Brookwood adds imported case goods line
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, March 26, 2007
High Point — Midpriced upholstery resource Brookwood Furniture is adding imported case goods to its line at this week's market, introducing six "whole home" furniture collections totaling more than 300 pieces.
It's the first time the company has offered wood furniture in its 40-year history.
Brookwood says it is taking advantage of the 20 years of overseas design and sourcing experience of President Phil Hood, who became a principal in the company two years ago.
The new collections are on display in a 9,000-square-foot building the company purchased across the street from its main showroom at 315 W. Russell St.
The wood line is called Aubrey Nichole Designs, and is the second division established by Brookwood in the past two years.
The first, Timothy Scott International, is dedicated to fully upholstered seating from Asia.
Hood said Brookwood's sales increased 30% last year, with the imported upholstery division accounting for nearly all the growth.
The new wood division aims to offer products with upper-end materials, looks and values at medium price points, he said.
Brookwood can do that, Hood said, by taking shorter margins, sourcing from Asian factories that produce high-end goods, having its own experts on site, and training foreign workers to make furniture acceptable in the West.
"The hole in the market is at the better end, higher-style furniture dominated by people who have been in it for a long time," he said. "There needs to be an alternate supply in better-end goods."
Brookwood has a plant in Pontotoc, Miss., that produces sofas in the $799 to $999 retail range. Its imported upholstery line offers fabric sofas starting at $599 and leather at $999.
Hood said the company only imports product it can't make competitively in its Mississippi factory.
The whole home collections feature sofas in the $999 to $1,299 retail range. Small-way bedrooms will be around $2,400 retail, big-way $4,000; dining $1,500 to $4,000; entertainment, $699 to $1,999; and occasional tables, $299.
The collections include a variety of beds, dressers and specialty pieces; dining includes gathering-height tables, servers and highly functional pieces.
"These are logically created collections that make distinct style statements in a correlated theme," Hood said, but they are not "matchy-matchy."
"We did a lot of market research and strategizing about what we wanted to end up with," he said.
The new wood collections include:
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A contemporary loft style in ash solids and white oak veneers with burl, leather and stone.
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A second contemporary in European birch and cherry veneers in oval and soft shapes that incorporate leather, stone and metal.
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A casual, antique traditional group in cherry and crotch mahogany veneers.
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A tropical-inspired group using bamboo and rattan.
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A clean traditional in burl and marquetry veneers in a medium fruitwood finish.
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A European traditional with an antique flair with subtle tipping in carved areas, in pecan veneers.
Tilley to introduce case goods line
08/16/2009Tom Tilley offers new case goods line
08/10/2009Brookwood closing U.S. operations
08/26/2007Importers expand range of color options
11/01/2009
