Vegas Market off to brisk start
WMC: Best opening day since 2005
Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, July 29, 2008
LAS VEGAS — Despite a sales slump that has plagued home furnishings for more than a year, the market got off to a brisk start Monday, buoyed by the opening of the World Market Center’s third showroom building.
Showroom traffic generally was light to moderate early in the day, but picked up noticeably as the day wore on and the lengthy registration lines dissipated in all three buildings.
By day’s end, market officials were claiming it was the busiest opening day since the market’s debut in July 2005.
WMC President Bob Maricich said Monday’s attendance was 35% ahead of the opening day of the January market, 21% ahead of last July and 38% ahead of January 2007, which featured the grand opening of Building B.
Market officials didn’t release attendance figures, but said they were calculated with data from the RFID tags worn by all market attendees. That shows actual attendance, not registrations, officials said.
“There are a lot of people who came here to change their business … and I think we’ve given them the tools to do that,” Maricich said. “What blew me away is to look out on this campus and realize that is has been just three years since the first market was held here.”
Many exhibitors said they feared the market would not be well attended, but were pleasantly surprised.
“Like many exhibitors concerned about soft business and attendance at a summer market in Vegas, we held our breath. But we began writing orders when the doors opened and we’ve been going ever since,” said Jeff Baron of Baron Consult, which is helping Chinese leather producer Kuka Home introduce its first product under its own brand in the U.S. market.
To help drive retailers to the 46,000-square-foot showroom in Building C, Kuka was offering dealers show incentives and special show pricing.
Phil Haney, president of Lexington Home Brands, was equally pleased with the opening day in his company’s Building C showroom.
“We had an incredible first day with strong traffic to see our new Mar-a-Lago collection from Trump Home. We couldn’t be more pleased,” Haney said.
Dennis Valkanoff, senior vice president of Chromcraft Revington’s CR Home, said the company’s Building B showroom was busy.
“We enjoyed brisk traffic early opening day and were getting a lot of play from our casual dining and upholstery offerings,” he said.
Ron Wanek, chairman of Ashley Furniture Inds., also was pleased with opening day traffic in his Building B space, noting that business picked up before lunchtime.
“We’ve already had lots of buyers in, including a strong showing of international buyers,” Wanek said early Monday afternoon.
Jay Foscue, senior vice president of merchandising for Klaussner Home Furnishings, said Monday morning that the company expected business to be “flat or maybe down a little bit” in its Building A showroom, noting that dealer registrations on Monday were running about even with last July’s market.
The opening of the third building gives the market 5 million square feet of showroom space. Maricich said the newest building is about 85% leased.
Editor in Chief Ray Allegrezza, Associate Editor Thomas Russell and Senior Editor Gary Evans contributed to this story.
Talkback
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As usual, Furniture Today attended a different show than I did. Traffic reflected the economy...
- 2008-08-02 13:02:15 -
low end everyone of them,vegas continues to be borax land the bottom of the barrel in...
- 2008-07-31 14:46:16 -
It was Building C that opened not B - FT needs some fact checkers.
- 2008-07-29 10:17:40
