Smaller U.S., Canadian contingent does business
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, March 14, 2005
Guadalajara, Mexico — Fewer U.S. and Canadian manufacturers exhibited at the Expo Mueble show this year, but several who did said their Mexican business was growing.
Good Cos., Douglas, Lane, LeatherTrend and Universal were among U.S. companies that were back at the show. But Broyhill, La-Z-Boy, Canadel and Palliser opted out, and Ashley skipped the show for the second year in a row.
Case goods supplier Good Cos., which makes most of its bedroom line in a 300,000-square-foot plant in Tijuana, plans to open a distribution center in Mexico City by the end of this year. Good restructured its Mexican sales team late last year, hiring Gustavo Sánchez as vice president of Latin American sales.
"He's gone to some of the big accounts and asked what they need," said Sarah Garcia, president of Good Cos. "We're offering them different sizing, finishing and hardware on product that we show in the U.S."
She said Sánchez used that approach to help land customers such as Mexico City-based Electra. Part of Salinas Group, which operates about 110 Salinas stores at middle price points, Electra has around 1,000 locations at opening price points.
Customizing U.S. product for Mexican tastes is worth the effort, said Garcia, who wants Good's Mexican business to account for 20% of sales as opposed to its current 12%. Electra will "order 500 sets at a time," she said.
Leather upholstery specialist LeatherTrend has opened more than 25 Mexican customers since debuting here in 2004, backed by Guadalajara warehousing to support its business south of the border. President Bryant Dickens said the company quadrupled its Expo Mueble showroom space this year to 5,000 square feet.
"Our business is slowly but surely building," he said. "We also have a new ad campaign with the Mexican (furniture trade) publication Moblaje."
LeatherTrend showed a selection from its standard line, with no adaptation to the Mexican market beyond bringing styles it thinks will do well here. The heavy, lavish Artesano collection has been a good performer.
"It turns out that our three best sellers in Mexico are our most expensive, at $1,999 to $2,499 retail," Dickens said. "There's definitely a market in Mexico for better goods."
Most LeatherTrend customers now are mid-size independents, but Dickens hopes to attract major retailers such as Liverpool.
"Our warehouse in Guadalajara opened doors to a lot of medium-size accounts, and we've set up warehouse representation in Monterrey," he said. "We're also considering some retail operations ourselves in Mexico. Our long-term goal is to build a brand name."
