by Many are optimistic about their prospects in the category given the growing popularity of outdoor living spaces
HIGH POINT — For some indoor furniture resources, outdoor has become the next big area of opportunity, representing a chance to sell retailers a category that consumers are flocking towards as they do more entertaining in their outdoor living spaces.
Thus, they have stepped up their product development efforts to include outdoor seating groups as well as dining and occasional. These and other outdoor products now occupy a space in their showroom, in some cases, complementing their mix of design footprints across multiple product segments.
Steve Silver Company, for example, made a splash with its new outdoor segment earlier this year at the January Las Vegas Market, showcasing both seating, dining and occasional groups at the front of its showroom.
Today, it has four seating sets, one dining set, some accent seating items and several companion occasional groups. The occasional groups tie in with outdoor seating groups that include sofas and sectionals.
“It is still early, but so far we have had a really good response, and the retailers that have it also have gotten a good response to our styles and price points,” said Luke Silver, president, noting that it added the category to provide dealers another reason to shop the line, as it did by expanding into other segments such as upholstery. “We are always trying to take that next step and trying to become a one-stop shop for our customers.”
The strategy is similar to that of other companies that have gotten into the category from Ashley and Lifestyle Enterprse to Bernhardt and Eichholtz, all of which have added the category to their product mixes. Others also have gotten into outdoor through acquisitions, such as Hooker Furnishing’s purchase of Sunset West earlier this year.
Eichholtz added the category with a soft launch in April. It now offers four collections featuring both seating and dining that fall within its upper end price points, with sofas retailing around $5,000 and dining tables retailing around $3,500.
“We are in outdoor furniture now and have found it to be very, very good,” said Dallas George, managing director for the U.S., told Home News Now, noting that many consumers equate quality with price. “People have moved up in price point when it comes to outdoor. They spend more in outdoor than their own interiors.”
As with the indoor line, the company plans to stock the line it is Greensboro, N.C. warehouse, making it available to dealers and designers who want to buy and sell the line year round.
“The only challenge is that our designer and retailer base is asking, ‘Can you give us even more,’” George said of interest in the line, which he described as “a natural extension of what we do.”
“Our styling is our styling, so we are not chasing anybody,” he said, adding that hallmarks of the line range from aluminum frames on dining tables to deep seating on its upholstery. “It is luxurious in terms of its simplicity and styling and substance.”
Chris Pittman, group vice president of Powell and Linon, said the company first got into outdoor furniture several years ago, starting with Adirondack chairs in different finishes.
“We noticed how well they did,” he said. “It seems like that part of the industry has taken off in the last few years.”
The company then offered tables and ottomans to match, then expanded to more seating profiles.
“We saw the growth potential and especially in the last two years, that is where we have taken off. With Covid and the e-commerce boom, it became a no brainer,” he added, noting that demand also has been strong at brick and mortar nationwide. “I have noticed everyone from small mom and pops to Top 100s getting into this category full force. It seems like everyone is wanting to move outdoors whether you are in the north or the south…It is shipping around the country.”
The company now offers several outdoor seating groups featuring chairs and sofas and companion cocktail tables and ottomans. Altogether the company offers more than 100 SKUs in the category which is shipped from Vietnam and Indonesia both container direct and to its North Carolina and California warehouses.
“We are making a name for ourselves in the outdoor category,” Pittman said, noting that the company is also drawing interest from some specialty retailers in the category. “Now that we have our name out in this category, I am seeing some outdoor-only dealers coming in and asking for this.”
Still, sourcing outdoor lines from overseas has presented many of the same challenges as importers have seen with indoor furniture, particularly during and following the Covid-related shutdowns in parts of Asia last summer: limited availability on many components, limited availability of containers and high shipping costs, all of which have complicated the flow of goods.
Carl Lovett, national sales manager at Sunpan, said that since launching the category in October 2020, the category has grown to seven different seating groups and nine different dining groups.
And while the company has shipped products to some designers and also placed it on some retail floors, flowing the goods has been a challenge.
“We have been getting some product, but it has been piecemeal,” he said. “It is still difficult to get. Factories have massive backlogs they are trying to fill and they can only make so much of it, so there is a capacity issue there.”
He suggested that dealers that want to have outdoor available in 2023, place their orders a year in advance.
Universal Furniture also launched its outdoor line in October 2020 as part of the licensed Coastal Living line. Today it includes 100 pieces of seating, dining and occasional furniture featuring a wide mix of materials from teak to wicker and cast concrete. There also are some 25 special order fabrics available for upholstery and dining chairs.
Sofas in the line retail from $2,795 to $3,995 while lounge chairs retail from $1,295 to $1,995. Dining tables retail from $1,395 to $1,995 and dining chairs retail from $695 to $795.
While response from dealers and designers has been positive, flowing the goods from Vietnam and Indonesia has been a challenge.
“The hardest thing has been supply chain and getting things off the ground,” said Neil MacKenzie, vice president, marketing, at Universal. “There are a lot of moving parts as it relates to where those goods are coming from in Indonesia. A few pieces come from Vietnam, but most of it is from Indonesia.”
The good news is that the supply chain appears to be improving and the company sees outdoor as an area of growth both among its existing customer base — brick and mortar business and designer business — and at specialty retail.
“Right out of the gate, it has primarily been supported and focused on our existing distribution,” MacKenzie said, adding that there is also opportunity to serve specialty stores that focus on the category.
“That is a goal,” he said, noting that the pandemic has accelerated interest in outdoor living from the way homes are designed to the way people are entertaining.
“The category is significant and that is why we wanted to be part of it,” MacKenzie said.
Lovett, of Sunpan, said that while it could be a little early to say given the supply chain challenges, he expects outdoor to become an important part of the company’s business.
“I would say that between now and the next three years, it should be 20%,” he said. “If we can just get the product.”
