New product scores in casual dining
By Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2007
High Point — Casual dining vendors offered mostly upbeat assessments of the fall High Point Market, even in the face of slower traffic on the streets.
"We had a good week," said Dave Shock, national sales manager for Cramco. "There were not as many medium to small independents but we saw a lot of majors and some independents we do not usually see."
Shock said the company wrote more business at market than it had in past years, but it was mostly container business.
Commitments and sales were positive at A-America and the company wrote business, according to Crystal Nguyen, director of product development. She said that although market traffic appeared light, buyers who came were there with open slots and open to buy dollars.
"Numbers wise, we did well," Nguyen said.
With a large selection of castered dining sets, and its custom Design Café program prominently showcased in its new showroom, traffic was brisk at producer CR-Home, the parent of brands including Peters-Revington, Cochrane, Chromcraft, Sumter Cabinet and Silver.
"Our casual dining will probably have record sales. It's really driven by design and it is great new product," said Dennis Valkanoff, president of CR-Home.
Saloom said its new introduction at a higher price point was well received. The company's knowledgeable dealers understood that the company was telling a better quality story, said Becki Gould, director of marketing.
"We had new customers, we targeted new people and new retailers and we're opening new accounts," she said.
Perimeter, boat shape, small scale, triangle, slate top and counter height dining sold well at Ligo. Dark finishes were also popular, said Dan Angus, vice president of sales and marketing.
"We've been quite pleased with the response. It's been very, very successful.
"We had a pretty good balanced customer base that shopped us," Angus said.
At John Thomas, a new 36-color Select display program was a hit with retailers, said Jorge Mata, CEO of Whitewood Inds. and director of its John Thomas division.
"We're having a great market. We've been busy, seen good customers, I'm very pleased. We haven't been slow and we're bringing a lot of people in with our Select program," Mata said.
Officials at Jofran also offered an upbeat assessment of market. They said retailers were interested in scaled-down casual dining and occasional goods in its City Scope program, and the Asian warehousing program continued to be a big driver of business.
"It's been a super market. We've had good numbers and seen many of our great accounts and picked up new business," said Bob Roy, Jofran's CEO.
Primo International also got solid commitments from retailers, according to John DeFalco, senior vice president.
"Casual dining did okay. It wasn't the superstar of the show for us, but it was solid," he said.
Traffic flow was slower than usual for the company, but Primo wrote good orders and saw top retailers, DeFalco said. He added that the company plans to increase its presence in casual dining.
Lee Furniture officials also said they were pleased.
"Traffic seems to be a little off, but the dealers that are here are writing business," said Keely Rhodes, Lee's president of sales. "I am extremely satisfied with the commitments we received at the High Point Market. This continues to be our No. 1 market."
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