— Furniture Today,
\nTUPELO, Miss. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Upholstery manufacturers adjusted price points and turned up the heat on market promotions to stimulate business in a lightly attended summer market here this month.
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\nUnited Furniture, for instance, departed from its $299 and $399 core retail price points to move into $499 and $599 sofas after a survey of customers indicated they wanted to step up, said President Larry George.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We wanted to take it to a new level and make it easier to broaden our line out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d George said.<\/p>\n
Ashley concentrated heavily on the $399 retail price point here, stressing value with dressmaker skirts, microfiber velvets, leather-look covers, 1.8-inch foam cushions and hardwood frames. In all, the company offered more than 15 groups in the price point in its Ashley and Signature showrooms.<\/p>\n
In addition, the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Signature division offered a two-piece sectional at $799 retail, which could be expanded with an armless piece for $999. A pub back sofa with pillowtop arms, loveseat and recliner group in textured microfiber was targeted at $999.<\/p>\n
Kerry Lebensburger, president of sales for Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s upholstery division, said the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal is to add quality while taking costs out of upholstered goods as a means of competing with the influx of Chinese imports.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were not here to play, we were here to win,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lebensburger. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re good competitors, and we have a lot of respect for them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
He said retailers on the West Coast might find some cost advantage in Chinese goods. But by the time imported product is shipped to the Midwest, he said, there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough price difference to overcome the freight factor, extended delivery time and other problems.<\/p>\n
At upholstery manufacturer Genesis, Tim Mueller, vice president and director of marketing, expressed similar views.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Importers) may have me in labor, but with freight up, oil up, we still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cost that much more,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dismiss them out of hand.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Genesis was offering two versions of a large, low-silhouette, California-style sofa in chenille and velvet with two roll pillows to retail for $699 and $799. Sofas are 98 inches in length with a seat depth of 44 inches.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never really tried these (before),\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mueller, adding the introduction received a good response.<\/p>\n
Affordable freshened up a couple of $299 retail numbers with new covers, and added a leather pattern sofa for $399; with loveseat, $799. A two-piece sectional was offered at $699.<\/p>\n
Rose Hill added step-ups in its Kings Creek collections and specials like five-piece upholstery and occasional groups to retail at $450 and $500.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We see a lot of majors going to a lot cleaner look in style,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Hunter Bigham, vice president of sales. In addition, color is playing a more important look in upholstery, he said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We wrote orders. People are starting to stock up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added.<\/p>\n
Nuance Fine Furniture was back in Tupelo after pulling out earlier, and had five or six of its best sellers ($999 to $1,499) on display.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They gave us an offer we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t refuse,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Tom Schmidt, vice president of sales. He said the company also has added sales reps and wanted to expose product to Tupelo buyers.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We wanted to support (the market) because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve supported us over the years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Schmidt.<\/p>\n
Style-Line was making a big push in contemporary in the $599 to $799 retail price points and wrote business at the market, said Harvey Bailey, vice president of sales and marketing.<\/p>\n
He said one way that retailers are looking to entice consumers in the category is to offer a wide variety of colors.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Think color and throw out the palette,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The key to the market is color.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
— Furniture Today, TUPELO, Miss. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Upholstery manufacturers adjusted price points and turned up the heat on market promotions to stimulate business in a lightly attended summer market here this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}