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Vendors Happy with Atlanta

Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, August 5, 2011

Surya’s Satya Tiwari helps retailers maximize selling space with this Design Center, a new merchandising aid from the company. Consumers can look at 275 rug samples in a compact footprint.ATLANTA - Despite the lingering impact of the recession, exhibitors at the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market here this month reported steady traffic, decent sales and largely upbeat attitudes from retailers.
"Atlanta is always a good show for us because we see a broad spectrum of dealers and designers. From that perspective, and from the perspective of order writing, the Atlanta show is almost as important to us as High Point." Mark Abrams, Port 68
     According to Mark Abrams, vice president of marketing and design for furniture and home accents supplier Port 68, "We wrote significant orders from domestic customers as well as from international retailers."
     He added that traffic was consistent, and he enjoyed periodic spikes that reminded him of "the old days."
     Abrams credited his success at the show to a broad assortment of furniture and accessories that focus on lively colors as well as on intriguing patterns and designs. "Retailers have been browned and beiged to death," he quipped.
     Echoing the observations of other exhibitors, Abrams noted that retailers responded positively to goods that embrace casual looks and have the ability to work in a variety of settings. He also said that his customers placed orders for a number of items that he described as traditional with a twist.
AICO’s David Koehler and Jacqueline Moss discuss one of the many top-of-bed sets the company showed during its debut at the Atlanta market.     "Atlanta is always a good show for us because we see a broad spectrum of dealers and designers. From that perspective, and from the perspective of order writing, the Atlanta show is almost as important to us as High Point," Abrams said.
     Jerome Kearns, chief operating officer at importer Four Hands, also gave the show high marks. "We were busy right out of the gate and have had a steady stream of customers including smaller dealers, designers and many of the majors," he said.
     Kearns said that he was encouraged not only by the orders written but by the fact that so many of his customers felt that they were seeing a turnaround in their businesses. "Many of our customers are back to investing in their stores and feel that they've made it through the largest part of the shakeout," he said.
     Four Hands, he added, was scoring with offerings such as the Sierra collection, a line of furniture that features rustic looks, mixed-media elements and reclaimed wood.
     Other exhibitors, including Furniture Classics, also were using fresh looks to win new customers.
     "We've done things such as focusing on adding industrial looks, reclaimed woods and softer more casual designs. In a word, we are addressing the way people live," said Alex Boyer, vice president of sales and marketing for Furniture Classics.
Momeni’s Reza Momeni shows examples of the new Vintage collection, a rug line that utilizes a power loom to replicate the look and feel of a vintage hand-made rug.     Pointing to a curved settee as an example, Boyer said, "This piece used to be made in a shiny dark wood, a high-gloss finish and was covered in a silky damask fabric. But now, we've contemporized it by producing it in oak with a driftwood finish and covered in a burlap material."
     Those changes have helped the company net new customers and higher-than-average tickets. "It also put us more on the radar of the larger retailers as well. Our attendance of the Top 100 retailers at this show jumped from three to 17," said Boyer.
     Rug vendors, including Reza Momeni, president of Momeni Rugs, reported that order writing and traffic were up at the show. He attributed part of that to the fact that the company begins its annual series of introductions at the Atlanta market.
     "We've had good representation from all our established customers. Similarly, those retailers who are just getting into the rug sector are also telling us that their business is up," he said.
     During the market, many of his customers were particularly impressed with Momeni's lines of juvenile rugs, Asian-inspired rugs and a new assortment that uses power looms to replicate the worn, vintage look of pricey hand-made rugs. The collection, called Vintage, uses 100% New Zealand wool and features a retail of $598 for a 5 by 8 rug.
Furniture Classics’ Alex Boyer scored in Atlanta with a strategy that involved taking existing in-line traditional products and recasting them in more contemporary versions, such as this settee featuring an oak frame, modern driftwood finish and a burlap covering.     Satya Tiwari, president of rug source Surya, observed that while the winter Atlanta market usually is a bit more lively than the summer edition, he nonetheless had seen a steady stream of retailers including representatives from catalogers, mass merchants, e-tailers and mainline furniture stores.
     In addition to showing new rugs, Tiwari also showed customers Surya's recently launched Design Studio, an in-store merchandising aid. Knowing that retail floor space is always at a premium, the Design Studio display allows retailers to show hundreds of rugs in a relatively small footprint, he said.
     The display houses up to 96 display boards featuring 275 rugs. Each display board contains an image of the rug, a room scene, additional colorways and available sizes. Sample boards are available in bestselling Contemporary, Transitional and Traditional styles. The display includes shag, natural fiber and solid colored swatch boards displaying multiple rug colorways on a single board.
     The Design Studio display is free for qualifying dealers or can be purchased, Tiwari said.
Mark Abrams of Port 68 said that buyers shopped hard for intriguing designs and colorful accessories.     Steven Loloi, whose family owns Loloi Rugs, was in Atlanta with five new introductions specific to this market. One, the Viera Collection, utilizes a distinctive high-low pile to give the impression of an antiqued rug.
      "We got a great reaction to the new introductions, including Viera and Runway, a line of rugs made in India from hand-stitched vintage blue jeans and vintage denim shirts," Loloi said. "Buyers shopping here were really focused on fresh new looks and based on orders written, we met those needs."
     Arash Yaraghi, whose family owns Safavieh, a retailer, wholesaler and manufacturer of rugs and other home furnishings, said this market was good.
     "We've seen lots of customers, written orders and received compliments from our dealers who have responded to our quick-ship program," Yaraghi said.
     In addition to shopping established rug and furniture sources, retailers attending the Atlanta market also got a chance to see first-time exhibitors including AICO (Amini Innovation Corp.), which made its debut here showing its complete line of top-of-bed designs.
     AICO introduced Madison, a rich print on cotton, and Imperial, a jacquard frame design. The company also displayed two collections from Michael Amini & Jane Seymour, A Design Collaboration: Solitaire and Bellingham Court.
Steven Loloi of Loloi Rugs sits in front of the company’s Viera Collection, which utilizes a high-low pile to give the impression of an antique rug.     "The Atlanta market provides us with another strong opportunity to satisfy the top-of-bed needs for both existing customers as well as new ones shopping here," said Chuck Reilly, AICO's senior vice president of sales and marketing.
     Jacqueline Moss, director of fabric merchandising, said that dealers stopping by appreciated the values they found at the showroom. And David Koehler, AICO's vice president of sales, added that the company's presence here also gave him opportunity to dialog with dealers who were unfamiliar with the depth and breadth of the company's case goods and upholstery offerings.
     "We had a good market and made contact with lots of potential new customers," Koehler said.

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