Urbanus leaves High Point, shows in Miami
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, January 22, 2007
Miami — Urbanus, a manufacturer of contemporary occasional and dining furniture, has decided to leave the High Point Market in favor of a renovated showroom here.
The company's 3,000-square-foot showroom at 336 S. Wrenn Ave. in High Point is for sale. The renovated Miami showroom opened last month.
Urbanus founder and President Gayle Zalduondo said the company is focusing on its Miami showroom in hopes of reaching more of the regional design trade.
She also believes the new strategy will help the company capitalize on and gain inspiration from the area's heralded architectural and interior design trends.
According to a company Web site, Urbanus does business with a handful of key retailers, including Crate & Barrel, Ethan Allen and Room & Board. While it plans to keep those accounts and gain others, it also wants to grow its business with the design and architectural trade.
Showing in High Point made it difficult to accomplish that, Zalduondo said, because the company was dealing mostly with a limited number of national retail accounts that wanted exclusivity on product.
She expects the Miami showroom will attract designers.
"National retailers know we exist, but our local community doesn't know we exist," she said. "We have been a little bit of a secret. Now we have opened the doors and hope to serve this community as well as our national retailers."
She added that Urbanus is "very much of a relationship-building company. We have had the same customers a very long time and are building on that base."
Urbanus has a 30,000-square-foot operation near the heart of the Wynwood arts district in Miami. About 2,000 square feet of this is showroom space and the rest is for manufacturing and office space.
Urbanus is inviting retailers and designers to visit the showroom throughout the year. Zalduondo said she and her team are able to give clients more personalized attention that they did in High Point, where the atmosphere is "rush in and rush out, so it is not as productive."
The Miami showroom welcomes not only retailers and designers but also architects and real estate developers. As part of the showroom launch, the company conducted a factory tour for design students during the Dec. 7-10 Art Basel Miami Beach, an annual art show.
Zalduondo said she has mixed feelings about leaving High Point, where Urbanus has shown since the early 1990s. But she had to consider the best strategy for her business.
"To leave High Point is very difficult for us," she said. "It is a great community.... I love High Point, but it was just not working for us."
