Goss wins F/T's upholstery merchandising award
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, October 15, 2004
At the Market — Cindy Goss, director of merchandising for Klaussner Furniture Inds., has won Furniture/Today's second annual Upholstery Merchandising Leadership Award.
Goss was honored for her ability to combine fabric and frame and for her overall merchandising skills. The award was based on voting by fabric mill executives.
Also honored as nominees were five other upholstery merchandisers: Laura Orsborne, director of design at Southern Furniture; Elaine Bolick, vice president of Palladin Furniture; Sue White, vice president of Alan White; Sharon Bosworth, vice president of upholstery design for Thomasville; and Anne Hood, senior director of upholstery merchandising at Century.
According to Ed Auten, director of merchandising and design at Dicey Fabrics, Goss "has a great eye and a sixth sense for fabric and color selection. Season after season, these selections, and her excellent application to frame, produce winners at retail."
Goss clearly knows her customers. Before she begins shopping for fabrics for the next market's introductions, Goss hits the road to visit Klaussner's customers — seeing what's on their floors and where their voids are, and looking for ways to help them achieve greater profitability.
"Having been on the retail side for so long, that's one of the things I really love (about this business)," said Goss.
Goss began her career with Reliable and later joined Levitz, where she developed sleep shops for what was then the nation's No. 1 retailer. Then she moved on to upholstery maker Brookwood, and from there to Klaussner. She is approaching 25 years in the industry.
"I think a lot of her success stems from having an extensive retail history," said Jeff Davis, Klaussner's vice president of merchandising for stationary upholstery. "That gives her good ground to stand on in knowing what retail buyers are going to look for from us."
Goss has great rapport with customers," Davis added. "I can't thing of a single account that she works with or anybody, our sales (force) included, that doesn't just love her and appreciate her talent, help, advice and direction."
Goss is lauded for her eye for color, her cover-to-frame applications, and her ability to find tremendous values from fabric sources.
Davis said she also has a knack for jazzing up mainstream base cloth applications.
"She goes out and finds the most perfect but obscure pillow patterns and correlating patterns that don't come off the shelf that way," he said.
"She does a really great job at putting together combinations of covers that work together but really aren't merchandised from the same supply source."
Goss makes it look easy. But she works hard to stay on top of trends, which has become harder in today's globalized industry.
"You've got to know what people are doing in Chinese fabrics as well as mills in this country," she said.
"There are certain things than are bargains in China now, like rayon and flat goods and things like that. You have to how pricing works — from cut-and-sew to having that fabric (available) in this country. It's just so different now."
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Upholstery merchandising leaders
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Upholstery merchandising leaders
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