Archive for July 6th, 2007
By Joan Brunskill
It’s the season for relaxing in summer furniture on porches or deeper into balmy back yards. It’s furniture we may already enjoy year-round inside, and it’s often wicker — or do we mean rattan, or bamboo?
Or how about, well, vinyl?
When manufacturers say “wicker,” they’re referring to every woven furniture product, said Georgel Miloje, of the marketing department at Designer Wicker & Rattan, a furniture manufacturer based in Orangeburg, S.C. Rattan is one of the materials most used for natural wickerwork.
However, demand for outdoor furniture made with synthetic materials is on the increase and manufacturers are keeping pace. Miloje said his company sees surging growth in the demand for synthetic wickerwork, which people like because it’s weather-resistant.
“Five years ago, 10 percent of our sales were synthetic furniture, now it’s about 40 percent,” Miloje said. “We’re making more synthetic because there’s a demand for it. It’s the hot product now, because people are concentrating more on their outdoor rooms.”
Wicker furniture made with several kinds of woven synthetics is available in chain stores such as Restoration Hardware and The Home Depot.
Mitchell Ross, owner of Connecticut-based Patio.com, said his company is now selling about 60 percent synthetic wicker and 40 percent real wicker. Four years ago, he said, they were selling about 90 percent real wicker and only 10 percent synthetic.
“The synthetics, vinyl or whatever, now look very much more like real wicker,” he said. “We recommend some kind of synthetic for outside, to put by the pool, for example, but there are natural wickers that can be used in somewhat covered places outdoors.”
A Restoration Hardware store in Manhattan stocks both natural rattan and manmade wicker and it’s hard to tell which is which without reading labels.
Both are hand-woven with an airy look, come in natural-look finishes, and are sold with fitted upholstery cushions; the resilient manmade pieces woven on aluminum frames also come in dark-brown “espresso.” The sturdy natural rattan collection, which includes beds, is built on mahogany frames.
Sales manager Jason Goldberg said that customers who want to keep a consistent design look at their beach homes are buying both kinds: natural rattan for indoor use and manmade wicker for outdoors. Restoration Hardware’s manmade furniture tends to be higher priced than their natural rattan pieces.
Miloje indicated a personal fondness for natural wicker because it’s a renewable material and “it’s durable enough, especially if you keep it sheltered, or under cover,” he said.
“We use mainly rattan core for our wicker furniture, sliced by machine into strips, like spaghetti, in different diameters,” Miloje said. “The rattan mostly comes from Indonesia and the Philippines. They make the furniture for us out there, we apply finishes and make cushions and upholstery in this country.”
“We still use the natural wicker for our indoor furniture lines, especially for bedroom furniture,” said Bill Herren, marketing director of Whitecraft Rattan, Charleston, S.C.
“Rattan is so versatile, you can weave it in a million different ways, for everything from beds to chairs and dressers,” he said.
His company also makes natural wicker treated for outdoor use under cover.
The most popular wicker finish right now is a medium-brown stain, he said, but they notice that consumers are going more toward darker walnut and mahogany tones.
“In the ’80s and ’90s everything was whitewashed, but since the late ’90s people are starting to go darker, even for outdoors,” said Herren.
What else is new
“This year, most of what we’re selling is wicker that’s usable both as indoor or outdoor furniture because of its durability and comfort,” said Petey Fleischut, owner of Casual Furniture in Hockessin, Del.
Newer materials including vinyl-weave wicker on aluminum frames with fade-resistant acrylic cushions are now so attractive that people may be buying traditional wicker furniture for a sunroom “and what they’re choosing is something that would be totally suitable for outdoors, too, because they love its comfort as well as its durability,” Fleischut said.
Among newly improved wickerwork items: Deep-seat swivel chairs, and gliders (chairs that glide back and forth) for outdoor use, Fleischut said.
Marlys Baldree, owner of three RC Rattan & Wicker stores in Arizona, said that swivel rockers are a perennial favorite with her customers — “people like movement,” she said She, too, mentioned the trend to darker colors in wicker.
New materials she is selling this year include banana-rush, sea-grass and water hyacinth wickerwork with a natural finish, on wood framing.
A swivel rocker in better-quality rattan would range in price from $550 to $650, and a natural wicker sofa could cost from $850 to $2,000, she said.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
July 6th, 2007
By: Furniture World Magazine
The World Market Center announced that almost 50 different free events will be offered in addition to the Market’s wealth of home furnishings manufacturers and their new products. The next Las Vegas Market is scheduled July 30 through August 3, 2007.
“The seminars and programs we are presenting at our Summer Market offer an incredible range of options for attendees and represent the most diverse line-up to date,” said Dana Andrew, director of marketing and public relations for World Market Center. “Attendees can take advantage of educational, trend-setting, industry and business seminars that provide meaningful and strategic tools to make their business successful.”
According to Andrew, these events are designed to be timely, targeted and memorable education and networking programs that help distinguish Las Vegas Market from other trade events around the country.
Educational Options: Among the seminars to be presented at the Summer Market, featured presentations include:
- Christine Chow, director of membership and associate director of The Color Association will be presenting a ColorWatch seminar at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 30 in World Forum in World Market Center’s Building B co-sponsored by Vance Publishing’s Furniture Style.
- David Perry, Furniture/Today’s bedding editor, will address the question “Who are today’s bedding consumers and what do they want?” on Tuesday, July 30 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.in the World Forum in World Market Center’s Building B. Perry will present the newspaper’s latest consumer research on the mattress industry. The comprehensive survey reveals the bedding size, price and retail store preferences of today’s mattress shoppers. It also documents the continuing move in the market toward high-end bedding and reveals why bedding remains a standout on retail sales floors.
- Mary Liz Curtin of Leon & Lulu delivers a hilarious, fast-paced look at customer service – the good, the bad and the ugly in stores, with manufacturers and in other businesses. She will provide tips on improving versus destroying customer relationships. Her presentation will be Monday, July 30 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m in the Retailer Resource Center on the 16th floor of Building B.
- Maxine Lauer, founder and president of Sphere Trending LLC will present a ConsumerWatch seminar that will cover big-picture macro trends that cause consumers to shop, think and live differently, and how that affects the future. The seminar will be held on Tuesday, July 31 at 10 a.m. in the World Forum in World Market Center’s Building B.
- American Express and Home Furnishings News will present Consumer Behavior Trends in Home Furnishings Roundtable on Tuesday, July 31 at 8:30 am in the World Forum in World Market Center’s Building B. BIG Research will be sharing research on consumer behavior, purchase intentions and key challenges specific to the industry.
- On Tuesday, July 31 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender of Kizer & Bender will present “The Inside Secrets of Charismatic Retailers.” Their seminar, in the Retailer Resource Center on the 16th floor of Building B, will answer the question, “Is your store great, or is it just another place to buy stuff?”
* Michelle Lamb, co-founder and chairman of Marketing Directions Inc. and senior editor of The Trend Curve, will present the TrendWatch seminar on Wednesday, August 1 at 10 a.m. at the Sands Expo. It is co-sponsored by Vance’s Accessory Merchandising.
- On Tuesday, July 31 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Retail Sustainability Panel will take place at the Sands Expo, moderated by Mike Italiano, president and chief executive officer of Market Transformation to Sustainability and founder, director and chief executive officer of the U.S. Green Building Council. Steve Freeman, of Room & Board, a Minneapolis-based furniture retailer, will be one of the panel’s participants. The discussion will focus on leadership and the environment and is presented by Home Furnishings Business, and is co-sponsored by Foamex Reflex Natural, World Market Center and the Sustainable Furniture Council.
- Retailers can attend a panel discussion, “From Asia to the Home – a Complete Supply Chain Review” on Thursday, August 2 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Retailer Resource Center on the 16th floor of Building B. Panelists include Carl Abernathy and Eric Clarke, Four Truckers and Featured Guests.
- Academy Training Series, a higher level, focused series of seminars, will be offered daily from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Featuring different speakers who will discuss various consumer habits, the newly expanded 90-minute format is in direct response to the evaluations received during January’s Market.
For more details about the Academy Training Series and a complete list and description of all educational seminars offered, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com.
Social Events & Entertainment: World Market Center hosts a number of special networking and entertainment events throughout the week, which continue to be popular with attendees.
Complimentary special events include:
- Las Vegas Market’s second-annual Rep Appreciation Day will be held Sunday, July 29 in Building’s B atrium with events during the day and early evening exclusively for manufacturer’s representatives attending the Market.
- World Market Center and Furniture/Today co-host the Official Market Kick Off Party, the largest home furnishings industry networking event Monday, July 30 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Grand Plaza between Buildings A and B. Buyers and sellers will mingle and kick off Summer Las Vegas Market in style with plenty of food, fun and refreshments. Live entertainment provided by Tommy Rockers Band who will play the best of Jimmy Buffet and more hits.
- The Viva la Venetian Festival will be held Tuesday, July 31 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to celebrate the first day of the events at the Sands Expo. The Sands venue will be transformed into the sights, sounds and tastes of Venice with music, costumed performers and delicious cuisine befitting the spectacle and fantasy of the magical Italian city known for its savory food, breathtaking beauty and romance.
- World Market Center will host a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony on Tuesday, July 31 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Japanese Pavilion at the Sands Expo & Convention Center – complete with chashitsu (tea house) and omogashi (pastries). The Japanese Tea Ceremony is a traditional ritual in which green tea, or matcha, is ceremonially prepared by a skilled practitioner and served to a small group of guests in a tranquil setting.
- World Market Center will host a free lunch on Wednesday, August 1 beginning at 12 noon at Sands Expo. Free box lunches will be available for all attendees, while supplies last.
- The International Buyers Breakfast will be held Wednesday, August 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the WorldView on Sixteen in World Market Center’s Building B.
- The Green Party, sponsored by World Market Center, Sustainable Furniture Council, Channel Logic Inc. and Celebrity Host Josh Dorfman (The Lazy Environmentalist), will kick off the inaugural Living Green pavilion on Wednesday August 1, starting at 4 pm. Located at the Sands, the exhibit promotes the latest in sustainable furniture designs.
- The Island Dreams Polynesian Party on Wednesday August 1 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at World Market Center will take place in the Grand Plaza between Buildings A and B.
- Delightful Desserts will be offered in the atriums of Buildings A and B on Thursday, August 2 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Attendees can wind down with lavish desserts and refreshing spirits as the soothing sounds of a jazz band play in the background.
For a complete schedule of networking events, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com.
The Summer 2007 Market is scheduled for July 30-August 3, 2007 at World Market Center Buildings A and B and Pavilions and July 31-August 2 at Sands Expo Center.
July 6th, 2007
BAMBOO is a versatile, ancient plant that shows up in creation myths as well as in pots on Manhattan terraces. It comes in clumping varieties that behave themselves and running “timber” types that spread by rhizomes — great for a grove, but not so good when they are planted as a property screen that escapes into a neighbor’s yard.
But it’s that very vigor that has environmentalists hailing bamboo as the new “It” plant for saving the earth.
Bamboo is a workhorse at sequestering carbon dioxide and pumping out oxygen. It is a tough plant that manufactures its own antibacterial compounds and can thrive without pesticides. And its porous fibers make a cloth that breathes and is as soft as silk. In fact, there is such a stampede of fabric designers to China and Japan, where it is farmed and processed — no such industry exists in the United States — that in its May issue, National Geographic predicted that “this upstart fabric may someday compete with King Cotton.”
Yet as the world clamors for more, bamboo is in short supply. A plant that generally flowers only every 60 to 120 years and then dies is hard to propagate from seed. And growing it by dividing existing plants is notoriously difficult.
So when Jackie Heinricher and Randy Burr figured out how to make bamboo in test tubes — selling their first 2,000 plants in 2004 to local garden centers in the Skagit Valley in Washington — they made waves in the world of horticulture.
“It’s funny, because bamboo has this reputation for taking over the universe, and yet it’s the hardest plant to produce,” Ms. Heinricher, a biologist, said one afternoon in early June at the production center for her company, Boo-Shoot Gardens, here in Mount Vernon, a town about two hours north of Seattle.
Ms. Heinricher, who grew up with bamboo — her father tended golden bamboos all around their house in Olympia, Wash. — first tried to propagate the plant in the late 1990’s in a little greenhouse at her home in nearby Anacortes, where she lives with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, a marine biologist, and where she founded Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998.
“I got interested in noninvasive bamboos early on, knowing that they were very beautiful, but impossible to make,” Ms. Heinricher said. She quickly realized just how impossible, as she tried to divide some of her own rare specimens and watched many die.
So she persuaded Mr. Burr, an owner of the nearby B&B Laboratories, to help her. Mr. Burr and his company had been in business for almost 30 years, with a 14,000-square-foot tissue culture lab and 40,000 square feet of greenhouses. B&B had pumped out plants as varied as rhododendrons and cauliflower, and had figured out how to tissue-culture the Boston fern in 1973, for a nursery in Oxnard, Calif., and thousands of other plants.
“But bamboo was the hardest,” Mr. Burr said, looking back over eight years of trying seemingly endless combinations of variables to trigger bamboo to regenerate in a test tube.
When I asked what finally worked, Mr. Burr stared back deadpan and said, “We’d have to shoot you.”
Bamboo can be as delicate as the umbrella bamboo, Fargesia murieliae, a clumper with soft pea-green foliage and a weeping habit, or as heroic as Phyllostachys edulis, whose sturdy olive-green canes can grow 70 feet in a single season.
Bamboo fibers are a renewable resource for fabric, food and paper. And experimental plantings in Alabama financed by the Agriculture Department between 1933 and 1965 showed bamboo’s promise for paper and other wood products: bamboo produced 14 tons of wood an acre, as against 8 for loblolly pine, a major source of timber in the United States.
Planted in large groves, bamboo can store “four times the CO2 of a stand of trees of similar size,” Ms. Heinricher said, citing a study by Jules A. Janssen of the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands, in 2000. “And,” she said, “it releases 35 percent more oxygen.”
For now, though, Ms. Heinricher is concentrating on bamboos for the garden: ground covers that can replace lawns, well-behaved clumpers that can be planted in pots or as screens, and tall timber bamboos for those who have the room. The timber species are not invasive, she insists, if you put them in the right place with plenty of room, and maintain their growth by planting them on a mound, encircled by a shallow trench, about 10 inches wide and 8 inches deep, where the rhizomes can be cut easily when they travel.
Many of these plants can now be produced on a vast scale, which is revolutionary for the garden industry. Countries like Belgium have explored the tissue-culturing of bamboo, but Boo-Shoots appears to be taking the lead.
“I believe that Jackie is the first in America to figure out how to produce bamboo from tissue culture,” said Nicholas Staddon, the director of plant introductions for Monrovia, a wholesale grower with five locations in the United States. “She has made a substantial difference in how we bring plants to market.”
In the old days, bamboo had to be divided and grown to marketable size in a cycle lasting three to five years. Now Monrovia and other growers can buy trays full of young plants from Boo-Shoots, which are potted up and sold as a finished product to other wholesalers and retail nurseries across the country.
“There is a tremendous trend in the industry to use bamboo in the garden, and also in containers,” Mr. Staddon said. “And Jackie is working on varieties of bamboo which we are unfamiliar with, or have not been able to produce or acquire.”
Developing tissue culture is a time-consuming process, Mr. Burr explained, in which a tiny cutting is sterilized in bleach, then put into a soup, or agar, of inorganic salts, plant sugars, hormones, vitamins and “all the building-block components that encourage tissue to generate and shoot new growth.” Getting that formula right can take years.
And the rooting stage is tricky, too. “We’d put out 10,000 plants and lose 10,000,” Ms. Heinricher said.
In early January, Ms. Heinricher’s company, Boo-Shoots, bought B&B Laboratories and its growing center from Mr. Burr and his partners, and she asked him to focus solely on propagating additional species of bamboo. In the spring, they shipped 150,000 bamboo plants to wholesale growers like Monrovia and Hines in California, Prides Corner Farms in Connecticut and garden centers and mail-order houses like Plant Delights in Raleigh, N.C.
“That’s 24 different bamboos, all from tissue culture,” Ms. Heinricher said. “And we have 42 different kinds in production.” In 2008 the goal is to ship out 250,000.
Growing bamboo from seed or by division creates plants of different sizes, forms and colorations. But each species of these bamboos, growing by the tens of thousands in the Mount Vernon greenhouses, is amazingly uniform.
Ms. Heinricher and I walked by long tables full of Borinda boliana, a clumping bamboo whose new canes come up pale blue, then turn to burgundy and purple, and Fargesia rufa, or Sunset Glow, a cold-hardy clumper with orange-red cane sheaths that make a good screen or hedge. There were ground covers, too, like Pleioblastus viridistriatus, or Dwarf Green Stripe, which has chartreuse leaves striped with dark green ribbons.
“People are starting to use these as an alternative to lawn,” Ms. Heinricher said, running her fingers over the soft leaves. “You can walk on it. And if you mow it, it stays really tiny.”
I’ve always been fascinated by bamboo, especially the so-called timber species, with their giant gold, black and striped canes, which can range from 20 to 100 feet. (Remember the scene in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” when Ziyi Zhang leaps across a lush grove of towering bamboo that bends and sways to her every move?) But I’ve been afraid to grow it, thinking of those nightmarish stories about bamboo running across the neighbors’ lawns.
But Ms. Heinrich is determined to teach people how to choose the right plants, and how to maintain even the most vigorous growers. (Her booklet, “Discovering Bamboo,” available at booshootgardens.com, describes how to cultivate and maintain it.)
In her seven-acre garden in Anacortes, which is open by appointment, I admired many of the well-behaved bamboos around the Japanese-style guesthouse. But it was the tall timber types that drew me up the hill. Thousands of birds seemed to be nesting there, and the canes were swaying in the evening breeze.
It was shooting time in the garden, and that is what we had come to see: every spring, the buds on underground rhizomes suddenly pop out of the ground and begin to grow at an amazing rate. Phyllostachys nigra, the black bamboo, was sending up shoots about three inches in diameter and four feet tall. Within a month they would attain their full height — about 40 feet — but they wouldn’t get any thicker. Unlike tree trunks, bamboo canes do not grow in diameter; the following year’s new shoots will simply be a bit thicker, and so on, with each succeeding year.
We wandered about the groves, riveted by those shoots — some pale green, some golden, others inky black and satiny smooth. No wonder this plant inspires creation myths. Pieces of bamboo were said to have been found around Buddha’s remains.
“It’s probably the most sacred plant for everyone in the world, except the U.S., because of all that it does,” Ms. Heinricher said.
Bamboo shoots can be eaten, parboiled or stir-fried if you pop them off underground, just before they emerge from the dirt. That’s one way to control your bamboo: eat it for dinner.
I still wonder what happens if the responsible gardener moves away or dies. But bamboo is shallow-rooted. If you want to get rid of a grove, Ms. Heinricher said, you use a spade with a sharp edge to cut through the rhizomes; then shove the spade beneath the roots, which generally go about a foot down, and peel the whole mat off the ground.
“I’ve dug up 40-foot canes, in 20-by-20 groves, that way,” she said.
I stared up at the 70-footers. Maybe I would have to come back in a year, to eat a few shoots, and to help Ms. Heinricher peel up a grove.
July 6th, 2007
The notion of limited-edition design — which is all the rage now and which loomed large last month at Art Basel and its offshoot, Design Miami/Basel — was not born yesterday. Indeed, the Swiss furniture company Vitra embraced it 20 years ago when it started Vitra Edition, which offered a way for cutting-edge architects and designers — like Ron Arad, Frank Gehry, Shiro Kuramata, Ettore Sottsass and others — to do experimental work without the constraints of production or the market. They designed objects that were produced in small runs so that they could be sold to collectors to support their design research.
Back then, the program was slightly ahead of its time, but not today; the objects from the 1987 Edition are prized collectibles. So for the program’s 20th anniversary, Vitra added new people to the mix, including the brilliant Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, whose objects, from cellphones to bathtubs, have an inevitability that is both elegant and whimsical. Fukasawa’s design, called Chair, embodies his notion of objects “dissolving” into their environments. The sight of travelers perching wearily on their rolling luggage inspired the witty aluminum-clad “suitcase” chair, while the idea of a bale of hay becoming an impromptu seat resulted in the hay chair. Other versions of Chair are made of clear acrylic, marble, felt, wood and polyurethane, each one of which evokes an entirely different feeling. The prices, though not yet set, promise to be anything but dissolving. But then good things come in small quantities.
July 6th, 2007
— Furniture Today,
Suppliers ranked on quality and service issues
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan – Mega Group has recognized Magnussen Home, El Ran Furniture, South Shore Furniture and Simmons Canada, along with three other key suppliers, for quality and service provided to its members in 2006.
The awards cover all of Mega Group’s major product categories, including merchandising and credit services.
“Our supplier partners are significantly important in the growth and success of independent retailers,” said Todd Smith, Mega’s general manager of merchandising. “We are proud that these awards allow us to recognize those suppliers that excel in the delivery and execution of services with our retailers.
“At the same time, the results acquired from the retailer survey will allow us to work with those suppliers who did not win and identify areas that they can improve in going forward. The results will be positive for everyone involved as this process continues.”
The awards were presented at the group’s recent annual general meeting and conference in Victoria, British Columbia.
The award process involved a survey containing specific service and quality questions. The survey was distributed to a sample of Mega Group retailers across the country as well as the group’s credit and merchandising teams.
Both retailers and merchandisers were asked to rate suppliers on a range of quality and service issues that impact business at retail, including customer service, training and support, point-of-purchase materials and gross margins. The results created a ranking of suppliers in terms of service and quality performance, leading to a Retailer Supplier Recognition Award.
Retailer Supplier Recognition Awards were made to the following:
+ Appliances: Electrolux Canada
+ Consumer electronics: Panasonic Canada
+ Bedding: Simmons Canada
+ Upholstery: El Ran Furniture
+Case goods: South Shore Furniture
In addition, the ranking created by Mega’s merchandising team resulted in the awarding of a single Merchandising Supplier Recognition Award, which was presented to Magnussen Home.
At the same time, the credit team was surveyed, and those results determined a top-ranked supplier that best met the needs of the group’s credit processes. The Credit Team Supplier Recognition Award measured factors such as invoicing accuracy, customer service, debit and credit note processing and effective use of Mega’s central billing procedures. This year’s award went to Echelon Home Products, a supplier of appliances.
July 6th, 2007
By: Furniture World Magazine
Thomasville Stores of New Jersey rewarded 16 of their best performing retail sales staff with a group trip to New York City earlier this month, according to Michael Massood, president and chief executive officer of the four-year old franchise, operating under the business entity Plum Management.
“In a challenging economic environment, we’ve enjoyed some stellar performances from key individuals in our company,” said Massood. “We think it’s important to recognize them.”
Collectively, the top writers produced over $16 million in sales for the fiscal year ending December 2006, a 10 percent increase over the previous period. Top writers are defined by their ability to achieve $900,000 in furniture retail sales in a year. “I’m looking forward to seeing more associates attain this level of sales in 2007 and beyond,” said Mike Trapasso, who was recently appointed to vice president of sales of the growing five-store operation. “Our goal is to support our sales team and provide them with the tools they need to optimize sell-through and customer relations.”
The employees, their spouses and several members of Thomasville Stores of New Jersey’s management team began the organized outing with breakfast at the company’s Paramus, NJ store location. Then, boarding a chartered bus which made a stop at the Eatontown store and included lunch, they drove across the bridge to New York City armed with tickets for the acclaimed comedy/drama ‘Curtains’, playing at the Al Hirschfeld theater in the Broadway district of Manhattan. After the play, the group received special treatment and enjoyed a late evening meal at Manganaros, a popular Italian trattoria on Ninth Avenue that originated in 1893, before returning to New Jersey.
ABOUT THOMASVILLE STORES OF NEW JERSEY
Based in Fairfield, NJ, Thomasville Stores of New Jersey currently operates five locations in the state – Woodbridge, Paramus, Princeton, Eatontown and East Hanover – and is a top performing group in the Thomasville brand retail network of stores. For more information about Thomasville Stores of New Jersey, please visit www.thomasvillestores.com
July 6th, 2007
— Furniture Today,
Will be used in part to refinance exiting debt
ST. LOUIS — Furniture Brands International has obtained a $600 million revolving credit facility and has received a waiver on compliance with other financial covenants, the manufacturer and importer said in a regulatory filing Tuesday.
Furniture Brands said it entered into a commitment letter with J.P. Morgan Securities and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank for the new revolving credit facility. It will be used in part to refinance the company’s existing revolving credit facility.
As a condition of obtaining relief from covenants on other debt, the company said it will pay an estimated $164.7 million in principal and accrued interest on certain notes.
The company had faced a June 30 deadline for compliance with the debt covenants, which required certain ratios of earnings to debt.
July 6th, 2007
By: Furniture World Magazine
Simmons Bedding Company announced that it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Comfor-Pedic® line of memory foam mattresses and pillows from Comfor Products, Inc. The acquisition, which is expected to close in the next 30 days, will merge seamlessly the most advanced memory foam technology with the strength of the Simmons® brand, giving consumers and retailers a superior product from a company they know and trust.
The acquisition of the Comfor-Pedic line positions Simmons squarely in the middle of a growing market and rounds out the company’s specialty sleep portfolio, which is anchored currently by the Simmons® Natural CareTM line of latex mattresses.
“Manufacturing and selling foam mattresses has its own unique set of characteristics, which is why we’re excited about the addition of the Comfor-Pedic team’s expertise to our capabilities set,” said Charlie Eitel, Simmons chairman and chief executive officer. “We look forward to leveraging Comfor-Pedic’s more than 60 years of foam product innovation across our visco and latex offerings.”
Comfor-Pedic CEO Scott Smalling said, “Simmons’ rich history of innovation and its strong corporate culture reflect our company’s values, which make this union a natural fit. Comfor-Pedic’s advanced memory foam technology and other first-to-market innovations, combined with Simmons’ iconic brand and retail distribution network, will give consumers and retailers the best of both worlds. We look forward to going to market as a unified force.”
Simmons’ market research has shown that 60 percent of consumers are aware of the memory foam category, with half of those considering a purchase. Research also revealed that there is little brand loyalty to existing players in memory foam,1 opening the door for an experienced, committed competitor and the opportunity for growth in the category. “Consumer interest in foam mattresses is steadily growing, making it a viable market with room for multiple players,” said Eitel.
Butch Webster, 30-year industry veteran and Comfor-Pedic executive vice president, predicts that the Comfor-Pedic line will give Simmons a decisive edge in this market. “There is incredible potential in the market for a memory foam bed with superior performance characteristics, which is why I joined the company in 2005 after seeing what product features Scott and his team had designed,” said Webster. “With that in mind, I also knew that a match between Comfor-Pedic’s foam expertise and the manufacturing and distribution strengths of an industry leader would be incredibly powerful. I believe that we have found the perfect partner in Simmons to take this category to the next level.”
NEXT GENERATION OF MEMORY FOAM
Memory foam products have become popular largely because they conform to the body and reduce pressure points. However, complaints often associated with traditional memory foam include its inability to dissipate heat, leaving sleepers hot and uncomfortable, or that its sleep surface is inconsistent, feeling too hard in a cool room and too soft in a warm room.
The Comfor-Pedic product line is made with the next generation of memory foam, which provides the perfect combination of soft comfort and firm support to conform to one’s body. Comfor-Pedic dissipates heat to maintain a cool sleep surface and responds quickly to move with the body’s contours, preventing the “quicksand” feeling associated with traditional memory foam. In addition, Comfor-Pedic provides consistent comfort, eliminating the need for a break-in period, and is backed by a 25-year warranty.
The new product line, which will be called ComforPedic® by SimmonsTM, features five beds with a suggested retail price of $1,899–$6,999 and various pillow styles. The ComforPedic product line will be shown alongside the Natural Care product line at the Las Vegas Furniture Market, which will be held July 30–August 3. For more information, visit www.simmons.com.
About Simmons Bedding Company
Atlanta-based Simmons Company, through its indirect subsidiary Simmons Bedding Company, is one of the world’s largest mattress manufacturers, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of products under brands including Beautyrest®, Beautyrest BlackTM, Natural CareTM, BackCare®, Beautyrest BeginningsTM, and Deep Sleep®. Simmons Bedding Company operates 21 conventional bedding manufacturing facilities and two juvenile bedding manufacturing facilities across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Simmons also serves as a key supplier of beds to many of the world’s leading hotel groups and resort properties. Simmons is committed to developing superior mattresses and promoting a higher quality sleep for consumers around the world. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.simmons.com.
About Comfor Products
Comfor Products, Inc. was founded in 1946 as Industrial Rubber & Supply, Inc. In 2006, the company changed its name to Comfor Products to reflect its emphasis on the foam mattress product category. Drawing on Comfor Products’ more than 60 years of foam expertise in healthcare and aviation, Comfor-Pedic products utilize patented innovations that position the company at the forefront of the visco industry. Headquartered in Seattle, Comfor Products also operates manufacturing and back-office facilities in Portland, Oregon and High Point, North Carolina. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.comfor-pedic.com.
July 6th, 2007
Watch Those Speed Bumps!
Avoiding Six Common Furniture Sales Mistakes
By: Paul Cherry
Not all sales interactions run smoothly; even the best salespeople inevitably hit a bump in the road. Maybe you’ve hit that bump because you unwittingly mishandled a situation, or because your customer had conflicted feelings about a sale. Either way, if you want to salvage your hard work and make sure the sale goes through, you must learn to deal with these obstacles to meet your customer’s needs.
Here are the six most common mistakes home furnishings salespeople make and how to overcome them:
Fearing The Customer’s Reaction
When salespeople are afraid of what a customer might say, they end up losing sales opportunities because they don’t find out what the customer really wants. For example, you dread hearing customers say, “Your price is too high.” It’s almost a knee-jerk reaction to offer a lower price. Instead, be proactive and try to uncover the unique buying criteria important to the customer so the price objection doesn’t come up in the first place.
Taking It Personally.
Sure, in your head you know that a customer’s bad attitude doesn’t reflect on your worth as a human being. But our egos get in the way, and we internalize the customer’s negativity. When your customer brings up a problem, don’t get defensive and explain the problem away. Not only will the customer probably not be overjoyed with your response, but you will have failed to address the heart of the matter: how to fix your customer’s problem.
Rushing to Judgment.
As a salesperson, you should work to focus all of your attention on your customer and her needs. It’s all too easy to swoop in to present a solution instead of listening to your customer’s complaints and the specifics of her situation. In this rush to cut to the chase, you’re in danger of coming across as arrogant, and your customer ends up feeling her input is unimportant and unappreciated.
Embrace any information your prospect gives you, whether you believe it’s valuable or not. Remember, even if you hear the story all the time, it is unique and personal for each customer. Instead of interrupting your customer with your standard solution, let him have the floor and explain his problem. Only then can you proceed with the process of finding a solution for whatever ails him.
Beating a Dead Horse.
How do you know when, despite your best efforts, your customer relationship is beyond saving and therefore taking up more time than it’s worth? When that customer is demanding, even confrontational, yet provides you with little to no business for all the irritation she’s giving you. Sometimes customers like this actually cost you money because you spend so much time trying to please them. You hope that if you keep doing business with them, they’ll eventually reward you for your loyalty—but let’s face it, there are some customers you just don’t want!
Shifting Blame.
For the past twenty years, organizations have embraced the concept of teamwork. When things go awry, though, it’s easy to point fingers. Donald Trump’s TV series, The Apprentice, shows how individuals can turn on each other to protect their own interests. The boardroom meetings with “the Donald” show a different side of each contestant’s character. One individual must be eliminated from the show each week, so one gets singled out for letting the team down.
When customers come to you with problems, do you know someone on your team who tries to shift blame to another person or department in your company? Pointing fingers only delays resolving customers’ issues. When things go well in your firm, everyone should definitely share the glory—and when things go wrong, everyone should share the blame, too.
Treating all Customer Complaints With the Same Approach.
Some salespeople have a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to dealing with customer objections. They may offer to lower their price or automatically throw in product extras, without listening to the reasons the customer is upset. While you’re being conditioned to respond to objections with concessions, your customers are learning that whenever they complain, they’re rewarded, much like giving whiny children toys or treats to quiet them. For example, a customer might ask you to cut your price by 5% to clinch a deal. When you agree to this deal, you’re setting up her expectations for the next time you negotiate. She’ll think all she has to do is raise an objection and you’ll always give in. Having only one approach to resolving customer issues results in two mistakes:
You’re not addressing your customer’s real problem.
You end up offering more than what your customer really wants.
It’s better for both you and your customer if, instead of giving price cuts to close the deal, you really listen to what your customer tells you, then go from there. Slowing down and listening when you reach business relationship speed bumps works better in the long run than always trying to swerve around them.
About the Author:
Paul Cherry is President of the Philadelphia-based sales and leadership firm Performance Based Results and the author of QUESTIONS THAT SELL, published by AMACOM Books. Paul can be reached at 302-478-4443 or e-mailed at cherry@pbresults.com. When you subscribe to our quarterly newsletter at http://www.pbresults.com, download our free white paper, “117 Top Questions that Sell,” based on PBR’s latest research on what salespeople need to ask in order to up-sell, cross-sell and win more customers!
July 6th, 2007
— Furniture Today,
BASSETT, Va. — Bassett Furniture Inds. said today it lost $2.4 million in its fiscal second quarter ended May 26 as sales declined 14% because of soft retail conditions.
In the same quarter last year, the company had a profit of $2.8 million.
Sales of $75.4 million in this year’s second quarter were down from the $87.7 million last year.
Excluding restructuring, lease exit costs for three stores and a leasehold improvement asset improvement related to downsizing the company’s wholesale showroom, results would have been just about break-even, the company said, which would represent a $2 million improvement over the results for the first quarter of 2007.
“These are truly difficult times for our industry and our results for the second quarter reflect that,” said Rob Spilman Jr., Bassett president and CEO.
“We continue to believe the initiatives we have in place to improve our store, program combined with actions we have and are taking to reduce our cost structure, will make us a better company and coupled with a better overall retail environment should lead to improved operating results. An additional challenge will be repositioning our upholstery fabric line in light of the recent financial difficulties of two of our key suppliers,” Spilman said.
Net sales for Bassett’s wholesale segment were $63.4 million, 16% below the $75.4 million in sales for second quarter 2006.
Approximately 46% of wholesale shipments in the first half were imported products compared with 44% in the first half of 2006, the company said.
July 6th, 2007