Youth continues to be vibrant
By Jane Kitchen -- Furniture Today, December 26, 2004
High Point — More manufacturers and retailers continue to enter the youth arena as they look to bolster their business, and 2005 should see further growth. With an election year behind them, many home furnishings players believe the economy will get better, and they're betting that youth furniture is the place to be.
Changes and increased competition will force both manufacturers and retailers to stay on their toes, be creative and find their niches. The kids market no longer is an afterthought to adult bedroom, but a highly competitive, vital category with the potential for enormous growth.
"I think the growth we have had with youth is encouraging, and there are no signs of that slowing down," said Earl Wang, marketing director for major youth manufacturer Lea Inds.
Many more mainline furniture stores are dedicating additional space to youth or revamping their youth merchandising, which should provide more room for new vendors to make their mark. But with giants like Pulaski, Legacy Classic and Hooker getting into the youth business in 2004, it's becoming an ever more crowded field.
At retail, stores like Pottery Barn Kids and Bombay Kids continue to open new stores, turning up the competitive heat with savvy merchandising and direct-to-consumer catalogs that help promote their vision.
Certain youth furniture niches are just beginning to be tapped. Only in the past year or so have many manufacturers started paying close attention to the teen customer by adding hip elements to their designs. Today's teens have distinct tastes and specific ideas about what they want in their rooms, with shows like "Trading Spaces" and MTV's "Cribs" a part of their daily TV diet.
It will be a challenge for both manufacturers and retailers to keep up with them; we all know teens are fickle and finicky. Paying attention to how they live — with video games, iPods, instant messaging — will help provide a bigger picture the furniture industry might learn from.
For some time, storage has been the key word in youth furniture. But rather than just adding drawer space, manufacturers who have looked at how kids live and what they own are finding success with areas designed to hold CDs, Playstations, surfboards or skis.
Lofts are a great example of this, with space-saving all-in-one models offering a small footprint with storage galore — room for all the equipment that older kids especially tend to gather. The designs are a winning combination of "cool" for the kids and practical for the parents.
Some mainline furniture stores are looking to expand their product mix into cribs, a logical, if somewhat daunting, task. With manufacturers like Young America and A.P. Inds. offering collections from crib to teen, the task becomes much easier for big furniture stores.
Stanley's Young America recently added a full line of cribs and nursery furniture, for a total of 12 collections under the Young America Baby brand. This is a bold move for a big furniture maker, and may point towards a new direction for mainline furniture stores and even other manufacturers.
Still, it's a challenge when new moms tend to look to specialists for baby products. Retailers need to do more than simply floor a crib and changing table; they must educate salespeople on everything baby, and make sure customers know they take the category seriously.
Mainline stores that can back up a fledgling infant business with a big advertising budget may have an advantage over specialists, and being able to offer items in stock for quick delivery could be a big bonus.
Specialty stores are facing competition from both mainline furniture stores and mass merchants, and many could have a tough 2005. A few independent specialty stores already are beginning to disappear, and some in the industry think that will continue.
"You're going to see more and more independents going out of business in the next three years," said Ken Goore, owner of Sacramento, Calif.-based specialty retailer Goore's. The key to survival is to provide unparalleled customer service and the right product mix, he said.
Imports will continue to be a big issue in the kids arena in 2005, especially as more and more manufacturers get into youth. While many manufacturers employ a youth strategy that blends imports with domestically produced goods, some newcomers are looking to a pure import model.
Legacy Classic and other big importers entered youth this year, and they may be the litmus test to see how well the all-imports model works. If container programs prove successful in youth, the door will open for even more resources to get into the business.
"We'll have many more potential competitors coming into the marketplace," said Glenn Prillaman, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Young America. "(The youth business) is changing much more quickly now than the (adult) bedroom, dining room or home office business because we're just getting ready to see the storm of new entrants into youth."
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Specialty sleep products likely to stay hot
Dec 22, 2004 -
Cribs give youth segment a fresh hook
Jun 29, 2003
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