by LOS ANGELES – Case goods importer Martin Svensson Home has named industry veteran Pat Watson as director, merchandising, a new position.
Watson fills a position previously overseen by four executives/owners in the company who handled merchandising related to specific case goods categories.
“It was a way to get us started and off the ground as a company four years ago, but it also was an opportunity for everyone, namely the younger owners in the company – my three nephews – to learn the business,” said John Sandberg, company president and an owner in the business. “We have reached a point now in our growth where each of them now need to focus on their individually assigned areas within the company, and we needed to bring in a designated batter if you will. We got the guy who can swing from the fences for us and we hired Pat and are lucky to have him.”
Watson has had many years of case goods merchandising and product development experience. Some of his previous roles include vice president, merchandising at Hooker Furniture, vice president, merchandising, Legacy Classic Furniture, director, product development at A.R.T. Furniture and director, product development at Magnussen Home Furnishings.
In his new position, he reports to John Sandberg, and his job will include several major areas of responsibility from researching the needs of the marketplace to aligning specific products to the capabilities of various source factories.
“He will also look at new factories maybe that we don’t know of yet and look at new source countries for us to expand our horizons in order to push the envelope for us,” Sandberg said. “We consider ourselves to be the bottom of the top , not the top of the middle, so we want to be known as more of a design house. And that’s why I brought Pat on – because of his acumen and but also his ability to communicate with retailers and salespeople and factories. He has experience in everything from construction to finishing. We just think he checked all the boxes for us. All of the candidates we looked at were terrific, but Pat was just a little better fit for where we want to go as a company from where we are today.”
