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Tupelo Offers Fall Deals

Heath E Combs , Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, August 25, 2011

Brooks Furniture will be featuring its popular Classic Heirlooms dining room collection, shown here in a Legacy Oak finish. Tables are made of solid oak with a plank top construction.TUPELO, Miss. - Some suppliers at this week's Tupelo Furniture Market are hoping that all the attention that has been focused on the federal budget deficit doesn't distract from the good deals they are offering here for the fall selling season.
     Last year, occasional and accent importer Stein World saw an uptick going into the fall, again a reflection of tight inventories, said Richard Olmeda, president. That uptick was apparent in the recent Las Vegas market and could come again this year in Tupelo, he said.
     Olmeda said that the company continues to do well in both occasional and accents with its Urban Naturals line, along with industrial and repurposed materials styles.
     Stein World continues to have an advantage in the current business climate with retailers because of its availability of inventory, quick ship programs and breadth of assortment, he said. Having those programs allows retailers to replenish quickly, a must since inventory control is at the top of their minds, Olmeda said.
     "The real challenge is still getting consumers into those retail stores. That's the difficulty. When they get into a store, there's great value to be had. The supply side of the business has been good about providing incentives and promotions to put great values on retailers' floors," Olmeda said.
     Preliminary reports on Tupelo have been favorable, with notifications that several accounts absent in recent years - or that may have replaced Tupelo with another summer market - plan to return and take another look, said Jim Sneed, CEO of Affordable Furniture.
     "We've got a lot of people that are coming back to Tupelo, that have notified us that haven't been to Tupelo say for the last couple of years, saying: ‘We're going to come to Tupelo again,'" Sneed said.
     He also said retailers are in an environment where promotional upholstery, a Tupelo specialty, is a great driver. They'll likely need values to counteract recent negative headlines and get people back into stores, he said.
     "Promotional furniture is to the furniture business like 29 cent per pound chicken is to the supermarket. You don't want to sell a whole lot of 29 cent a pound chicken but you want to get them in and maybe sell a little filet mignon with it," Sneed said.
     Tupelo specials will hit attractive price points, he said, adding that motion and stationary sectionals are currently strong sellers.
     Jerry Marlin, vice president of merchandising for upholstery producer Prime Designs, said his company experienced a slight uptick in business in late July, and he's hoping that momentum will carry through this week's market.
     "We're anticipating a good fall selling season," he said. Marlin said the company's promotionally priced recliners This top-selling No. 1196 sofa from Prime Designs has been popular with younger consumers because of a colorful cover that combines fabric and polyurethane.have sold especially well of late, and he expects buyers to be shopping Tupelo for more colorful fabrics on all upholstered pieces as they finalize their fall merchandise lineup.
     "I think they will be looking for items to freshen up their (sales) floor. You don't want it to get stale," he said.
     He said Prime Designs will continue to tout its made-in- USA story and emphasize its speedy delivery on virtually any size order.
     "With all the price increases and logistics issues we're seeing out of China ... we think that could be to our advantage," he said. "We can offer more color, more variety, and you don't have to buy the depth that you would need if you're buying an import."
     Chris Brooks, director of marketing at Brooks Furniture, said he's hesitant to predict a strong market turnout because business has been sluggish of late, and said the protracted debate over the federal budget deficit may have made consumers even more skittish.
     "Since that debate is over for a while, I'm hoping we'll get a little boost in consumer confidence," said Brooks. "Most of our dealers and our reps are still saying business is pretty tough."
     He said the company's glider rocker and leather recliner business is about even with last year, but dining room has enjoyed a modest uptick following the introduction of several styles with a legacy oak finish.
     "That's doing as well as anything in our line right now," Brooks said.
     Ray Steele, Gail's Accents, co-owner, said that now that the media frenzy surrounding the debt deal reached by Congress has died down, hopefully retailers can focus on getting customers through their doors.
     For many stores, Tupelo is the only market they attend, and Gail's Accents represents on the better-end lines in the accent category here, Steele said. While Gail's Accents plans to offer lots of special pricing, there's also lots of new goods in stock from the April market.
     "I think too many vendors that go there look at it as just a place to dump merchandise," Steele said.
     "We approach Tupelo just like we approach High Point: We send out invitations, we do marketing, we get our salesmen excited to get their customers in," Steele said.
     Gail's Accents should be in a good position to help smaller retailers, its core clientele, since they'll need competitively priced stylish furniture to compete with the big box and discount retailers who continue to delve further into the accent category and work on smaller margins, he added.
     Steele said what's selling for the company in accents continues to be unusual looking painted designs.
     "The retailers that we do business with have to have something on the floor that gets the salesman and the retail consumer excited," Steele said.

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Expectations on rise for Tupelo Furniture Market

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