Mississippi startup offers hospitality seating

InnOvation also looking at residential market

Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, June 19, 2009

TUPELO, Miss. — Hospitality industry veterans Phil Hoffman and Bill Cotter have launched an upholstered furniture company for the hospitality industry and is looking at adding production for a line of residential seating.

InnOvation Seating Solutions opened in April and sells through FF&E (Furniture Fixtures and Equipment) dealers, which offer turnkey packages - furniture, exercise room, kitchen equipment, etc. - to hotel chains.

Hoffman, InnOvation's CEO, said the company is participating in supply programs for Best Western and Choice Hotels, whose brands are Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Econolodge and several others.

InnOvation is manufacturing sofas, chairs and ottomans in a facility formerly used by upholstery maker Westwood Inds. It has a dozen employees and expects to have a workforce of about 40 by December and 100 by this time next year.

Hoffman projects sales of about $8 million this year and $10 million in each of the next two years.

"We based our budget on the current economy," he said. "We're a little ahead of schedule for the first 90 days. With the order trend we have right now, I'm pretty excited."

Hoffman, who spent the past 28 years as an executive for a hospitality seating company, including 10 years as president, is investigating opening a line of residential upholstery for independent dealers in the Southeast. Previously, Hoffman was with residential companies Garrison Furniture and Ward-DeSoto, both in Fort Smith, Ark.

The target for the residential line would be smaller independents "looking for something that doesn't put them against competitors" like Ashley and mass merchants who import containers.

"I don't want to do promotional," he added. "I want to offer nice products with sleeper mechanisms available."

In hospitality, nine of 10 sofas manufactured are sleepers, he said, adding, "It's almost easier to run a sleeper than a stationary because that's what we run all day."

Other InnOvation executives include Hoffman's wife, Barbara, president; Cotter, vice president of sales; Ed Bartee, chief financial officer; and Tom Gilmer, vice president of manufacturing.