Butler scales back headboards
Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, July 26, 2004
Chicago — Last fall, accent and occasional furniture specialist Butler Specialty had planned to sell its line of hand-painted headboards in sleep shops around the country.
It even had about 75 companion pieces, ranging from chests to drum and pedestal tables, that it planned to sell to those stores. The idea was to open up a new line of distribution where people purchased the items more as an impulse than out of need.
So far, the strategy hasn't had much success. For one, sleep shops typically don't come to the High Point market, making it hard for Butler to show them everything in one showroom setting. Secondly, the sleep shops that saw the products after market apparently found them too expensive.
In response, Butler has developed a smaller-scale headboard at lower price points. In a new finish and style called Springtime, the model comes in twin and queen sizes.
The twin now retails at $399, compared with $799 for the previous line. The queen-size version retails at $699, down from $999 for the previous product, said National Sales Manager Dan Sumner.
In lowering the price point, Sumner said Butler did not sacrifice quality, but merely scaled back the size.
"The pricing structure will be (more) attractive to sleep shops," he said.
Butler has been successful placing last fall's line in furniture stores, he added. Many of those same stores reacted well at the April market to the new headboard.
Eventually, Sumner hopes to get a similar response from sleep shops. Depending on how well the new headboard does at retail, Butler also is looking to add about eight companion pieces in October.
