Durham closing Toronto showroom
By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, August 4, 2003
Durham, Ontario — Durham Furniture is closing its permanent showroom at Toronto's International Center.
The high-end, solid-wood bedroom and dining room producer has broken ground on a C$35 million, 223,000-square-foot facility in Chesley, near its main plant and headquarters here, which will include a showroom displaying Durham's entire line.
John Scarsella, president and chief executive office, said the new complex is expected to be ready by early next summer.
"To be very candid, the cost of maintaining a permanent showroom in Toronto, when we only had traffic for two-and-a-half days during the January show, doesn't make good business sense," he said. "In the old days, dealers went to market, walked the halls, looked in windows and went in if they saw something they liked and talked with the supplier about buying. Today, dealers are invited to showrooms and, without those invitations, they aren't even allowed in most showrooms."
Scarsella stressed that Durham's Canadian business remains important, but said most of its Canadian retailers shop in High Point.
"Our new products are shown first in High Point; that's where distribution is established," he said. "We are not de-emphasising the Canadian market. To me the border is seamless and every independent furniture retailer is the same — very important."
In 2002, Durham had sales of C$91.2 million, 79% of which were to retailers in the United States.
No decision has been made on whether Durham will participate in the next Toronto market, set for Jan. 10–13.
"We've been spending a great deal of time and resources over the past five years to bring our dealers' salespeople to Durham and Chesley for factory tours and training sessions," Scarsella said. "Our goal is to grow these programs.
"We know who we would like to do business with," he said. "If they're also interested, we'll bring that dealer to Durham, show them our facilities and our people, and we'll be able to show them our entire line in our own showroom right at the plant."
