HIGH POINT — Case goods importer Lifestyle Enterprise is pursuing an aggressive global strategy it hopes will boost its annual sales to more than $1 billion in several years.

In the past year, the company has hired executives to manage sales and marketing centers it has set up in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Australia, Japan, the Middle East and Scandinavia.

The executives manage sales teams and report to Lifestyle’s international offices in Singapore and Shanghai, China.

With the global network in place, Lifestyle plans to make first-time appearances at seven foreign trade shows between this July and April 2014. Including three shows a year in High Point, that will nearly double its total annual trade show appearances to 15.

Today, business outside the United States represents about 6% percent of sales. The company projects that will reach 10% in two years and as much as 40% in five years, said Greg Noe, group president and chief operating officer.

According to company marketing materials, Lifestyle Enterprise had an estimated $285 million in revenues in 2012. By 2016, the company forecasts as much as $1.2 billion in volume. The figures are based on FOB U.S.A. estimates, which include freight costs.

The road to such growth will run through several new show venues.

Events that Lifestyle will attend for the first time include Furnitex in Melbourne, Australia, in July; Index Dubai and the International Furniture Fair Tokyo, both in November; Salon Du Meuble in Paris in January; the Stockholm Furniture Fair in February; the China International Furniture Fair in Guangzhou in March; and the Salon Internazionale Del Mobile in Milan, Italy, in April.

This January, the company showed for the first time at the Birmingham (England) Furniture Show. The company also already attends international shows in Cologne, Germany; Shanghai, China; Singapore and Malaysia.

In the United States, Lifestyle will continue to skip the Las Vegas show and instead will concentrate on its Forbidden City showroom in High Point, which is open during the spring and fall markets and for a mini-market event, held for the first time this past January. The second mini-market is planned for Jan. 15-17, 2014.

The new international shows, which will be similar to Lifestyle’s Forbidden City format in Singapore, Malaysia and Cologne, represent a large investment. In 2013 alone, Lifestyle will spend between $5 and $8 million on the shows, Noe said.

Noe said he believes the company’s ambitious sales goals are attainable, particularly with the network of sales executives Lifestyle has set up.

“The main thing is that the people we are working with, we didn’t go looking for them, they came looking for us,” Noe said, which he said shows the company has gained name recognition overseas. “We went out and partnered with these people.”

“We have got strong individuals and teams in play in all the show areas,” added Managing Director James Riddle. “We have seasoned veterans heading up all those divisions.”

Still, reaching all those markets could prove to be a challenge for a variety of reasons, including marketing in different languages.

“We are the easy market to get at because it is all in English,” said Peter Rayner, owner of U.K.-based International Furniture Consultancy Associates.

Rayner said a challenge in addition to language is setting up distribution in the overseas sales areas. Product development, too, will be critical, particularly in markets such as Scandinavia and Japan, where scaling generally is smaller than in the U.S. market.

“Flexibility will be important in order for them to reach the market,” Rayner said.

He added that upholstery products will have to meet tougher flammability regulations in Britain and elsewhere.
 Product developers in the United States and overseas will tailor goods to the needs of specific markets, Noe said.

Value stories in case goods and leather and microfiber upholstery likely will play a big role in the international sales growth.

Noe said the company also plans to expand its options in casual dining, home entertainment and occasional, as well as youth, a new product category that launched this year.