Motion makers offering fresh looks to stir traffic
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, April 17, 2010
HIGH POINT —
Amid signs of a slight pick-up in business, motion furniture vendors are coming to market with a bevy of new products and promotions aimed at driving traffic into retail stores.
Executives say that while their category always has been a key retail advertising component, it is taking on added importance as gun-shy consumers remain reluctant to spend money on big-ticket items such as furniture.
“The focus is to drive traffic,” said Rob Burch, president and CEO of Berkline. “If we can help our dealers position themselves as big players in this category, it has to help their overall seating business.”
Burch and other executives believe dealers are coming to market with an optimistic outlook about the remainder of the year, but remain cautious following two especially tough years that led to the demise of dozens of retailers and vendors.
“Last year was an absolutely brutal year for the furniture business, and this year is starting out to be a challenging year,” Burch said. “That's why we have to find ways to be more relevant to our dealers.”
Chuck Tidwell, vice president of merchandising and product development at Franklin, said relevance is especially important today because retailers are relying on fewer vendors to supply merchandise.
“We've seen some order softening in the last few weeks, but our business is up considerably over last year,” Tidwell said. “We think dealers are coming (to High Point) to buy, and we're going to be loaded for bear.”
Franklin is emphasizing promotional price points of $299 to $499 for recliners and $599 to $699 for motion sofas, but like many other motion vendors, also has several new products at higher price points.
“We decided not to try to chase the bottom,” said Shawn Cantrell, vice president of sales and merchandising at Prime Resources International. “But we can still offer the dealer great values at slightly higher price points.”
Prime Resources is focusing on sofas with leather/vinyl covers at $599 to $999, and Cantrell said the company also is expecting a lot of interest in a large-scale $599 recliner with stereo speakers, an iPod docking station and a heat/massage unit.
Berkline's showroom will feature, among other things, a Bogo (buy one, get one free) recliner promotion that allows special orders with no upcharge, while rival Catnapper is emphasizing recliners and motion sofas with power reclining mechanisms.
Don Hunter, Catnapper's senior vice president of national accounts, said the most attention will be focused on a lineup of $599 recliners available with a power rocker mechanism or a power glider mechanism.
“We're seeing more interest in power among the aging baby boomers and among women,” Hunter said. “One of the biggest objections to buying motion furniture and recliners is the difficulty opening and closing the mechanism…and power solves that problem.”
Other showrooms touting power mechanisms include Best Home Furnishings, Cheers/Man Wah, Lane and La-Z-Boy.
In addition, upper-end resource Ekornes is unveiling Ergo-Adapt, a patent-pending system for motion sofas that subtly moves the front seat cushion under the knees for additional support as the back is being reclined.
Lane also is unveiling a patent-pending mechanism that allows the end seat of a sectional to swivel. The product is being shown on a new sectional called Advantage, but the company said the mechanism could become an optional upgrade on many of its sectionals if the Advantage proves popular with buyers.
Leather furniture newcomer D'Oro Furniture, which debuted last fall, is emphasizing its motion offerings at the spring market by unveiling six recliners and six motion sofas at $899 to $999 in leather/vinyl covers.
The new sofas feature eight-way, hand-tied construction and top-grain leathers, said D'Oro President Tom Schmidt.
“Motion will be a major emphasis for us at market,” said Schmidt. “When you tie it in with our quality story and the freight values we can offer out of our new Dallas warehouse, it makes a great value proposition.”
A major emphasis for Best is its popular lineup of motion loveseats. Most existing models are now available with a Wallhugger or rocker/recliner mechanism in both power and manual versions.
Other key introductions can be found at Bradington-Young, which has an extensive rollout of domestically made leather recliners retailing at $1,099 and up, and El Ran, which is adding five motion seating groups.
In addition, Cheers/Man Wah is expanding its motion sectional lineup with several modular offerings at $1,699 to $1,999, while Leather Italia is adding three motion seating groups that feature sofas at $1,499 to $1,699. Two of Leather Italia's groups feature the popular bucket seat design.
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