Furniture of America to launch Mexico-sourced bedroom at winter Las Vegas Market

LAS VEGAS – Full line furniture resource Furniture of America is launching its first Mexico-made bedroom lineup at the Jan. 23-27 Las Vegas Market as part of a strategy to further diversify and expand its case goods sourcing to the western hemisphere.

For retailers seeking to avoid longer lead times and delays from Asia, this could represent another global sourcing solution in the marketplace.

FOA’s bedroom lineup will include as many as 15 new sets, mostly made from solid pine along with some other North American wood species.

Up to this point, the company has primarily sourced its bedroom from Asia, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. While these groups have retailed as low as $699 to $799, they are now running in the $1,400 range for a four-piece set.

The bedrooms sourced from Mexico are targeted to retail from $1,499 to $1,999 for a bed, dresser, mirror and nightstand, which represents the upper middle portion of the segment for FOA.

“Before we have been around $700 to $800, but those prices do not exist in the market,” said Jose Palacios, chief sales officer and head of International Business Development at Furniture of America, of the Asian-sourced bedrooms.

He said the company continues to source its wood mix from Asia, but noted that logistics remain a challenge as it is difficult to get containers booked on a vessel. Sourcing from Mexico avoids those headaches and further diversifies its supply chain, while also offering quicker lead times.

FOA is among the latest resources to expand its sourcing outside Asia. Others that have primarily sourced in Asia in the past also have begun looking to Mexico of late, including A.R.T. Furniture, Standard Furniture, Lifestyle Enterprise, among others.

The company went ahead and ordered the Mexico-made bedrooms, which will be stocked in the company’s recently expanded domestic distribution facilities.

“Most of the new bedrooms are already in stock,” Palacios said. “We don’t want to be selling things we don’t have.”

The company also is expanding its upholstery lineup with 60-70 new groups sourced in North America, both in the U.S. and Mexico, compared to around 40 sets at a typical market. Featuring combinations of sofas, loveseats and chairs, about 20% of the mix is from Mexico and the rest of the groups are produced in the U.S.

While the company has sourced some upholstery from Mexico in the past, this is FOA’s largest introduction to date from that country.

With sofas retailing around $1,400, these too will be warehoused domestically, Palacios noted.

“Everything we will show in Las Vegas will be in stock,” he said, of the North American-produced bedroom and upholstery.

The company is showing these and other new products in its space in B-1168 of the World Market Center.

Thomas Russell

Home News Now Editor-in-Chief Thomas Russell has covered the furniture industry for 25 years at various daily and weekly consumer and trade publications. He can be reached at tom@homenewsnow.com and at 336-508-4616.

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