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Planning for growth

Ray Allegrezza, Editor in Chief -- Furniture Today, December 26, 2004

While I've never believed in name calling, after you've read our 2005 Retail Planning Guide, I promise not to be offended if you refer to it as a capitalist tool. In fact, if you do, I'd consider it not only a compliment, but also a testimony to the fact that the issue met its objective.

Although many of the rankings and statistics found in this year's guide have changed, reflecting the constant shifts in our business, the guide's mission remains constant. Each year we strive to help retailers evaluate performance, identify growth opportunities and develop a strategic plan for the upcoming year.

While this type of information is important in a stable year, it becomes invaluable heading into a new year, especially when the business is showing signs of getting off to a strong start.

To help you jump-start your business, we are once again providing a highly detailed look at furniture sales by providing a list of the largest and fastest-growing markets in each of the country's four regions. As part of this section, we've included additional data not originally presented in our Furniture Store Performance Report.

This year's guide also provides additional insight into the burgeoning Hispanic market, including new information on this group's furniture-buying habits.

For those who remember the movie, "All The President's Men," the mantra was "follow the money." In the home furnishings arena, the smart money will "follow the furniture." To that end, our Industry Outlook section provides updates on the sales prospects for key product categories in 2005, along with style trends and related marketing strategies.

Finally, our Calendar section provides a comprehensive guide to the key industry events taking place next year.

My hope is that you use this guide not only to pave the road to success in the coming year, but also to keep you in the passing lane of the fast track as you head into 2005.

Furniture/Today wishes each of you a happy, healthy and prosperous year.

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Planning for Growth

Dec 29, 2004

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