Michaud: Canadian market must appeal to niches
Event still draws independent retailers
Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, May 27, 2008
TORONTO — According to its chief organizer, the Canadian Home Furnishings Market must follow the same formula for success as Canadian furniture manufacturers: It must become a niche player offering definable differences from competitors found not only in North America but around the world.
Indeed, Jean François Michaud envisions an event that will never be as large as markets in High Point, Las Vegas or Cologne, but one that will appeal to the needs of certain retailers, mostly independent who have a keen interest in unique product.
Owned and operated by the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Assn. for 37 years, the CHFM is Canada’s largest industry event and its only nationally focused one.
Retailer attendance at CHFM has declined steadily in recent years, although the number of exhibitors has remained constant or grown. Temporary spaces have been sold out for several years — there’s even a waiting list — and it was only this year that there were a noticeable number of vacant permanent spaces on second floor of the International Centre showroom building, which houses many furniture tenants.
In an interview during this year’s CHFM in January, Michaud — the QFMA’s president and CEO — said that as the Canadian industry changes, the CHFM will evolve in kind.
“If you still want to manufacture in Canada, you have to differentiate yourself from the mass production that will stay in China,” he said, adding that companies will have to become niche producers of product or services that can’t be duplicated offshore. “You have to show that you can solve the retailers’ problems, in terms such as logistics and being able to read the market.”
To lay the groundwork for the CHFM’s changing market position, the QFMA has been conducting an advertising campaign in the United States and Canada proclaiming the virtues of “Quality — Made in Canada.” A series of short, humorous videos chronicles the adventures of Harry, a furniture retailer working somewhere in North America, and his frustrating dealings with a factory in the Far East.
Meanwhile, furniture retailing is undergoing radical change as well, and Michaud said developments in that arena more than any other will drive the CHFM’s future.
“Retail will change a lot in the years to come,” he said. “The dot-coms are a growing niche in the market, but you don’t service them the same way that you serve the traditional distribution channels. Independent retailers in North America are being challenged and many will probably have to close their doors, but in the end it’s the big retailers who are facing the greatest difficulties.”
Major big ticket retailers — whether they focus on furniture, mattresses, appliances, consumer electronics or a mix of all four categories, as is common in Canada — have been driven by credit and financing. Their customers generally don’t pay cash for their purchases and with the emerging credit crisis across North America, these stores will be forced to change their business models, which in turn will affect how they acquire product, he said.
Michaud said that for many of these retailers, it’s a return to the end of the 1980s. “You saw the same shifts then,” he said.
As the big retailers work through these challenges, he expects independents to take up the slack.
“We are going to see the return of the niche independent,” Michaud said, adding that these are the retailers who will be attracted to the CHFM of the future. “They already see in our product a difference ... and the Toronto market will be the place to shop for that kind of product.”
While the show floor will continue to accommodate every price point and category — made in Canada or China or elsewhere — the organizers want the CHFM to be a place where retailers can find unique product at a market they can shop in two or three days, not a week or 10 days.
“It has to be convivial to the independent retailer,” Michaud said. “They need to see everyone they need to see and in a shorter period of time. That’s tough to do in High Point and it’s tough to do in Las Vegas.”
-
Buyers bring optimism to Toronto show
Jan 5, 2010 -
2,100 stores hit Toronto for market
Jan 13, 2011 -
Support our industry by attending Toronto show
Jan 18, 2011 -
40th Toronto show to host 300 exhibitors Jan. 14-17
Dec 13, 2011
Merinos Home Furnishings opening display room, Boyles addition
HOM Furniture adds flooring to six Twin Cities stores
Ernest Warsaw, founder of Sheffield Corp., dies at 91
‘Mega vessels' likely to boost capacity, stabilize freight rates
21 companies from Turkey, Taiwan and China to exhibit at Showtime
Featured Company
-
FurnitureCore.com
FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
