Small-scale home office connects with buyers
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, November 2, 2008
HIGH POINT — Smaller-scaled desks that fit easily into a guest room, great room, or even a kitchen attracted considerable attention in market showrooms displaying home office products.
Home office resources said the slimmed-down products are gaining in popularity because they take up less space on the retail floor — and in the consumer's home. Plus, they allow a retailer to hit a lower price point and make the category more affordable to a wider range of potential customers.
“There's still a good market for these big executive desks, but we're doing especially well with the items that have a smaller footprint,” said Hank Long, senior vice president of merchandising at Hooker Furniture.
Karl Eulberg, senior vice president of sales at Kathy Ireland Home by Martin, agreed, noting that the move to downsize also is driven by growing consumer preference for laptop computers instead of desktop models.
“Even our full-size pieces are smaller than they used to be,” Eulberg said.
Although he and other executives said new home office pieces were well-received at market, they admit they are a bit frustrated by the lack of excitement in the category as compared with, for example, home entertainment furniture.
“There's no flat-screen TV to drive sales of home office,” said Tim Donk, director of marketing at Legends Furniture.
However, executives said buyers embraced a number of smaller-scaled items, as well as several so-called “gathering height” desks that double as compact workstations.
Such desks typically are 30 inches to 34 inches high — 6 to 8 inches taller than other desks — which gives users the option to stand while working. Additionally, they often include features such as charging stations for personal electronics.
Long said two such work- stations, part of Hooker's Smart Works Home Center lineup, were market winners, while Broyhill reported similar success with several “tall” desks that are part of its Office 2 Home program.
Raymond Carringer, vice president of sales at Signature Home Furnishings, said his company had success with both of its home office introductions, the contemporary Contempo group and the modular Chapel group.
“We introduced Contempo in entertainment at the (April) market, and it is one of the hottest things in our line,” Carringer said. “A lot of people are looking for contemporary.”
Another contemporary success story at market was BDI, a company that made its debut in the home office category. BDI's Sequel home office group has features such as dark tempered glass that can accommodate an optical mouse, as well as a wire management system that hides wires between a pair of magnetically attached lower panels on the desk.
Also making its debut in home office was Sunrise Home Furnishings, a resource best known for its entertainment consoles. Bob Lephart, vice president of sales and marketing, said the company's new laptop computer desks, peninsula desks and computer armoires can be mixed in a container with its entertainment furniture.
“Our laptop desks were a big success,” Lephart said. “They are really functional and inexpensive.”
Other resources reporting success with new products included Bernhardt, which unveiled a large-scale home office group as part of its new Chateau Rustique collection, and Aspenhome, which introduced the contemporary Adagio group.
“We're placing this on many floors that don't sell contemporary,” said Andy Nielsen, Aspenhome's director of design for home office. “We're crossing boundaries here.”
Riverside's two new home office collections also did well at market, according to Linda Owen, vice president of marketing and national accounts. Both the oak-finished Seville Square and the cherry-finished Cantata collections include two sizes of flat-top desks, a hutch and matching book cases.
“Based on our commitments at premarket and the orders we wrote, I think these will become core product for us for the next several years,” said Owen.
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