Custom orders doing nicely, thanks
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, September 1, 2002
High Point — With short lead times on a full menu of frames and hides, many retailers are doing nicely helping their customers place custom orders on leather upholstery, which, because of its popularity and its higher prices, makes the category quite important to those stores.
For instance, the category is a top sales generator for Houseworks, a contemporary shop in Indianapolis, and Ed Cheikh, owner, expects it to get a big boost this fall from some advertising he has planned, the first time he has promoted leather.
"It's going to go up for us," Cheikh said. "We're making a major investment soon in our of advertising, with an American Leather TV ad at the end of September. We expect it to go up significantly. In three years, I have to say most of our sales have come from people coming in and experiencing the product."
In his 8,500-square-foot store, a striking new building that Houseworks moved into this summer, Cheikh shows about six styles of contemporary leather from American Leather, ranging from the Guggenheim sectional at $11,000 down to more common price points of about $3,500 for a sofa.
But the Houseworks staff wants to help shoppers have it their way, and the American Leather program is perfect for that, Cheikh said. "The beauty is you're talking about three to four weeks delivery, without any sacrifice of quality. These guys run like a Swiss watch."
And Houseworks has a quality story that it can sell with a prestigious product. "Leather has become so popular," Cheikh said. "With the colors that are offered, from the real trendy to the more normal brown, black and tan, it's giving people more choices. And if they buy quality, they're going to have a piece that will still be in style for 25 or 30 years."
Another custom-order specialist, Circle Furniture, which has four shops around Boston, also uses American Leather, as well as Norwalk for lower price points. In both cases, the exclusive emphasis is on special orders, and Harold Tubman, president of Circle Furniture, said that has been central to the company's success in the leather category.
"We want to sell a sofa the consumer is happy with in the right leather or the right fabric and both of our major vendors are relatively quick ship," Tubman said. "We're trying to focus on what their needs are. We're certainly happy to work within anybody's budget, but we want to build excitement around that room."
And leather is adding to the excitement of refurnishing, he said. "Now you can have it any style and any color. We can make it applicable to any room. We've also been showing more leather which I think has helped us pick up more of that business."
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