Wood sources take variety of approaches
By Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, January 27, 2008
Las Vegas — Case goods introductions for the winter Las Vegas Market will vary a great deal from one exhibitor to another due to a mixture of the slow business climate and recent market success.
The market here generated a lot of buzz for more than a year before it opened, and that chatter — and resulting orders — continued through the opening of Building B of the World Market Center.
At the last show in July, however, business was softer, according to several exhibitors. Reasons given included the soft retail sales, an abundance of High Point introductions and the summer heat.
Legacy Classic let its WMC lease expire at the end of the year because it didn't feel it could continue to support two showrooms, and Las Vegas didn't make the same return on investment as High Point, according to Lee Boone, president.
On the other hand, sister company Universal, part of Lacquer Craft, will be here, showing new 18-piece groups Hill Country and American Heirlooms. Hill Country has a rustic, Southwest feel with distressed alder, while American Heirlooms mixes Federal and French Country styles on South American cherry.
Many companies have said that the western show has generated more commitments and orders than High Point, firming their resolve to show here.
Standard Furniture had one of its best markets ever in July, according to company officials. After sales reps made many appointments, Todd Evans, senior vice president of sales and marketing, said he had high hopes of drawing 500 buyers on opening day. Instead, the company tallied 800 and had about 2,000 by week's end.
Earlier this month, Standard announced plans to reenter promotional price points with new groups at the Tupelo Furniture Marketin February. A sneak peek is available at this show in space WMC A-953 for Sweet Dreams, a youth collection, and Avanti, a contemporary line.
With the third WMC building preparing to open this summer, a few manufacturers are standing pat until the next cycle, while others are pushing dozens of new goods.
Huntington Furniture said it has committed to a space in Building C, but its dealers wanted to see the furniture here, so it has taken a temporary space at B-1038, filled with new groups.
"We will be introducing seven new dining rooms and three new bedrooms as well as showing our new items from the October Market and best sellers," said CEO Eric Easter. "We will also be adding pieces to some of our current collections."
He added that Huntington has instituted a shared-container program that, with a minimal commitment by retailers, permits them "to benefit from container pricing without committing to a full container." The company also will have warehouse space in Southern California for the first time to service the West Coast.
Broyhill raises volume
Broyhill is launching arguably the most pieces this market with two 35-piece case goods groups, four youth groups, and a second finish being added to a fall bedroom suite. Added to this is SQ1, a contemporary full-line collection from High Point, in cherry and maple veneers with natural accents such as bamboo veneers, seagrass and raffia.
Broyhill's new groups include Fireside Cherry, a Shaker-inspired addition to Attic Heirlooms; Enchantment, traditional with a more-contemporary hardware and finish; Halsten, a 22-piece feminine group with two-tone cases; Attitudes, a 20-piece transitional/contemporary youth or second bedroom group; Statements, relaxed traditional youth with a Midnight Black finish; and Cross Creek, a youth group to complement the master bedroom introduced here in July.
The biggest single case goods collection comes from aspenhome. European Memoirs is a whole-home line of more than 100 pieces, drawing on pieces found in quaint villages of Europe. Birch and pecan solids and veneers feature Cognac and Crème Fraiche finishes, while aged hand-cast steel hardware and iron accents provide an Old World feel.
"It is important to our customer because this style has grown in popularity over the last 10 years due to the European country antiques and reproductions sought by their consumers," said Jena Hall, vice president of merchandising and design.
During the last year, Chromcraft Revington has transformed itself from five autonomous business units into a unified organization. Chromcraft, Peters-Revington, Cochrane, Silver and Sumter are now showing under one brand umbrella as CR-Home. The company is featuring two whole-home offerings under the brand here — Sundance and Tuscan Valley.
"We use consumer-tested and customer-driven insights to focus our new product-development effort and leverage the proven strengths of each CR-Home brand," said President Dennis Valkanoff. "Developing products that work across the home is a natural."
He added, "Today's consumer uses occasional furniture in every room; bedroom chests sometimes double as media consoles. Our consumer does not limit her vision to the living room. Why should we?"
"We believe that we are putting in place the foundation for a business that is a unified organization and is consumer and customer driven using a combination of sourced and customized built-to-order products," added Ben Anderson-Ray, CEO of Chromcraft Revington. "We continue to work on the integration of our back-office operations and building new capabilities and disciplines. We expect that the combination of these elements will improve the company's long-term competitiveness."
This market, Riverside is reenergizing its custom color program to offer dozens of designs with multiple finishes to create hundreds of possible SKUs.
The A Splash of Color collection features 55 designs in 20 colors to suit every taste, according to Linda Owen, vice president of marketing.
Originally, the line had only a handful of occasional pieces in five colors. Now, for designs manufactured domestically, the black and white color options are warehoused and ready to ship, while the remaining 18 color options are available by special order.
"People are becoming more comfortable with the use of color and taking more chances with it as well," said Owen. "Never has that been more evident than the emergence of color on items that have historically been produced in little to no color choices."
She added that "Increasingly audacious color fashion statements are appearing on everything from kitchen gadgets and appliances to TVs and cell phones with consumers purchasing in favor of color."
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Array of product on tap for Vegas market
Jan 20, 2008
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