by While traffic was lighter for many, companies came prepared with strong product introductions and strategies aimed at helping drive traffic at retail
HIGH POINT — While traffic may have been lighter compared to last spring, most executives we spoke with at the April market said the event was positive overall, particularly as those buyers who were here came to shop as they always do every six months.
Indeed, the conversations, we’ve been told, were focused primarily on how product can make a style statement on the floor as opposed to price, which is subject to any number of factors from rising material costs to ongoing tariffs.
In typical market fashion, companies each had strategies that helped differentiate themselves from the competition or that focused on core strengths in their lines.
Lexington and Hooker, for example, each offered line extensions in their respective Tommy Bahama and Margaritaville licensed collections as did Best Home Furnishings, which added new pieces to its licensed Erin & Ben Co. upholstery line.
Each offered lifestyle looks that are popular among today’s consumers, mixing colorful coastal-themed finishes and fabrics — including 32 new fabrics and seven new chairs and four new sofa frames in Margaritaville — along with traditional silhouettes and fabrics that evoke a sense of nostalgia as seen in the Erin & Ben Co. collection.
While Norwalk had an impressive mix of roughly 80 new frames across its Studio 1902, Norwalk and Kim Salmela lines, a major part of its focus was on the fabric selection.
“The fabric assortment is our key component to market because we are seeing a shift to traditional,” said President Tim Newlin. “You can take new color palettes and fabric assortments with a lot of patterns, but using them on traditional styles, or taking a modern style frame and putting a traditional fabric on it. It is creating a really nice look that people are responding to. … We are also able to create awesome vignettes that will make older products look really up to date.”
Lower-middle and mid-priced resources also brought newness to the mix including Lifestyle Enterprise, which featured step-up looks across its case goods assortment which included some 20 new bedrooms and eight to 10 new dining rooms. Step-up groups included a new solid wood group from Bangladesh featuring a bedroom made with raintree wood retailing around $2,900 for five pieces that was also shown with companion dining and occasional pieces.
This was just one of several of the elevated looks Lifestyle offered in the wood category, with other style statements in traditional, transitional and contemporary targeted to retail from $1,849 to $2,399 for five pieces.
Crown Mark showcased 10 new bedrooms, a dozen new dining groups and a wide selection of new occasional groups, from starting to midlevel price points. Among the most popular bedrooms were several new starting-priced sets in paper laminates and melamines mimicking natural wood looks. Also important to the mix were new desks and home entertainment consoles that coordinated with the occasional offerings.
Ashley also had significant introductions across its core categories, noted President and CEO Todd Wanek. He added that response from the steady dealer traffic was mostly positive.
“I would describe it as very refined and very succinct on what we wanted to achieve,” he told Home News Now of the product mix, adding, “And I think we achieved it. It’s not our biggest introduction ever, but it is very focused. We have a lot of stationary, a lot of motion, a lot of case goods and mattresses. We hit every category.”
He added that while motion upholstery is extremely popular because of its functional nature, there is also high interest in stationary based on the frames and fabric selection.
“Motion is hot right now and everybody is focused on motion because of immersive sound and massage features,” he said. “All of that stuff is selling super well, and for stationary, it is seating stories and cover stories.”
Full line resource AICO said it was satisfied with market overall.
“Considering the continued headwinds in the home furnishings space, we were pleased with our market,” company president David Koehler told Home News Now. “One of the clearest measures of market success is the reaction to new introductions, and the response to our new merchandise was exceptionally strong. We remain highly focused on gaining market share, highlighted by the launch of three new collections, Savona Coast, Synclair and Palmara. In addition, we introduced a robust new upholstery and occasional tables program that was received extremely well.”
He noted that its customers were seeking “innovative products that create merchandising excitement, add differentiation to their floors, and drive sales. They know how obsessed we are with developing unique, compelling designs that connect with today’s consumers. At the core of everything we do is our focus on helping our customers be successful.”
New at Coaster were four major bedroom and dining collections representing nearly 70 SKUs featuring a mix of British Colonial, modern Tuscan and classic French designs. In addition, it showcased new dining and occasional and upholstery offerings that represent the depth and breadth of its good-better-best story.
To solidify its competitive position in the marketplace, it also sharpened its prices on new products, noted Crystal Nguyen, vice president of merchandise and strategic product planning.
“At a time when everybody is increasing prices because of materials increases and freight increases, we are rolling it back,” she said. “We are taking a chance to beat our competitors and show that we have great values on new products.
“It’s a risk, but if it works, then the owners are then willing to do it with existing inventory,” she added. “So we have a strategy for selling things for an even greater value by making less profit.”
She added that the company also offered market specials for the first time on direct container shipments.
“We are stimulating sales as much as we can and as much as the owners are comfortable with in terms of lower price points. … So in every price category we are trying to wow them within that price range with design and by grabbing their attention and not having me-too products.”
Indeed, price was on the minds of both wholesalers and retailers alike particularly given oil- and petroleum-related cost increases on materials ranging from foam and finishing materials to packaging materials and freight. But many said it was not part of the conversation as most price increases were set to take effect sometime this month.
Most said they were taking a serious yet careful approach to how they were increasing prices.
“There is a lot of uncertainty on the consumer demand side, and there are certainly a lot of unknowns around cost inflation, specifically emanating from what’s going on in the Middle East,” said Derek Schmidt, president and chief executive officer of Flexsteel at the beginning of market. “And given the sensitivity of the consumer right now, we have to be very thoughtful in terms of how we think about price. We also don’t know if the increase of energy and its derivatives is going to be structural or transitory. We believe it’s going to be transitory and potentially fade away and we are going to carry the margin burden for the short term.”
“If we come to the conclusion that it’s something more structural and permanent, we will have to evaluate pricing, but again, we will be cautious and thoughtful just like we have in the past.”
Michael Carey, chief executive officer of full line furniture resource RW Collective, said the company plans to maintain pricing.
“We are holding the line on pricing,” he said, adding, “Unless they come up with something crazy on this foam. If they want to try to play that game, what they are going to do is force everybody to go back to buying foam from China. We are still flowing imports for a lot of our stuff that we can’t do here. And I can have my factory put foam on that container just as easy as these chairs. We can build sofas with China foam.”
While the outcome of the conflict in the Middle East remains an unknown, most are acknowledging and preparing for ongoing inflation tied to oil prices moving forward.
“The war looks like its going to continue and inflation looks likes it’s going to keep going up because of gas prices,” said Doug Townsend, president of Banner House, which includes Magnussen Home, Pulaski and SLF with plans to finalize the purchase of Kincaid and American Drew later this month. “Which is all going to make it so interest rates are not going to come down to provide the relief the industry needs. It starts with interest rates going down and mortgage rates going down and then the housing business starts getting unlocked. Now its a year away at least, whereas we all thought it might be six months away.”
Still, Townsend said there was a lot of excitement in and outside the company at market, including its new showroom at 220 Elm and all the brands being under one roof. He also said that reaction to new case goods shown at market also was also positive, including the first major additions developed by Vice President of Product Development Fred Schubert, who joined the company last year.
Townsend added that while dealer sentiment is cautious, he noted that larger and mid-sized retailers made commitments at market.
“And if you are making commitments to new products, you are looking forward to the future and thinking you are going to be around in the future,” he said. “And that type of thing is positive, but overall I think everybody is watching their business and making sure they have enough working capital so they can get through whatever time period we all have to get through.”
Alex Shuford III, CEO of the Rock House Farm group that includes Century, Hickory Chair, Maitland-Smith, Highland House, Jessica Charles and others, said the company was pleasantly surprised with traffic at market.
“Weekend traffic seemed to spike on Saturday, Sunday and Monday,” he said. “I don’t know if that was early travelers coming back from Milan, but in the end we probably ended up with higher or at least even attendance numbers,” he said of this market compared with other recent markets. “The design community is in a very good mood and mindset right now. Retailers had a bumpy April, but from what we heard, the very last weekend before market they saw significantly better traffic. So hopefully, if we keep things calmed down in the Middle East, then maybe business will begin to recover a little. If we can get the design side of the business and the retail side of the business performing at the same time, we can have a really nice middle of this year. So we are optimistic. Certainly I think this was better than an average market.”
Edward Audi, president of Stickley Furniture, said that while traffic seemed light at some points during market, the company was seeing many of its regular customers.
“With everything going on in the world, there is a lot of wait and see,” he said of activity at market. “We are trying to roll with the punches.”
Still, he noted that the company has had high interest overall in its imported and domestic case goods and upholstery products, including an enhanced leather program.
“Both remain strong and we have very strong collections out of Stickley International and, of course, we are incredibly strong in domestic case goods and upholstery.”
Jeremy Hoff, president and chief executive officer at Hooker Furnishings, said the company remains focused on the things it can control in these uncertain times.
“And what can you control? You can control your attitude, you can control your product, your pricing and everything you can do to be a good partner,” he said. “Because whatever this is will end, and we are all going to need to be in a position to service our customers and do what we need to do. And the way to do that is to not stop doing those things. I just find that if you focus on all the wrong things you end up not doing all those things that you should be doing to be ready. There is just no advantage to it.”
