades on TV and through her best-selling books," said Cook. "We're pleased to collaborate with her on collections that reflect her love for comfortably elegant, accessible home furnishings that truly enhance family life."
Each of the first groups will have 30 to 40 SKUs and will fall within Magnussen's current price points, he said. The licensing agreement with Ferrare extends five years from the product introduction next April.
Cook didn't give a sales projection, but said he expects the line to develop into "a significant part of our business."
"We're swinging for the fences," he said. "We're not in this for a bunt single."
Another licensee is likely to produce upholstery with Ferrare, but nothing has been set yet, Cook said.
Another part of the home line will be non-furniture goods such as tabletop and linens, which Ferrare is introducing this month with a series of appearances on the Home Shopping Network.
In a press release, Ferrare said she hopes women will look to her furniture collections "for designs that are both beautiful and balanced. I want to help people create a pleasant reality, not a perfect fantasy."
Ferrare started modeling as a teen-ager, and in the '70s and '80s was one of the first supermodels. On television, she was the co-host of "AM Los Angeles" for five years and has been a guest host and guest on several talk shows. For three years she hosted "Home and Family," a two-hour live show on the Family Channel.
As an author, she has written about style and entertaining and had a New York Times best-seller in 1999 with "Okay, So I Don't Have a Headache: What I Learned (and What You Need to Know) About PMS, Hormones, Stress, Menopause — and Sex." Rodale Press will publish her new book, "Realistically Ever After," next spring.
