Living Richly going indoors with imported line
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, December 31, 2006
New York — Outdoor furniture importer Living Richly International plans to develop a medium-priced indoor line of furniture expected to debut sometime in 2007.
The company said it will source bedroom, dining room, occasional and youth furniture from Vietnam. It currently has five factories lined up, two Vietnamese owned and three Taiwanese owned.
Living Richly initially expects to gain nationwide distribution by selling to mass merchants and department stores. It also plans to sell to OEM clients, a segment that could represent a quarter to a third of the indoor business.
The indoor business could account for as much as half the company's business in two years, said President Richard Becker.
He said the company had about $10 million in sales in 2006.
"We needed something that would ring the registers all year round," he said, noting that outdoor furniture sells only about four months of the year.
Becker first went to Vietnam in summer 2001. At the time, he was running a U.S. factory that made high-end bedspreads and pillows. He said he also manufactured cushions for Sunbrella in the United States.
He launched Living Richly in 2001, selling the U.S. factory. The company has sold outdoor furniture to such retailers as Sears Canada, Target and JCPenney, and to a number of small- to medium-sized retailers, wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers.
Along with an office and showroom in Manhattan, the company has a Vietnam office and showroom in Ho Chi Minh City, where a cluster of indoor and outdoor furniture producers have plants.
Becker said labor costs that are as much as a third below those in China convinced him Vietnam was a good place to source his indoor line. The five factories will produce a range of styles and categories. Living Richly likely will start out with master bedroom, then move on to dining, occasional, youth bedroom and bunk beds.
Taking a cue from its outdoor line, the indoor furniture will incorporate mixed-media elements such as water hyacinth. An in-house designer will develop product in conjunction with designers at its source factories.
At some point, the company will set up warehousing to flow product to smaller customers, but initially is targeting large retail chains and independents looking to do container-direct business.
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Living Richly going indoors with imported line
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