Lots of choices for leather upholstery buyers

If you’re a buyer of leather upholstery, I suspect you are one of the most popular people in the furniture retailing world.

Leather upholstery resources, in case you hadn’t noticed, are multiplying like the hamsters my children owned when they were in elementary school. And each of those new resources is searching far and wide for customers — retailers who are willing to floor their product.

At next month’s Las Vegas Market, for example, no fewer than five leather upholstery startups will have product on display, and there at least that many more startups that don’t have Las Vegas showrooms.

And that doesn’t take into account the numerous existing resources that are expanding their offerings.

Why the sudden interest in producing and importing leather upholstery?

Last year’s demise of DeCoro, one of the category’s power players, is the biggest reason. But there’s also the perception that other power players are struggling to ship on time. It’s hard for me to definitively verify or refute that, but there’s no doubt the perception is there.

As a result, many others see opportunities to offset the shortfall of product.

It wouldn’t be surprising if some of these new resources — and possibly a few existing ones — fall by the wayside as supply adjust to market demand during the next couple of years. But until that happens, the popularity of leather upholstery buyers will not diminish.