Kidz World adds color, fun to Tupelo market
By Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, August 31, 2009
CALHOUN CITY, Miss. — While Kidz World, a domestic maker of juvenile furniture, may only be a few months old, its parent, Med-Lift & Mobility, has supplied lift chairs and adjustable beds to the home furnishings industry for decades.
Both companies exhibited at this month's Tupelo Furniture Market, where Kidz World made its debut in a dedicated showroom next to Med-Lift.
Kidz World President Alison Nichols, daughter of A.D. Blount, who owns both Med-Lift and Sleep-Ezz adjustable beds, was busy in Tupelo showing buyers her line of colorful juvenile furniture.
Most of the assortment is licensed product, including well-known character licenses such as Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go! and SpongeBob Squarepants. The company also has licensed goods from Mossy Oak, Major League Baseball, Marvel's “Spider-Man 3,” the National Football League, the National Hockey League and a host of colleges.
Kidz World is using those names to spark sales of its assortment of recliners, chaise-skirted and non-skirted rockers, club chairs, sleepover sofas, chairs, headboards, futon mattresses, bunk bed mattresses, cube ottomans and video rockers.
Most of the items carry suggested retails ranging from $79 to $149.
In addition to piggybacking product to well-established licenses, the company also is hoping to garner favor from buyers by virtue of the fact that all of the furniture is made domestically in a manufacturing plant in this Mississippi city.
In fact, a grant from the state of Mississippi helped facilitate the launch of Kidz World, according to vice president of sales Dwight Griffin.
“We are not so much selling furniture as we are the sizzle that comes from great licenses and a made-in-America story,” he said.
All of the fabric, with the exception of the material used on the Mossy Oak furniture, is also domestically made by Premier Printing, a mill in Sherman, Miss.
The company has already conducted successful in-store events with a number of furniture retailers including Lynchburg, Va.-based Schewels.
“This June, Schewels had a special event that gave kids the chance to have their picture taken with SpongeBob. In addition to games and refreshments, the store also had an hourly drawing for a free SpongeBob recliner. They had a full house that day,” Griffin said.
“When you've got kids in the car and they see a sign outside a store that says SpongeBob is inside, they find a way to get their parents to take them inside,” he added. “And in today's market, getting the customer into the store is an obstacle. We think we can help retailers overcome that challenge.”
