Support our industry by attending Toronto show
Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, January 18, 2011
Michael Knell Canadian correspondent
If you're a Canadian furniture retailer, there's only one place you should be this weekend. That's in Toronto, attending the 39th annual edition of the Canadian Home Furnishings Market. It doesn't matter whether you're an independent owner/operator, a buyer, a store manager or a senior executive for a national chain — you need to be walking the halls of the International Centre.
This is true for every furniture store resource in the country as well. It doesn't matter whether you're a furniture manufacturer or distributor or whether your company provides some other supporting product or service retailers need to run their business. Your company should be on the show floor ready to do business. If you do business with Canadian furniture, furnishings, mattress and appliance retailers, you need to be part of TCHFM.
There are a number of companies with permanent showrooms in and around Toronto that will be open during the market but aren't listed in the Show Magazine. These companies, for whatever reason, haven't paid the fee to be part of the market. This, too, is wrong.
Every one of us knows why every member of this industry should buy a ticket and get on a plane, a train or in a car and get to Toronto for three or four days beginning this Saturday. We know the why's by heart and we know them so well, they've become cliché. But that doesn't change the truth of the matter.
The Canadian furniture industry is getting smaller. There are fewer independent retailers than there were just five years ago. The majors are facing new and difficult challenges. There are also fewer Canadian furniture manufacturers. Indeed, the supplier community as a whole is changing radically.
Making this situation more complex is a hesitant consumer, who IS NOT going to increase her spending on furniture over the coming year or two or perhaps three. Attending TCHFM won't solve every problem, but I can't think of a better place to start looking for answers. This is the only time the Canadian furniture industry gets together in Canada.
It's the only place, for example, where all four buying groups can be found literally within a hundred yards of each other. If you're a non-aligned independent, what better way is there is compare one group's apples with the other groups' apples? If you're a small supplier, what better venue do you have to get exposure to stores?
If we want a strong national industry in Canada, we need a strong national event to anchor its development and nurture its growth. That is TCHFM's most important function. If your company wants to be part of that growth, then Toronto is the place to be this weekend.
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