Retailers scramble to replace Quaker fabrics
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, July 30, 2007
High Point — Retailers were checking lists from upholstery vendors last week and taking covers out of commission in the wake of major fabric supplier Quaker's shutdown.
"It's a lot of work pulling fabrics, and our fabric walls are going to look empty," said Alician Bratton, upholstery buyer for Belfort Furniture in Sterling, Va. "Quaker had some really great base cloths at really reasonable starting price points in the lines we carry. So that's going to hurt a lot."
Similar moves were repeated across the country as manufacturers and retailers faced the reality that Quaker, one of the industry's favorite suppliers, was gone. Quaker Fabric, which had reported losses for 12 consecutive quarters, said earlier this month it likely would cease operations and sell its assets.
Retailers uniformly described the closing as "sad" and a huge loss of a popular supplier.
"I don't understand how they weren't doing well, since everybody used them," Bratton said. "They're great people to deal with. The factory's great ... so it's a sad thing, actually in more ways than just hurting my business right now. It's a bad thing for the industry as a whole."
Susan Capo, upholstery buyer for Miami-based El Dorado Furniture, said, "We're just starting to get letters from the different vendors, depending on the covers that we have — what needs to be dropped and what has to be re-selected."
Capo doesn't think El Dorado's floors will be affected dramatically. "I haven't received much information as far as what's going to be discontinued," she said, adding, "I don't think we have that many things that are Quaker."
She also said the retailer doesn't take special orders, so "that makes it a little easier."
Joseph Harz, president of midpriced to upper-end retailer Carl Harz Furniture in Elmer, N.J., said he hasn't received lists of discontinued products yet from most manufacturers, but is getting the word "piece by piece" with the exception of La-Z-Boy.
La-Z-Boy has been informing Harz' brother, Richard, who handles that resource, as its stock depletes on individual fabrics. "That's how they're doing it so far," Joseph Harz said. "Rather than say pull those hundreds of swatches, they're advising him swatch-by-swatch as they run low on inventory."
The store uses an assortment of vendors, so it's just getting a feel for its loss in inventory. "I expect in the next 30 days we're going to have some issues," Harz said.
Claire Goldhagen, merchandise manager and upholstery buyer for Fort Myers, Fla.-based Robb & Stucky, said the upscale retailer immediately asked vendors for a list of Quaker items in its line.
"We're in the process of making substitutions; we've been spending a great deal of time doing that," she said, noting that about 35 SKUs have turned up so far. The company's 13 stores also are checking outstanding orders to see what can and can't be filled. For those that can't, store associates and designers will call customers and offer a substitute.
Robb & Stucky also is purging swatch racks. "We could be caught in a precarious position if a designer or salesperson takes a special order with a Quaker fabric," said Goldhagen. "We have a lot of exposure."
She said that some of the store's vendors have been "very aggressive and started formulating substitutions" in covers. "I called some mills, and the vendors called some mills, so I would say we're 70% done. We've got about 30% we have to work on, and we're seeing some (samples). I had some mills down last week."
Robb & Stucky had 25 special orders with one of its major upholstery suppliers and was able to fulfill two-thirds of them because fabric stock was still available. "We had six or seven where there had to be some re-selection," Goldhagen said.
She said the company had heard rumors about Quaker's problems, "but there have been so many rumors about the financial condition of lots of mills. I guess we were surprised (about Quaker) because you really hope somebody's going to come in and offer money, or something will happen, because they are so big. They've been so successful with so many (of their) patterns.
"It's one more challenge. This is a wonderful company with wonderful people. It's sad. Everybody's been bonding very well to get through it."
