Healthcare lift chair sources targeting retail market
Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, February 3, 2012
LAS VEGAS — The two biggest suppliers of lift chairs for the healthcare market have targeted retail furniture stores as they're next growth driver, and they're waging a fierce battle for floor space with motion furniture manufacturers that traditionally have supplied the product.
The two "newcomers," Pride Mobility Products and Golden Technolgies, have created separate business units to supply furniture stores and have developed advertising and marketing materials specifically for that channel. Both have been showing their product to retailers at this week's Las Vegas Market, which wraps up today.
"We see this as a category that needs to be marketed and promoted just like other furniture categories," said Bob Smith, vice president of sales at UltraComfort American, Golden Technologies' retail furniture division. "(Lift chairs) shouldn't be an afterthought."
Executives at UltraComfort America and Mega Motion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pride Mobility, said they have seen brisk showroom traffic and order-writing, a reflection of their early success with their new customer base.
"If (retailers) treat it as a true profit center, lift chairs can become a big category for them," said Bob Bruns, president of BRCM Enterprises, the sales and marketing agency for Mega Motion.
Bruns and Smith believe their companies are taking valuable retail floor slots away from motion furniture producers such as La-Z-Boy, Catnapper, Best Home Furnishings, Franklin and Lane - which, until recently, have supplied virtually all lift chairs sold in furniture stores.
Although Mega Motion and UltraComfort are competing with one another, both also believe they have an advantage over motion furniture resources because they can offer quick delivery, improved sales per square foot, comprehensive warranty service and a variety of chairs suitable for any room of the house.
Both companies urge dealers to set up gallery-like presentations with four to eight chairs at retail prices starting at $599 to $699 and rising to $1,500 or more.
Bruns said the aging Baby Boomer population, as well as the parents of Boomers, are potential customers for these products, but in many cases, they are unaware that furniture stores even sell them.
"Just look at the demographics," Smith said. "More than 10,000 people turn 65 every day. The size of that market is not getting any smaller."
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