— Furniture Today,
LYNWOOD, Calif. — Case goods manufacturer and importer Michels and Co., formerly Michels/Pilliod, is ending a 10-year run at the Tupelo, Miss., market, and plans to focus on the Las Vegas and High Point shows.


The company has pulled out of it 7.500-square-foot showroom, space 1014 in Tupelo Building 1, and will not show at the Aug. 16-19 market.

President and CEO Irwin Allen said the company decided to leave the market in light of the new upcoming Tupelo dates.

The show historically has been held in February and August, but earlier this year, show officials changed the dates to January and June. The new dates, Allen said, do not work well with its marketing cycle, which is tied more to the January and July Las Vegas markets.

“We use Las Vegas as our introduction market,” he said. “With (Tupelo) moving to early January (and June), it doesn’t work for our marketing program and our product introduction program.”

Michels and Co. will continue to introduce some product in High Point, where it has shown for the past six years, Allen said. However, he said those new products mainly will be additions to lines it debuts in Las Vegas.

He leaves the Tupelo market with some mixed feelings.

“The business is changing,” Allen said. “Las Vegas has really shaken up a lot of markets. We have been in Las Vegas from day one and it has been a good market for us and is going to grow. It’s not that those guys (at Tupelo) are doing anything wrong. It just doesn’t fit into our marketing plans.”

Tupelo market officials weren’t immediately available for comment.