Heath E. Combs — Furniture Today,
HIGH POINT — Call it the market crunch.


For furniture manufacturers and importers introducing product, the next few months will be busier than usual.
The first month of 2014 will bring the first January Tupelo Furniture Market, the second Forbidden City Furniture Show in High Point, the Canadian Home Furnishings Market in Toronto, the Cologne International Furniture Fair and, at the end of the month, the Las Vegas Market.

Not to mention home furnishings and gift shows in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris and Chicago.

Add to that the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Jan. 8-11 and the third annual Winter Event for Designers in High Point, with more than 50 showrooms taking part Jan. 23-26, and the month is pretty well packed.

In addition, for the first time, the High Point Market backs up a month to March. For one time during the transition to a mainly March and September schedule, the move cuts about a month out of the usual High Point cycle.

Manufacturers had more than a year’s notice from the High Point Market Authority on the change and are adjusting to the new dates.

Importer Magnussen Home Furnishings has altered its development and shipping schedules, although the change hasn’t required any additional trips to Asia.

“It was a matter of adjusting our schedule a year ago and planning that much further ahead,” said Karen Knoch, Magnussen Home’s merchandise manager.

“Samples have to ship earlier than they ever have but, again, that was incorporated into our development schedule a year ago,” she said. “It presents a little bit of a challenge due to the timing of Chinese New Year (factories close for about 10 days in February) but it was simply a matter of working backwards and making sure we hit our pre-planned timelines.”

One positive from the earlier market, she said, is that the company will include an extra month of shipping new goods into its 2014 revenues.

Katrina Patton, vice president of product development at Lexington Home Brands since late October, said she would have liked to have secured more input from dealers and licensees on sketches of product to be introduced in March.

Patton also said the shorter cycle gives companies less time to explore sourcing options for hardware, marble tops and veneers.

“You don’t have the luxury of finding whose quotes will be better, making it tough for people sourcing for us,” she said. “It’s always nice to have more time for sourcing of hardware and veneers, to be able to look at different veneers under different finishes.”

She said one of her goals at Lexington is to continue developing product well in advance of introductions. The company is already working on licensed product for March 2015.

“You always like to have things, new designs, new concepts. You build the mockups of a case, and if it doesn’t look so good, maybe ahead of time you pull up something else in front of it,” Patton said.

“To move at a brisker pace, sometimes you don’t question things as much. Sometimes with more time you over-question,” she said.

Since late 2012, planning also has taken a front seat at Broyhill as the company has worked to become more driven by product development all year rather than just focusing on market cycles. The company also wants product that can be readily introduced to its customers, said Mike McCollum, senior vice president of merchandising for bedroom and dining room.

Broyhill shows at the Las Vegas and High Point markets and will introduce product at both. The company is working on product development for as far out at January 2015.

“It gives us more time to get it right, get cost-effective construction and place the right group with the right factory,” McCollum said.

For bigger projects, the extra time allows the company to do core group market research when needed, he said. Still, the planning and production can be accelerated when necessary, he said.

“If we pick up on a trend in a single category, we can have samples in front of U.S. customers in about six to eight weeks. On whole home collections, we can do it in about three months,” McCollum said.