Upholstery action sparked by fresh colors, styles, names
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, April 24, 2005
High Point — With marketgoers now gone, downtown High Point is back to normal, with little traffic and even less excitement — much as some upholstery marketers expected it to be during the April market.
Fortunately, they were wrong.
Business gave most upholstery resources something to go home happy about, especially after the effort that went into new product presented here.
There was lots of color, refreshing looks and famous names to draw the attention of buyers. Traffic, although hard to gauge in such a spead-out market, began on Monday and continued into last week. Some longtime observers were surprised with the heavy flow of traffic on the Sunday of market.
Color, the buzzword of past markets, kept showrooms from Ashley to Vanguard buzzing.
Fresh and colorful
"Dealers, like always, were looking for something fresh, refreshing," said John Palmer, president of King Hickory, whose new director of merchandising, Sandi Moore, added loads of new colors to the company's palette. "It was the largest product introduction in fabric and style that we've ever had — by far," Palmer said.
Unlike other spaces where where traffic seemed flat, the head count was up from last April in King Hickory's showroom. Palmer said he couldn't be precise about orders but added, "What's going to transpire in business is, it's going to be good."
Lee Inds., also loaded with new colors and fabrics, saw more large accounts than usual and, better yet, received larger orders, said President Norman Coley.
"There's always room for improvement," he said. "But I would give this market an 8.5."
Coley said smaller dealers are fueling Lee's overall growth, and the company wasn't disappointed with that segment's representation here. "We saw a lot of the boutique type of accounts," he said, adding the first three days of market left him little time to sit down.
Henredon and Rowe, meanwhile, reaped the benefits of branding with well-known designers Barbara Barry and Jonathan Adler, respectively.
President Steve McKee said Henredon has developed long-term relationships with dealers who are market regulars, but the company saw "new people because of the interest and intrigue of the launch" of Barry's collection. Response, he said, was "off the charts."
"I think the biggest reason is that a lot of high-end (consumers) are trending toward a more cleaned-up aesthetic," McKee said. "We're very fortunate that (Barry's) aesthetics seem to be so on trend.... We got the response we hoped for."
Other collections linked to recognized names, from La-Z-Boy's Todd Oldham to Flexsteel's Wrangler Home to the new Robert Idol furniture at Lane to Cristina Ferrare for Southern and Jaclyn Smith for Hickory Hill, also stirred a lot of interest.
There were a variety of approaches to color, and anything that looked spicy or cool was popular. Naturals, whites and light-palate covers also drew attention.
Thomasville's revamped upholstery line captured several of those elements in a sofa that felt and looked like a creamy spa towel, with tropical brown and aquamarine pillows. C.R. Laine was ablaze with sexy new color. And Drexel Heritage went both ways with its colorful Vera Bradley collection and its more natural, California-influenced Postobello line.
Another hot company was Universal, in its fourth showing of upholstery. It drew buyers with a cleaned-up, scaled-down and enlarged line of seating groups imported from China, most leaning toward contemporary.
"Response was overwhelming," said Roy Calcagne, senior vice president and general manager of Universal's upholstery division. He said some buyers initially were reluctant to commit until the company proved its quality and ability to deliver.
This market, he said, "The ones who were hesitant stepped up to the plate."
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