by Company will show more than 100 items in an expanded showroom at the October High Point Market
HIGH POINT — Case goods and upholstery resource Bernards Furniture Group is adding accent furniture to its growing list of categories this coming fall, part of a strategy to broaden its mix and market share amid some recent industry consolidation.
At the October High Point Market, the company is expanding its showroom in the Atrium and showing more than 100 pieces such as accent and spot tables along with bookcases, upholstered ottomans and bar stools, to name several core items.
The company saw an opportunity in the category following the departure of several key suppliers in the marketplace including Stein World, Hekman and Howard Miller, not to mention Progressive Furniture and Pier 1, all of which offered accent furniture.
“This creates a void in the marketplace for better quality, strong valued accents,” said Bernards President Micah Swick. “As has been our model, we will be approaching the category in some new ways, as we continue to reimagine everything.”
“It has been such a big category for so long, and with suppliers and retailers going out of business, there is almost a vacuum.”
Still, the category offers retailers a way to sell relatively lower-cost product that customers can purchase and take home that day.
“We have been looking at and considering this for some time,” Swick said. “With the economy and slower business environment, accents continue to be one of the higher volume categories. … It is an impulse and lower-cost purchase that you can have more turns on.”
Made in Vietnam, the products will be shown in a 1,200-square-foot space the company is leasing adjacent to its main showroom in Space 201 of the Atrium at 430 S. Main St.
Swick added that by market, most of the new products will be in inventory in the company’s Greensboro, North Carolina, warehouse with the rest on the water and expected to arrive soon after.
“We are moving full speed ahead on the category,” he said.
