Retailers hungry for wood
Presence of product, absence of antidumping battle spur interest
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, April 24, 2005
High Point — A fresher round of new product — including lots of contemporary — the settlement, for now, of the antidumping issue, and a decent month at retail in March resulted in fairly strong buyer appetites in case goods showrooms at market.
Magnussen Home, which had a splashy new Cristina Ferrare collection called Sunset Boulevard, tracked the traffic increase at 25% or more. Promotional activities — tango dancers on Saturday of the show, for instance — helped generate visits.
All but one of Riversedge's collections made the cut for production, a very good result, said Managing Partner Mark Stubstad. He said retailers were in a better buying mood this spring.
"Compared to last April, our business is a lot better. The tariff issue is not on everyone's mind as much," he said. "We're getting a lot of commitments, but we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. It may take eight months to a year to get all that product into (the customers') systems."
Stubstad said he remains concerned about possible fallout from the U.S. government's antidumping investigation into wood bedroom furniture from China, which concluded in December with relatively low U.S. duties for most Chinese factories. He was working at market to get ready for any administrative reviews of its source plants in China, a process that could start early next year.
"I've spent 15% of my time this week with our lawyers and plants discussing compliance," he said. "We want to make sure the plants are completely in compliance with U.S. law."
Service was a big issue at Ashley, where Chairman Ron Wanek said his customers were optimistic. Ashley has long preached about increasing inventory turns for leaner retail logistics, and Wanek said the message is paying off.
"I really think most dealers are understanding that now," he said. "They're doing a better job spinning their inventories, and Ashley benefits from that kind of mindset."
Vaughan-Bassett came to market with both plants working overtime and hiring, said Doug Bassett, vice president of sales. In percentage, business is up in the teens year-to-date. That's because of a lot of legwork between High Point shows, where the company sees only a quarter of its dealer base, he said.
He said market traffic had slowed down dramatically by Saturday, April 16.
"This is a Monday through Friday market. I would hope that the powers that be in High Point would move the dates to reflect the reality."
Importers and domestic case goods manufacturers might have had a spat last year over duties, but there's one area of agreement. The days of case goods price deflation have ended for now. With duties setting a floor on Chinese bedroom and cost increases for materials that affect both U.S. and offshore plants, don't expect more of the plunging prices of the past few years.
But don't look for much increase either, vendors say.
"We haven't had any price increases this market on our case goods, but I think it's leveled off," said Darren York, case goods product manager at Klaussner. "It will be interesting to see how the extra capacity in Asia will be offset by the rise of manufacturing costs. In the next year or two, when all the factories have excess production, they are going to be looking for business."
As in October, some of the busier showrooms were those of suppliers extending their reach with style departures, retailer support programs and other first-time efforts.
Manchester, for example, ships big container volume but has maintained a low profile. That changed this market with the introduction of Affordable Design by Connie Post, a 150-plus-piece, whole-home collection. It includes case goods in three flavors that fit environments ranging from urban contemporary to traditional to cottage to British Colonial, depending on accessorization.
The collection landed major commitments, said Ron Hahn, president of Manchester. He credits Post's long experience working with retailers on store design. She might not be a "celebrity" designer, he said, but the flexibility of her collection is evidence of the time she has spent in stores.
"Connie is a furniture person first," Hahn said. "With her relationship of retail and display, she's thinking from the consumer back through the marketplace in designing the product."
If Manchester had sold every account that wanted the Post collection, he added, distribution issues "would put me before a firing squad."
Durham's entry into licensing paid off with Mount Vernon, said John Scarsella, president and CEO.
"We've sold out the first two cuttings of Mount Vernon," he said. "Since 1998, Saville Row and our Louis Philippe have combined for more than $400 million at retail, and this will be bigger at retail than Saville Row."
Hard work leading into market landed a lot of business at River Forks, a new exhibitor importing case goods from 12 plants in Indonesia and four in China. Sonny Cassady, director of sales, built a veteran national sales team that was able to attract big accounts.
"We are pleasantly surprised to have as many top 100 retailers in here as we've had," he said. "We're looking at getting as many as four slots on some very large retailers' floors."
-
Retailers hungry for wood
Apr 25, 2005
Featured Company
-
FurnitureCore.com
FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
