Canadel strives to stay on top
By Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, March 11, 2007
Louiseville, Quebec — In less than 20 years, Canadel grew from a start-up business into the 800-pound gorilla in the casual dining category.
Staying on top, however, has proven an even bigger challenge.
The same passion and creativity that grew the company is carrying it through a time when imports have forced many of its North American competitors in its product segment to close factories. Some have gone bankrupt and others have been converted to importers.
Canadel says it has stayed alive and well in casual dining by refreshing its line with new finishes and case options, including its first bedroom furniture, introduced last year.
Andre Deveault and his oldest son, Guy, started the company in September 1982. When they found that the name they chose for it had already been taken, they scrambled for an alternative and found "Canadel." It comes from Rayol Canadel, a region in Southeast France where many artists have painted landscapes.
Middle son Michel joined the company in 1985, followed by the youngest son, Jean, in 1987.
Jean Deveault recalled that when he arrived, the company was looking for a way to differentiate itself from others doing wood dinettes in shades of brown. The category was suffering. Canadel was selling about 250 sets a month in Canada.
To jump-start its business, Canadel tried something new at a furniture market in Montreal. It offered 15 color finishes, including two-tone pieces. The colors were so different from the norm that everyone thought the family had gone crazy, Deveault recalled. Crazy like a fox — the company sold some 1,200 dining sets in a month after that launch.
Stores had always tucked dinettes in a back corner, Deveault said. Canadel's new colors and better looks were the beginning of the higher-profile, well-displayed casual dining category as it's known now, he said.
In 1990, the company rented a temporary space at the High Point Radisson to get a feel for the U.S. market. After showing just four sets in its first appearance, Canadel moved strongly into the U.S. market starting in 1991. It now has 38,000 square feet in the National Furniture Mart and Furniture Plaza in High Point. It also shows at the Canadian Home Furnishings Market in Toronto.
In 2001, the company topped US$100 million in annual sales for the first time and remains above that figure. It offers a variety of sizes in tabletops, buffets and servers that blur the line with formal dining, further distancing itself from those long-ago dinettes.
Canadel also was the first casual dining producer to offer protected distribution, said Jean Deveault, now co-owner and executive vice president of sales and marketing.
"Fifteen years ago, this idea wasn't so obvious," he said, "but now lots of companies are doing this."
While this strengthened ties with retailers, the company eventually covered so much of Canada and the United States that few new territories were open for selling. Along came Color Shop in 2001, its second line of goods with some style changes and different finishes that could be sold in the same city as Canadel.
Over the years, the company considered growing into new categories, but always chose to stick with what it knew best. With its expertise in making buffets and hutches, however, it seemed a simple transition to dressers and bookcases. Canadel showed a couple of bedroom pieces in High Point last April and made a bigger launch in October. Deveault believes bedroom will account for 2% to 6% of sales in 2007.
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