Owner finds challenge in Weiman
Strives to debut new product constantly
Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, January 19, 2007
TRUMBULL, Conn. -- Carl Philips said he "wanted a challenge" when he went looking for a second furniture company to buy -- and may have found it in high-end contemporary upholstery producer Weiman Furniture.
"We looked at other areas of furniture and thought that upholstery seemed to be an intriguing business," he said. "It seemed to be that buying upholstered furniture at the wholesale level and the retail level is a relatively painful experience — and complicated. I thought that if we could just make it painless and easy, we can do a lot more business. That’s one of our strategies."
Philips has been trying to make the buying experience easier since he joined the furniture industry nine years ago when he bought what he describes as a "tired, stale" accessories importer, Interlude Home.
Under his leadership, he said, the company grew from 500 accounts to 4,500 and sales increased tenfold, even excluding the new business from Weiman. He declined to give a dollar amount for sales, however.
Philips said Interlude Home needed new energy, something he had in abundance after coming out of an early retirement.
Two years earlier, Philips had sold another company, an importer of berets, combs, bobby pins and decorative accessories for women.
"It was an interesting business but I only had a handful of very good accounts and they sort of dominated things," Philips said. "After 12 years of being a hoop jumper dealing with big chain stores, I got sick of that and sold the business (to Newell-Rubbermaid). I retired for a couple of years, got married, had kids (twins) and then decided I wanted to go back to work."
Philips liked the idea of getting into furniture. For one thing, he wouldn’t be tied to a few big accounts.
"But I did want a fashion business," he said. "Lo and behold, Interlude Home came along. An investment banker showed it to me and it looked like a fun thing. It looked like a very fashionable business, with a sense of style. It also had a lot of little customers, which I liked. That’s why I bought it. And it’s proved to be a very good investment."
Much like Interlude Home at its takeover, Philips believes Weiman is an underachieving company. Sales are in the $5 million to $7 million range, down considerably from the company’s peak in the mid-teens 15 years ago.
Philips said Weiman’s Christianburg, Va., plant, with its 65 employees, is capable of turning out $40 million to $50 million in product a year, a goal he hopes to achieve in the not-too-distant future.
To do that, he’s assembled a management team that includes Jim Becker, vice president of sales, and Grant Campbell, vice president of operations. Michael Gennet, former president of upholstery producer Lazar Inds. and the San Francisco Mart, was hired as a consultant.
Although Interlude Home and Weiman will maintain separate identities and sales forces, Philips sees some synergies. For instance, the Christianburg plant will make a future line of transitional and traditional furniture for Interlude Home. The line, which will be handled by recent hire Jim Calhoun as vice president of merchandising, will be separate from Weiman and not part of the Weiman brand.
In addition, Interlude Home will use its sourcing expertise to expand Weiman’s offerings of accent chairs, occasional tables and other accent furniture.
"One of the synergies is that we can take our experience with Interlude Home, which is really applying good sound business principles, which are not readily found in the furniture industry," Philips said. "I thought if we could apply those same principles to upholstery, we could turn this thing around."
Those principles include fast delivery, high quality and an aggressive approach to sales and marketing, Philips said.
Early changes at Weiman were visible at the October market, when the company had one of its largest product introductions with more than 60 pieces.
"We want to introduce new product constantly, new product, new product," Philips said. "Every customer who walks into the showroom, the first question is, ‘What’s new?’ Nobody wants to know ‘How are you? What’s the weather?’ All we do is listen to our customers and keep showing them new product."
He added, "We don’t know what’s going to sell, so I think we have to add a broader assortment to see what sells. What doesn’t sell, we’re not going to continue; what does, we want to go after."
While other future acquisitions are possible, Philips indicated nothing is on the front burner.
"Right now we’ve got our work cut out for us at Weiman," he said. "But there’s certainly other acquisitions we could look at in a year when we get this thing going."
-
Owner finds challenge in Weiman
Jan 28, 2007
Featured Company
-
FurnitureCore.com
FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
