by Executive shares thoughts about fall High Point Market, along with the company’s growing product mix and the opportunities that lie ahead
HIGH POINT — In early August, Liberty Furniture named longtime company executive and Chief Revenue Officer Jonathan Cowles president, a role previously held by Jason Brian, who became chief executive officer.
At the tail end of the October High Point Market, Home News Now caught up with Cowles to hear his perspective on the market, Liberty’s product introductions and overall business heading into the end of the year and start of 2027. Below is a snapshot of that conversation.
Home News Now: Now that we are about to wrap up another market, how did things go this time around here at Liberty and what was the mood like?
Cowles: Market has been good and even a little bit better than expected. There are some headwinds out there in the industry including ocean freight and uncertainty about what may be coming down the road. Inventory is going to be a big topic as we continue into Q4 and even into early Q1. But as a whole, I think customers were very positive. And our traffic as of yesterday (Sunday, Oct. 18), we had more customers than we had through last October. And today has been pretty good.
HNN: What did your product introductions look like this time?
Cowles: We had over 100 new collections ranging from whole home to upholstery, accents, occasional, entertainment and home office. We had some big hits. Upholstery also continues to be very strong for us.
HNN: Does your mix include stationary and motion?
Cowles: We have some accent chairs that are stationary and we have some pushback recliners, but outside of that, all of our sectionals and sofas are going to be power motion. We have definitely had a strong response here at market. We are in year three so it is still going to be a growth category as we are trying to build out that assortment. … We’ve got 80,000 square feet of space here and that is just one quadrant.
HNN: You mentioned home office earlier. How important is this category in your mix?
Cowles: We have a little bit of a good, better, best story in home office, but it leans more towards better, best. The junior executive footprint is still important for us along with our executive footprint, but we also still have writing desks, mobile file cabinets and bunching bookcases. Depending on the customer, we are able to have a solution for whatever they are looking for.
HNN: Has interest in the category resumed since the pandemic?
Cowles: A lot of people purchased home office back in 2020 and 2021 and as we are five or six years away from that, people are starting to look at it again. In both dining and home office, there were a lot of investments that people made in their homes and at the time, people were maybe buying what they could get, not necessarily what they wanted because we know that inventory was a challenge then. So I think people are spending more time in their homes and they continue to work from home and as that has become a norm for them. They need to upgrade.
HNN: We know business has been challenging. How would you describe the overall environment out there of late?
Cowles: We were very pleasantly surprised by demand in the summer months being higher than it typically is. And Labor Day also was strong for the industry, not just Liberty. October, if I go and look back at trends, there is usually a little softening before market, which makes sense. From a demand standpoint, we’ve stayed on trend with where we were throughout the year. It compares to last October and the trend lines are right where we have been year to date. So that feels good, but at the same time, I think there are going to be some challenges in Q4 in terms of availability.
HNN: We understand that container rates are still a challenge for the industry, with reports of rates being three times the contract price to get goods moved.
Cowles: In the fourth quarter we will really be dependent on inventory, and those who have it are going to win. There wasn’t a retailer I talked with that isn’t being challenged in some way — either getting space at a reasonable rate, or having to pay that premium to get goods here. And if you don’t have it on the water soon, you are not going to have it for 2026. We are doing everything we can to make sure we are in a position to service our customers. I think we learned during COVID that it is much better to have goods at a higher cost than not to have goods at all. It is difficult to sell from an empty wagon.
HNN: Liberty also has made investments in its team.
Cowles: Yes we have recently made investments in our sales team and our supply chain. Like bringing Bryan Edwards on board. We are really excited to have someone like Bryan join the Liberty team, and we are going to benefit from him working with the product team and our retailers. We have already seen it in the first month he has been on board. And with Maggie Henning getting promoted into the director of sales position, it has been fun seeing her at market interact with more of our brick-and-mortar retailers. How they have responded to her has been really exciting to see. And with our supply chain we brought on Will Daughtery, who just started two weeks ago. He has a supply chain background as well as a merchant background, plus the perspective of a retailer. And I think the more closely we can get into the mind of the retailer and figure out how to win those ties and what services we can provide that really add value to the retailer is how we will continue to differentiate ourselves from the competition. When business gets tough, you do what you do best and focus on your core competencies.
