Clint Engel — Furniture Today
\nATLANTA \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Looking to boost exposure of its furniture lines and grow its business, sales representative group
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\nTradeWinds Partners has opened a showroom, training center and headquarters here.<\/p>\n
Last spring, the eight partners purchased a 10,000-square-foot building on DeFoor Avenue for what has become Studio 4, a gallery showcasing the lines they carry. That includes Hooker and affiliated companies Bradington-Young and Seven Seas, and Paoli and its affiliated Whitehall line in contract.<\/p>\n
The rep group, which covers Georgia, Alabama and northern Florida, soon expects to add goods from Sam Moore, which is being acquired by Hooker.<\/p>\n
The partners have invested about $1.3 million in the project and received favorable terms from their supplier companies for some $200,000 in samples, said Johnny Tingle, TradeWinds president. The showroom hosted an open house, largely for its residential customers, last week.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of the best looks we sell are not presented as widely \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or exposed to the public as much as we think they should be,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tingle said. The new showroom gives TradeWinds the opportunity to change that without stepping on the toes of its dealer base.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not our intention to sell anything out of the showroom,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply a place to show and tell the best looks from all of our manufacturers\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. All we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re selling is romance and training.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say the showroom isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t open to the public. TradeWinds is encouraging consumers to walk through anytime Monday through Friday. The group will make presentations to anyone, Tingle said, and if they want to buy, it will refer consumers to dealers.<\/p>\n
He noted that TradeWinds for years has made presentations in contract, starting with the end user and working backwards through designers, who take their selections to dealers.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We always felt that would work in residential just as easily,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tingle said, and the new showroom gives TradeWinds a chance to prove it. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we can sell the consumer (on the product) and deliver that consumer to one of our stores, we should be ahead of the competition.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Tingle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s partners in Trade-Winds and investors in Studio 4 are Rick Ferguson, Bruce Kenny, Bob House, Thomas Nolfa, Henry Fitzgerald, Powell Cooper and Matt McBride.<\/p>\n
In Studio 4, TradeWinds aims to cover every category, including home office, living room, bedroom, dining, occasional and home accents. It has set aside 3,000 square feet of the 10,000-square-foot space (currently leased to an unrelated tenant) for what it hopes will become a Hooker Showplace prototype gallery, Tingle said.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Near the entrance, Trade-Winds has carved out an area for new product, special prototypes or proprietary goods for major retailers, perhaps saving them a trip to High Point.<\/p>\n
The group also has started hosting half-day \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lunch and learn\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sessions for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all the questions that come up in a store everyday\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that salespeople don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the time or resources to answer, Tingle said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our mission to try to train salespeople by getting them away from the store to where we have their full attention.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
This summer, TradeWinds plans to offer a one-day seminar led by Leslie Carothers, owner of The Kaleidoscope Partnership. It also expects to use the facility for a kick-off barbecue in conjunction with TradeWinds\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 annual charity golf tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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