Buyers commit to leather
By Joan Gunin -- Furniture Today, May 22, 2006
High Point — Despite some fits and starts in dealer traffic, leather upholstery garnered its share of commitments from market buyers.
Market, as usual, began early in the week for the retail heavy hitters and dwindled later.
"Traffic was good but the patterns are changing," said Harry Cierler, director of North American operations for Italy-based Chateau d'Ax.
Eustachio Nicoletti, managing director of Nicoletti, said some majors bought early, "and we were very happy about the results."
At DeCoro, Heath Corso, executive vice president, noted, "We've had great feedback from buyers to our casual contemporary and lifestyle looks and good placements."
All five new designs added to Jaymar's ETC. in-stock program got commitments and will go into production, said Gary Zuckerman, the Canadian company's vice president of sales and marketing for the U.S.
But he said traffic was soft, and blamed it on "a mixture of too many markets, combined with the economics of the furniture business. The retail climate is spotty in regions."
Bradington-Young President Scott Young was buoyed by the company's new showroom location in the Commerce wing of the main building.
"We saw three times the traffic on Tuesday and Wednesday than in our former outlying building (on King Street)," he said. "We are selling people who had never seen our product because we are now on the beaten path, not off the beaten path."
At Natuzzi Americas, new dealers continued to trade up to higher values. "Our lines are now clearly segmented by brand and product," said President Fred Starr. "It was a huge challenge but we have turned a corner."
Roy Calcagne, senior vice president of upholstery for Universal Furniture, was pleased with the expansion of the new Loft Leather program. Four of the six introductions did very well, he said, including one contemporary and three transitional styles.
"The Loft Leather collection received high marks for styling direction and pricing (from $1,099 to $1,199)," Calcagne said.
Some companies found themselves dealing with issues of distribution, while several suppliers are seeking alternatives to container-only deliveries in order to embrace more customers.
At Palatial Furniture, an Asian importer at its fourth market, President John Hoff said, "We are quite happy to have some distribution challenges to work out."
Palatial's new warehouse program did well at market, Hoff said. "Dealers were pleased they no longer have to put up huge dollars for container orders."
Newcomer Luana Living did well with its mixed-media upholstery and casual dining, said President Luana Davis.
"To our pleasant surprise, we actually ran into distribution conflicts," she said.
At Simon Li, a division of China-based Trayton Inds., Robert Petril, sales director for the Southeast and a member of the merchandising team, called the week's results "beyond expectations. We wrote some pretty big orders but we still have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks."
Giovanni Sforza, president of Italian-based Incanto Divani, was "quite satisfied" with buyer traffic but is "taking a different approach by focusing on select customers. These key accounts do not have to order full containers; we are offering more flexibility in ordering."
FurnitureNow, the revamped San Diego warehouse program from LeatherTrend, also got off to a good start. La-Z-Boy also said it did well with its Benton sofa and a new four-frame leather club chair program.
