Clear Water Smart Home seeks to grow in US market

Company hires Mack Peters as president of its Malaysia division, shows its product mix at High Point Market

JOHOR, Malaysia — Upholstery manufacturer Clear Water Smart Home is opening a new 200,000-square-foot factory here aimed at serving the U.S. market with lower-middle- to middle-priced stationary and motion leather upholstery.

The company also has hired industry veteran Mack Peters as president of its Malaysia division, a role in which he will oversee sales and marketing for the company.

Mack Peters

Peters was most recently vice president of sales at Minhas Furniture House Ltd. and before that was chief executive officer at Love’s Furniture. He also was previously a sales and marketing representative at Nice Link USA and before that was vice president of sales at Zoy Home Furnishings Co. He also previously held executive-level sales and merchandising roles at Global Furniture USA and at Klaussner Furniture.

The company is making its High Point Market debut in Space 601 of Market on Green.

It is showing some 40 motion upholstery groups and sectionals in leather and fabric at the market, which Peters noted do not have China tariffs as they will be made at the new plant in Johor, which will employ about 200 workers.

In the past, the company has been an OEM supplier, selling directly to retailers from its factory in China, which continues to produce for the domestic and European market as well as the Middle East.

This is the Trisha power motion leather sectional that Clear Water Smart Home showed in High Point. Featuring 3P2 functionality, it retails at $2,499.

The new factory in Johor, which begins production this month, will directly serve the U.S. market with product that does not have China tariffs.  Manual leather sofas are targeted to start at $799 retail and power leather sofas will retail around $999. Leather sectionals will start around $1,999.

“We are moving U.S. production from China to Malaysia to avoid the tariffs and feel like this will be a tremendous impact on our business with our current customers,” Peters told Home News Now. “We also want to go direct to retailers in the U.S. and Canada and offer them a better value by going direct to the manufacturer.”

The Brisbane leather sectional, also shown in High Point, features 3P2 functionality and retails at $2,299.

Peters added that the company expects to begin shipping around mid-May and have product on retail floors by July 1. In addition to sofa groups and sectionals, the company sells recliners.

Peters noted that currently 90% of the line is in leather, including Italian leathers. However, this market, it also is expanding with more fabric offerings.

“We are excited to be showing our new factory-direct model with the same great quality and style from our new Malaysia factory as our China factory with no duties to the U.S. market,” Peters said.

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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One thought on “Clear Water Smart Home seeks to grow in US market

  1. I purchased a leather motion sofa and love seat from Rooms to Go about 6 months ago and my dog took a bite out of the leather on the side panel of the arm rest. Rooms to Go no longer carries the sofa. Any idea how I can order or if I can order a replacement section to the sofa. Would need a contact and can provide pictures and I can also provide the code from the sofa which is under the leg rest. Sofa came from Jiaxing Clear Water Smart Home Co. Ltd

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