Digital opportunities
New electronics spark strong activity in furniture
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, October 12, 2004
At the Market — The digital age is turning into an important opportunity for the furniture industry.
With the entertainment category percolating nicely at retail, the industry is embracing the digital opportunity enthusiastically with a big assortment of new entertainment configurations.
The new shapes of electronics are presenting some design challenges for furniture, leading some producers to overhaul their lineups with new entertainment centers, television walls and home theater walls.
The basic technical requirements for entertainment furniture — providing a stylish storage and display solution for audio-video components and media — are still the same, and yet they've changed in that there is less of an emphasis on hiding the television. With widescreen aspect ratios, the diagonal dimensions of the new television screens are bigger, but the furniture is smaller in terms of both height and depth. This latter development makes today's entertainment furniture less expensive and less bulky and dominant in a room.
Credenzas go wide
Replacing the television stand of the past are credenzas and consoles that are nearly twice as wide. Entertainment specialist Furnitech, making its second appearance at the High Point market, now has credenzas that are 76 inches wide for the new tabletop monitors.
"We're hopping on this credenza opportunity because there is a growing need for base units," said Eric Shupack, president. "People are looking for a good, clean appealing piece of furniture that can display their new televisions and the components that go with it."
Encore, a division of APA Marketing, also is expanding its assortment of consoles, but the company is still putting an emphasis on walls because they offer more function and fetch higher retails, said Rich Serlin, executive vice president.
"Freestanding consoles aren't going to bring the retailers the dollars that walls will," said Serlin. He added that "the lady of the house still wants cabinets that hide the chassis of the television. She wants a wall around it, and if we don't provide it, our retailers are going to lose dollar sales."
Giving sales a lift
Companies offering plasma lifts, which are retailing at $3,000 and more, are getting a huge boost from the entertainment category.
For instance, both Serlin and Hank Long, executive vice president for Hooker Furniture, said their mechanized cabinets for plasma televisions are performing better at retail than they ever would have projected.
Hooker, too, has added wider consoles to match its comprehensive line of home theater walls. In fact, walls are getting bigger and bigger, as producers add ever-larger piers for storage and display, along with the wider console in the center. It takes a big house to accommodate this setup, but home theater walls are now sprawling out to 120 inches and wider.
To go with their wider consoles, companies are developing new and larger back panels. Quite a few companies are creating walls with a built-in look with center consoles that expand to a television's specific dimensions or with molding that tightly frames the television.
"We're still seeing it as a huge growth opportunity," said Tim Donk, vice president of merchandising for Legends Furniture. "There's really no end in sight as the electronics industry continues to generate excitement and sales."
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May 21, 2006 -
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