Emerson et Cie broadens line
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, April 30, 2007
High Point — High-end furniture specialist Emerson et Cie has adopted a new corporate identity meant to inform buyers of its growing strengths in case goods and upholstery.
At the spring market here, the company unveiled its new logo, which reads "Emerson et Cie — Inspired Décor." This replaces the slogan, "Emerson et Cie — Accents Today, Heirlooms Tomorrow," on all its letterhead, business cards, furniture tags, binders, cartons and marketing-related materials such as ads and brochures.
"It's really about being a broader source for all décor," said President Mark Smith. While the company has specialized in accent and occasional furniture, it doesn't want to be pigeonholed as just that, he said.
While Emerson et Cie has shown stand-alone beds and dining tables in the past, this market was the first time it has launched case pieces in a collection format.
All told, the company brought out 85 new items, its largest offering in recent memory. That included a dining room collection called Venture and new pieces in existing top-selling collections such as Palermo, Prodigy and Marseilles.
Venture includes a rectangular dining table, chairs and a buffet. New pieces in Palermo include a three-door credenza, a 60-inch pedestal dining table, an open bookcase and a wall-mounted unit for a flat-panel TV.
A typical dining set with a table and six chairs and a buffet would retail for $9,000, while a four-piece bedroom would retail at $8,000.
The company also brought out 10 leather upholstery pieces and 65 fabric upholstery items.
"We have always been a company based on accent furniture," Smith said. "That has been one of our mainstays for our 21 years in existence. To grow our business and be more important to our customers, we had to have more than that category."
Marv Smith, who co-chairs the company with his wife, Connie, said reaction to the new product was strong, with orders at market just under 20% higher than last April.
Elaine Levine, of Hollywood, Fla.-based design trade showroom Jessica Sidney & Co., said she liked the expanded Emerson et Cie line she saw at market.
"When we started buying from them, we bought smaller occasional and accessory items," she said, adding that the line "definitely has changed and changed for the better. We were very impressed with the showroom and liked the new product."
Based on its success at market, the company plans to keep broadening its line. In the fall, it plans to grow beyond its largely traditional Mediterranean and Italian-influenced styling by adding more Art Deco-inspired designs, Mark Smith said.
