U.S. presence a limited one
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, February 6, 2005
Cologne, Germany — The Cologne International Furniture Fair remains a little-used resource for U.S. furniture suppliers seeking business abroad.
Even with a weak dollar relative to the euro, only 10 of more than 1,300 exhibitors at last month's show here hailed from stateside.
Many more U.S. manufacturing executives were here just to walk the halls, however. Europeans have different attitudes toward product configuration and function, and that draws development teams from American producers who translate what they see here into goods geared to the U.S. marketplace.
For those few Americans that do show product in Cologne, the buying audience is definitely different from U.S. shows, said Jerry Ruff, director of the Furniture Trade Office of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, which organizes a pavilion here showcasing U.S. exhibitors.
"We've had actual sales, not just visits, here with buyers from Russia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Greece, and some Middle Eastern buyers have been here," Ruff said. "The companies that show here on a consistent basis have established relationships with their customers, and those relationships are translating into business."
Pulaski was here as an exhibitor for the first time in the N.C. Pavilion, sharing a small space with another newcomer, Bernhardt.
Pulaski had two goals, said Bill Sibbick, senior vice president of sales: "First, find more leads, and we have. Second, by our showing here, the people that are buying here know we're committed to the international business."
Next stop: Birmingham
Bernhardt's Cologne debut was the first step in a one-two combination with the furniture show in Birmingham, England, which took place right after Cologne. The company has exhibited in Birmingham for five years and has a space of more than 2,000 square feet.
Werner Schaeffer, Bernhardt's representative in Germany, had asked Bernhardt to show in Cologne because the company is part of a U.S. gallery program he's building at German retailers. Schaeffer represents Pulaski, Bernhardt and Stanley and his son Kai reps Ashley. They've established 45 German galleries with furniture from those companies, as well as accessories and lighting suppliers, and plan to add eight to 10 more a year.
The North Carolina Pavilion has become a "target destination," said Margret Bloom, vice president of international sales for Stanley, a longtime participant.
"I think we get more targeted traffic," she said. "We had a man from Russia who'd seen our line on the Internet and he came here to see it in the flesh."
Lexington, which returned to Cologne in 2004 after an absence of several years, was back again with pieces from its Liz Claiborne and Palmer Home lines, including bright upholstery.
"We've added accounts here, and we're shipping them containers," said David Parker Jr., Lexington's vice president of international sales. "They're committed to promoting and advertising the product, and we're getting reorders. These are very productive relationships."
Shopping for ideas
Some U.S. suppliers visiting Cologne didn't exhibit, but toured the show in search of ideas.
Michael Amini, CEO of U.S. case goods importer AICO, said European trends in components and fashion are a couple years ahead of North America. He has attended Cologne four or five times, and other European shows as well.
"This time we found an alternative to MDF that's much lighter but denser," Amini said. "That could make our furniture, which is large, easier to ship and move, but just as strong."
He added that he likes to adapt functional innovations he sees in Europe for use in AICO's product.
"We got more of kick this time out of the kitchen area than anywhere else — the function and utility, the hardware."
Emerald Home Furnishings CEO David Beckmann was back in Cologne for the second time.
"We're here to look at trends, to look at fashion — what's going on in the rest of the world is too important for us to ignore," he said. "I think the overall look here has gone extremely contemporary to the point where style-wise it wouldn't work for most of our customers, but you see some very interesting developments in the way pieces go together and function."
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