Entertainment buyers like consoles, add-on items
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, April 20, 2008
High Point — Despite moderate showroom traffic, entertainment furniture resources reported good business activity during market as buyers replenished inventories and looked for ways to stimulate business.
Exhibitors said interest in television consoles remained strong, and add-on items such as hutches and pier units garnered plenty of attention as well.
Plus, a number of exhibitors generated interest in entertainment pieces for bedrooms to take the place of the out-of-favor bedroom armoire.
"People seemed cautiously optimistic," said Paul Coscarelli, chief financial officer of APA Marketing, which markets the Encore home entertainment line. "People told us that business has improved somewhat. It's not the gloom and doom that it was a couple of months ago."
Coscarelli said showroom traffic was "a little bit ahead" of last year's spring market — a sentiment echoed by many other entertainment furniture exhibitors.
"You look out in the halls, and there's nobody there ... but it always seemed like there were a few customers in our showroom," said Tim Donk, marketing manager at Legends Furniture, an entertainment and home office specialist.
Exhibitors said price hikes were a frequent topic of discussion throughout market, but there was little resistance from retailers because virtually every vendor they visited was raising prices on existing products or had built price increases into new introductions.
Price hikes of 3% to 10% were common, and a few exhibitors admitted privately that increases of 15% were possible on some items.
"People are starting to realize that a little inflation in this business might be a good thing," said Hank Long, senior vice president of sales and merchandising at Hooker, whose latest increase took effect March 1. "We haven't gotten a lot of flak about it."
Karl Eulberg, vice president of sales and marketing at Kathy Ireland Home by Martin, said that because pricing on goods produced in Asia remains very unstable, his company piled up orders for items made at its plant in Mexico.
"Everybody seems to want product from our Mexican facility because we can guarantee them pricing for the next 12 months and ship it in four weeks," Eulberg said.
He said pricing on Asian goods "drives you crazy" because of spiraling shipping rates and increased operational costs in China.
"Today's price is different from tomorrow's price, which is different from next week's price," Eulberg said.
On the product front, one of the market's biggest success stories was the sizeable entertainment console rollout at Peters-Revington. The new line, which is part of CR-Home, featured nine different styles. A half dozen models, including two corner units, are available in each style.
"We are really taking this category to the next three levels," said Rob Halsten, vice president of product development. "The response was just tremendous. People told us there's nothing else like it."
Each console comes with casters and includes vented shelves that keep components from overheating. However, Halsten said the most popular feature with buyers was the power conditioner included with every unit. The device includes surge protection for electrical outlets, cable, satellite and telephone lines, as well as voltage monitoring.
Products that combined home entertainment and home office functions also were popular with buyers. Hooker, Broyhill and Stanley had success with these products, which are offshoots of the latest technology buzzword — convergence.
"We had better attendance that we thought we would," said Kelly Cain, vice president and product manager. "We were slightly ahead of last market."
Other product success stories in entertainment furniture included a high-end console made of ironwood at Furnitech; a modular system called Escapade at Riverside; a console with a swivel base at contemporary specialist BDI; and several tall consoles suitable for bedroom use at Signature Home Furnishings.
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