Group aims to re-energize HP premarket
By Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, March 19, 2007
High Point — While a smaller contingent of retailers than at past events wandered High Point's quiet showroom district last week, be forewarned: reports of premarket's demise may be premature.
If an informal group of organizers have their way, a newly re-energized premarket will debut late this summer. As many as two dozen companies — mostly big case goods suppliers — are scheduled to meet next week in High Point to finalize a strategy to revive market's diminishing dress rehearsal.
Attendance at premarket, which was once an opportunity for manufacturers to garner feedback and lock in distribution a month before each High Point Market, has waned in recent years. This winter's shortened five-month product cycle between High Point Markets, as well as the Las Vegas Market just a month ago, all but ensured that last week's event would draw less interest.
Still, that didn't stop retailers such as Macy's or Havertys from attending, exhibitors said, yielding opportunities for those who opened that may not have arisen during the regular market, which begins March 26.
Kevin O'Conner, president and CEO of Legacy Classic Furniture, confirmed that there's a move afoot to improve the High Point premarket.
"We have had a number of exploratory meetings with a group of key retailers and suppliers to discuss what might be done to energize premarket," he said. "Those preliminary discussions have netted lots of good ideas, some of which could be implemented in time for the next premarket."
He said he believed the next premarket would be in late August, four or five weeks before the market, which opens Oct. 1.
O'Connor said the goal of the group is to invite some 60 of the Top 100 retailers to High Point to show them finished goods.
"The plan is to make this a real event by having retail-ready items for customers to look at," he said. And with the anticipated timing of the August event, "suppliers would still have time to tweak things such as hardware and finishes," he said.
Heading into this month's market, retail business remain spotty, according to Guy Walters, vice president and general manager of SLF Signature.
He noted that in Florida, surging insurance rates and some possible tax law changes were casting a psychological pall on buying patterns. Florida is proposing to cut or eliminate property taxes while increasing its sales tax from 6% percent to 8.5%.
Also of concern is a softening of the real estate market, which also is affecting consumer mindsets, he said.
"It's pretty tough all over. Our business tracks that of housing and existing home sales. When that business gets tough, and as housing has slowed in Michigan and Florida and California somewhat, it's become more difficult," said Jeff Scheffer, president and CEO of Stanley Furniture.
Business has been good in areas with regional economies linked to oil production from Texas northward to Canada, said Rountree Collett, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Bernhardt.
A.R.T Furniture, which showed at premarket, will go into High Point fresh off a successful Las Vegas Market, said CEO Ed Grund. During and since that show, retailers and sales representatives seem to have a "contagious feeling that things are improving," he said.
Leader International saw few attendees at last week's premarket. The event was less relevant since the company saw about a dozen new retailers during the Lifestyle Enterprise "mini-market" in January, Leader said.
At APA Marketing, premarket was slow, but sales in recent months have been steady, according to Bob Lephart, sales and marketing manager for the Eastern United States. Sales for the company started growing in early November, he said, and over the past three months, sales are up about a third over the same time a year ago.
| Acknowledgements | ||
| Staff Writer Jeff Linville and Editor-in-Chief Ray Allegrezza contributed to this story. | ||
