Market Mood Brightens
Exhibitors Say Product Well Received
Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, May 1, 2011
Upholstery producer Southern Motion promoted its “Made in USA” theme at market with this one-of-a-kind leather sofa at the entrance to its showroom. The company said the cover was sewn entirely in its Mississippi factory, and said it took 4½ hours just to complete the field of stars.
HIGH POINT - Encouraged by an upbeat attitude from buyers - not to mention their willingness to place orders - most exhibitors were in a good mood as they left the spring High Point Market.
Exhibitors said attendance ranged from slightly below to slightly ahead of the spring 2010 market, but instead of focusing solely on showroom traffic, they said it was more important to analyze the reception to new products and programs. And by that standard, most agreed the April 2-7 show was a good one.
"Overall, traffic was down but written business was up and commitments for future orders were very positive," said Matt Eddy, president of upper-end case goods resource Habersham. "Many of our existing dealers seemed more open to doing new business than they have been in a while."
His thoughts were echoed by Glenn Wakefield, president of case goods and upholstery importer Largo International, who said he has seen an up-tick in his company's business since February.
"All of our key customers came in, and we wrote orders with them," said Wakefield. "Considering that attendance was flat, I felt we had a pretty good market."
Wakefield and other executives said upholstery - especially motion upholstery - drew more attention from buyers than case goods or bedding, but the latter categories weren't ignored.
"We made a lot of new contacts and brought on a good amount of new business," said Gerry Borreggine, president of bedding producer Therapedic. "Based on our results, I thought it was the best High Point Market for Therapedic that we've seen since Vegas opened (in 2005)."
David Beckmann, president of case goods, upholstery and occasional importer Emerald Home Furnishings, said upholstery has been strong in recent years, but other categories are on the rebound.
"Upholstery has had the most growth the past two years, but I'm so happy to see casual dining and occasional starting to grow," Beckmann said. "It was a fun market."
Equally upbeat were executives at home office and home entertainment specialist Sligh Furniture.
"One thing I feel great about is that every new product we introduced has earned a cutting," said Chairman Rob Sligh, adding that the company also had a 100% acceptance rate on new products from the January Las Vegas Market and last October's High Point Market.
Brian Parker, president of leather upholstery importer HTL Furniture, was one of several executives who said traffic and order-writing were sluggish the first two days of market (Saturday and Sunday), but picked up significantly the next two days.
"I was a little concerned at first, but overall, we ended up with an 11% increase in attendance," Parker said. "And our new products were very well received. We'll just have to see how they do at retail."
And while recent spikes in raw materials costs have prompted many vendors to hike wholesale prices, exhibitors said most buyers grudgingly accepted them because they knew competing vendors were facing the same cost increases.
"We just have to stay ahead of curve on design," said Harry Cierler, director of North American operations for leather upholstery resource Chateau d'Ax. "Then price is not as big an issue."
A bigger issue, according to many exhibitors, was the availability of product. And since retail inventories have been lean of late, vendors with domestic production or a domestic warehousing felt they had a competitive advantage.
"It all seemed to tie back into the made-in-America story," said Doug Bassett, chief operating officer of bedroom producer Vaughn-Bassett. "Many of our dealers told us they were looking to expand their domestic bedroom selection in the promotional and middle price points, and that we are almost the only game left in town."
"We had three new collections and all three were home runs," Bassett added.
Davy Crockett, vice president of merchandising at Mississippi upholstery producer Southern Motion, was equally buoyant.
"It was the most fun I've ever had at a market," he said. "Our U.S.-made story is really resonating."
The company touted its 100% U.S. production by building a one-of-a-kind leather sofa with an American flag as the cover. The sofa was placed at the entrance to the showroom and probably was one of the most photographed pieces of furniture at market, Crockett said..
Editor-in-chief Ray Allegrezza, Associate Editor Thomas Russell and Executive Editor David Perry contributed to this story.
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