Monthly Issue
From Home Furnishing Business
November 16,
2017 by Jane Chero in Business Strategy, Economic News, Industry 
Producers say the category is finally showing signs of life after several years of sluggish sales, and is due for a significant rebound. Millennials, for starters, are starting to form new households in earnest, and non-Millennials are starting to feel comfortable about spending money to replace their well-worn existing bedroom suites.
And when they do make those purchases, they’re likely to find an array of finishes that weren’t available the last time they shopped. Not only have gray finishes become all the rage the past couple of years, but the time honored brown finish has taken on a variety of new forms that are nothing like the high-gloss, lacquer-heavy traditional finishes that have been a staple of the category.
“Even in the most sophisticated environments, we see consumers gravitating towards a more relaxed aesthetic,” said Randy Wells, vice president of creative at Stanley Furniture. “We believe there’s a call for finishes that convey the natural characteristics of the veneer or wood species they are applied to.”
And in many instances, that has meant gray finishes – especially the past two to three years. Producers say grays have been prevalent in Europe for many years, but have caught on only recently in North America.
“All of a sudden, it just seemed like everything became gray,” said Geoff Beaston, vice president of case goods at Klaussner. “I am hearing people are tiring of it, but I believe it will be here for quite a while. Just like the classic traditional finishes, I think gray will still be one of the popular finishes.”
And given today’s increasingly sophisticated finish treatments, there are now some brown finishes that have a gray tone, which pleases those who think there’s too much gray in the marketplace and those who can’t get enough of it.
“If you can come up with a finish that is brown to the people who like brown, but yet gray to the people who like gray, they you’ve got a winner,” Beaston quipped.
Research by Impact Consulting Services, parent company of Home Furnishings Business, showed that replacing old furniture was the most frequently listed reason for buying new bedroom furniture, but buying a new house was not too far behind.
In a survey of recent bedroom furniture purchasers, 33.6% said replacing old furniture was the primary motivation, followed by buying a new house, which was cited by 24.9% of respondents. The next-highest motivation was a desire for new style, cited by 19%, followed by a change in family size, cited by 11.4%, and a desire for new function, cited by 11.1%.
To no one’s surprise, a headboard or headboard/footboard combination was the most frequent bedroom furniture item purchased, cited by 56.7% of the survey respondents. But a dresser and night stand were close behind, purchased by 53.6% and 53.1% of respondents, respectively. A chest was purchased by 25.3%, while a platform bed was purchased by 13.4% and a desk by 12.9%.
The armoire, a fairly common bedroom furniture purchase prior to 2000, was acquired by only 9.3% of the survey respondents.
“The bed is still the focal point, and we all want to make that grand statement,” said Beaston.
Increasingly, that statement is being made with upholstery, as upholstered headboards continue to gain market share. Estimates of the market share captured by upholstered headboards vary widely among producers, but they all agree their popularity is not waning.
“Upholstered beds remain an important option in our whole-home collections,” said Wells. “Even if we don’t cover an entire bed, our beds will typically employ some level of upholstery to add a valuable element of texture and softness.”
Bedroom furniture producers also are making a statement by increasing the height of their headboards. No reliable data is available on the number of tall headboards offered by producers, or just how tall they are, but it appears the headboard heights may be limited only their ability to fit into a container (for importers) or a truck (for domestic producers).
“It seems like every time we look at a sample, we say, ‘gosh, we need to raise it a couple of inches’,” Beaston said.
Headboard heights weren’t part of the Impact Consulting survey, but the overwhelming majority of respondents (63%) said it was the bed that initially drew their attention. The dresser came in a distant second, cited by 18% or respondents, and all other bedroom pieces were cited by less than 5% of recent bedroom furniture purchasers.
And while the ability to customize bedroom furniture isn’t nearly as important as upholstery – except at the very high end of the market -- nearly all of the survey respondents said they would be willing to pay extra if they were able to customize. In fact, 25.8% said they would pay an additional $100 to $250, and another 24.2% said they would pay an additional $250 to $500.
Plus, some 14.4% said they would pay an extra $500 to $1,000, while 8.3% were willing to add more than $1,000 to the price tag.
September 4,
2017 by Jane Chero in Business Strategy, Industry
No, we’re not talking about indoor upholstered furniture – although we could be. Those same ingredients are also the keys to selling outdoor furniture – a category that’s embarking on another selling season poised for growth amid expanding distribution channels and continuing product innovation.
After all, what’s not to like about a relaxing summer evening enjoying steaks hot off the grill and your favorite beverages with family and friends? And what better place to do it than the outdoor space at your own home?
“If you care about how your house looks on the inside, it’s natural to care about the outside,” said Lyle Ecoff, director of outdoor products at Emerald Home Furnishings. “It’s the place where relaxation and memories occur.”
And in the view of Ecoff and other executives in the category, those things can’t be fully achieved without comfortable outdoor seating, a dining table or two, and perhaps an umbrella or fire pit.
“It’s great to be comfortable in cool outdoor furniture. It’s what drives out business,” Ecoff said. “The consumer is lucky because there is more great product out there than ever before.”
Ecoff might have added that retailers also are fortunate because there are more outdoor furniture resources than ever before. Well-established indoor furniture vendors such as Lexington, Klaussner, Century, Emerald, A.R.T., Zuo Modern, and most recently Ashley, have added outdoor furniture in recent years, and that list is likely to grow.
Not surprisingly, those well-established indoor vendors have had their greatest success selling outdoor furniture through furniture stores – a distribution channel many casual furniture specialists have had difficulty penetrating. The indoor vendors have a built-in advantage because they’ve already established relationships with key furniture stores around the country, and they often use the same sales force as their indoor line.
“If nothing else, it raises the profile of the category,” said Gary McCray, president of Klaussner Outdoor. “And the business doesn’t have to be as complicated as it was in years past. It’s becoming an easier business for retailers.”
McCray was one of several executives who said Ashley’s recent entry would raise the profile even more because of the company’s extensive retail distribution network.
“They’re going to drive furniture stores into the category – and not just theirs,” McCray said. “Stores that aren’t in the category now will have to consider it.”
A survey by Impact Consulting Services, parent company of Home Furnishings Business, showed that a plurality of consumers who recently purchased outdoor furniture (30.8%) said it was purchased at a mass merchant such as Wal-Mart or Target. Another 23.1% said they used a home improvement store such as Lowe’s or Home Depot, and 18% said the purchase was made at an outdoor furniture specialty store.
Traditional furniture stores were mentioned the least (10.3%) of the five available options, even losing out to the internet, which is where 18% of respondents made their purchase.
To outdoor furniture veterans such as McCray and Ecoff, that relatively poor showing by furniture stores screams opportunity – primarily by selling outdoor to their existing customers
“If you’re not in the category, it’s certainly something you need to look at,” said Ecoff. “How do you not leverage your current customer base? You spent a lot of time and effort converting an indoor sale, so you now have a customer that trusts you and wants to do business with you.”
The survey indicated plenty of purchase opportunities are available, especially for consumers willing to spend $1,000 or more for an outdoor furniture purchase. It showed that a whopping 71.8% spent $999 or less, but just 20.5% spent $2,000 or more. And less than 10% were between $1,000 and $1,999.
Reflecting the concentration of purchases below $1,000, some 41% said the furniture they purchased was metal, while 35.9% said it was wicker, 12.8% said wood, and 10.3% bought plastic.
Among other survey findings, nearly two-thirds (61.5%) said they bought outdoor furniture because they were replacing or adding to existing outdoor furniture, while 18% said they had recently moved to a new house with a deck or patio, and 23.1% said they had recently added a deck or patio.
Plastic, which manufacturers prefer to call resin or polymer, appears to be one of the faster-growing outdoor furniture materials, thanks to the recent popularity of synthetic wood and wicker products that require far less maintenance than traditional wood or wicker.
McCray noted that a collection of synthetic teak products rolled out last year by Klaussner was one of the stars of the just-concluded 2017 selling season.
“It did really well this year, and based on the initial orders we’re getting for placement next year, it looks like it’s going to grow dramatically as we go forward,” McCray said.
At high-end producer Century, the star of the most recent season was a lineup of outdoor upholstery pieces that mirrored some of the company’s best-selling indoor seating. Haynes King, director of outdoor products, said the company re-engineered the indoor pieces by, among other things, switching to marine grade frames, using stainless steel staples (which don’t rust), and using plastic to reinforce the corners of the frame. That’s in addition to switching to outdoor performance fabrics designed to withstand just about any type of weather.
“People are starting to treat and decorate the outdoor space more like an indoor room,” King said. “So we created a collection of outdoor upholstery using popular styles from indoor upholstery. We’ve been pleasantly surprised just how quickly it has ramped up.”
The company was so pleased that an extensive collection by designer Thomas O’Brien being introduced in October will include the designer’s first-ever outdoor pieces.
King said the ability to blend indoor and outdoor is one of the many innovations that are driving the category – an observation echoed by McCray, who has been merchandising and selling outdoor furniture for more than three decades.
“Unlike the indoor side, there is just so much push to do new and innovative things (in outdoor),” said McCray, noting that innovations in fabric and cushion construction head the list.
However, McCray may be most excited about an innovation Klaussner quietly introduced at the most recent Las Vegas Market – power motion.
He says the lineup currently includes the industry’s first power lounge chair and power chaise, and based on the success of power motion in indoor furniture, he’s looking for big things from power outdoor motion.
“It’s a natural for outdoor. It turns a chair into a chaise,” McCray said.
He said all the chair’s electrical components are sealed and the mechanism is powder coated. The unit is powered by a lithium ion battery that can easily be removed and taken indoors for recharging, but a full charge should last 200 to 300 cycles. (A cycle is opening and closing the mechanism one time.)
“We’re pretty excited about this,” he said. “For us, it’s all about comfort and innovation. You’ve got to be able to do that.”
July 19,
2017 by HFBusiness Staff in Bedding, Product
Phoenix-based Trendwood, now a major player in youth furniture, got its start in 1985 in an entirely different furniture category – waterbed furniture.
Capitalizing on the flotation frenzy of the 1970s and 1980s, the company did a brisk business making waterbed frames and headboards for waterbed specialty stores. The furniture was made of Ponderosa pine, a wood known for its strength and durability that could support the heavy bags of water that made up waterbed mattresses.
Scott Coor, Trendwood’s vice president of marketing, recalled that many in the waterbed business were convinced the frenzy would last forever, but by 1990, he said the company began to see indications the industry was peaking.
“What we did best was cut long pieces of pine, so when waterbed sales began to stall out, I started looking for other applications for that process, and we settled on bunk beds,” he said. “There were a ton of guys making little cheap bunk beds, and there were some real expensive ones out there, but nothing in between. So I thought if we could make a really strong, durable bed … we might have something.”
So, in 1992, Trendwood secured a small, temporary exhibit space at the now-defunct San Francisco furniture market to show its first three bunk beds – while still making its line of waterbed furniture.
Coor said it took a couple of years for Trendwood to establish credibility as a bunk bed producer – after all, the waterbed business had more than its share of questionable operators – but the program finally started humming.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Waterbed sales began a breathtaking decline in 1992, and by 1996, the once booming industry – not to mention Trendwood’s waterbed furniture business – had all but disappeared.
July 19,
2017 by HFBusiness Staff in Product, Youth, Juvenile Furniture
Parents and grandparents often recoil at the notion of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on furniture that a child may outgrow in a few years.
They face a similar dilemma with clothes, shoes and toys, but at least those items can be passed along to a sibling, sold at a yard sale, or donated to charity. It’s not as easy to do that with a captain’s bed.
That makes youth furniture a much tougher sell at retail – so tough that some furniture retailers have abandoned the category.
But many youth furniture suppliers, for obvious reasons, think that’s the wrong approach. They say youth bedroom, just like master bedroom furniture for adults, is transitioning into an item business. That means retailers should focus on the items consumers want most – and de-emphasize the 20-sku collections that once were a staple of the category.
“Gone are the times when Mom and Dad went into the big box store and bought bed, dresser, mirror, nightstand and chest for the new little girl,” said Fran Scheller, vice president of merchandising and product development at full-line furniture resource Bernard’s. “That has definitely impacted the dollar volume of the youth business.”
But Scheller and other executives say the category is still quite vibrant – as long as manufacturers and retailers can deliver what the consumer really wants. That usually means a sturdy, safe bed and something that has lots of storage.
“If you look at the demographics there are still a lot of kids out there who need a place to sleep and a place to put their stuff,” said Scot Coor, vice president of marketing at Trendwood, a Phoenix-based youth furniture producer. “Most people want to buy something that’s a durable, safe product, but bottom line, they don’t want to spend a whole lot on it because they know the kid is going to outgrow it or tear it up.”
That’s why Coor and Scheller said their companies are now focusing on beds -- in many cases designing them with storage space that’s either under the bed or part of the headboard.
One of Bernard’s best-sellers, for example, is a design called a lounge bed that features a bookcase storage unit built onto one side of the bed. That allows it to be placed against a wall, which saves space in the center of the child’s room. Plus, it has storage drawers underneath the bed.
“People are still buying functional pieces that give them a variety of uses and lots of storage options,” Scheller said.
Don Essenberg, president of full-line resource Legacy Classic, said his company’s Legacy Classic Kids line is still experiencing growth, but acknowledged youth furniture is “a tough category” because products typically occupy a small footprint and separate, distinct section of a retail sales floor. That makes it essential for a retailer to promote the category heavily in order to be successful, he said.
“People who do the best with kids’ furniture are the ones who advertise it,” said Essenberg. “You have to let that mother whose out shopping for youth furniture know that you have it.”
“You had better be really good if you’re going to do youth, because the competition is fierce,” Scheller added. “It’s not like master bedroom, which is a fashion statement. It’s more like mattresses and recliners. It’s price driven and it’s need driven.”
Essenberg said his company’s line, which is at the upper end of the market, also is seeing less interest in purchases of multiple pieces, and said desk sales, in particular, have weakened.
“Desks aren’t an automatic. It’s not the essential SKU in the kids’ bedroom anymore,” he said. “It about sleep and storage now.”
Coor said Trendwood’s desk sales also have been sluggish, but said he has seen a slight uptick in sales of models that have a power supply and a charging station.
“For a desk in a kid’s room today, you better have a charging station. If you don’t, you’re selling an antique,” Essenberg quipped.
Research by Impact Consulting Services, parent company of Home Furnishings Business, showed that only 13.4% of consumers who recently purchased youth furniture were interested in adding a desk. But 26.5% of those surveyed were interested in buying a second bed – often a bunk bed or loft bed.
And interestingly, a majority of those surveyed were hoping their youth furniture would last a lot longer than the youth for whom it was purchased. Some 29.2% of respondents said they hoped to use the furniture in a spare bedroom some day, while another 36% said they hope the child can use it as an adult in their first apartment or at college.
In addition, the survey said 26.2% of respondents purchased their furniture for a child who was over age 13, while 17.9% bought it for a child age 10 to 13, and 17.6% bought for a child age 6 to 9. The highest percentage of purchases, however, were made for a child age 3 to 5, who was the recipient of 29.5% of the purchases.
Essenberg and Scheller said the majority of product from their companies are purchased for girls, which is not surprising because white remains the most popular youth furniture color.
“We still do well with the classic white girls’ groups in our line, whether they’re a little more transitional or the typical ornate Victorian look,” Essenberg said. “But the last couple of years, we’re also starting to do well with girls’ groups that are not in pure white. Some of the taupe and putty colors are doing well.”
Coor said Trendwood’s furniture is made of solid Ponderosa pine and has more of a unisex look, and noted that his company doesn’t keep track of whether the user is a boy or girl.
“Most of our product is developed around a youth’s need, be it a boy or a girl,” Coor said. “Neutral colors are not going out of style. They seem to be the most popular.”
June 19,
2017 by HFBusiness Staff in Motion Upholstery, Product
This may come as a shock, but you are likely to see the words “motion furniture” and “technology” in the same sentence throughout this story.
Yes, we’re talking about the same motion furniture that, not all that long ago, was limited to basements, man caves, and other areas of the house that were largely out of public view and used only by guys named Bubba.
But today’s motion furniture user just wants a comfortable place to relax after he – or she – comes home from work. And the relaxation begins with the press of a button to open the ottoman, adjust the head rest and even provide lumbar support for that aching back.
And since most people can’t go more than 30 seconds without checking email on their smartphone or tablet, they’re constantly needing a place to charge the device. So a USB charging port is conveniently located in the arm of that same piece of motorized motion furniture, so the user can relax, surf the internet, check email and charge the device – all at the same time.
It’s all about motion furniture for today’s technology-laden, always-on culture. There’s an app for it, too, but more on that later.
“The bridge is being built between our everyday tech lives and our everyday relaxing lives,” said Bobby Jones, director of motion and import upholstery at Klaussner. “The technology is the overall driving force for growth in the category.”
Jones and other executives believe the motion category still has plenty of growing room left. The growth may not be as rapid as it was in the early 2000s when it was being driven by flat-screen television sales, but our rapidly changing technology needs will be a force for years to come.
“That’s where we’re seeing the innovations,” Jones said of the motion category. “You can’t really update too much on the stationary side, so I think motion is where we will continue to see the innovations.”
But stationary upholstery is having a major influence on motion upholstery because producers are designing their motion products to, well, look more like stationary products.
“Our product is much different today that it was just a few years ago,” said Chuck Tidwell, vice president of merchandising and product development at Franklin. “It has the look of stationary, and oh, by the way, it’s got reclining action.”
One way Franklin has achieved that “stationary look” is by adding legs to its motion furniture, a process that Tidwell said isn’t as easy as it sounds. That’s because the product must be designed, in effect, around the mechanism. And with many of today’s motion pieces having as many as three motors (for the ottoman, head rest and lumbar), it presents some significant challenges. But the result makes it well worth the trouble, he said.
“As the styling improves, it’s just going to continue to grow,” Tidwell said of the motion category. “People today usually buy recliners and motion furniture because they want to be comfortable. It’s the stationary look, but has reclining comfort”
A survey of recent motion furniture purchasers by Impact Consulting Services, parent company of Home Furnishings Business, indicates producers are achieving the proper blend of style and comfort. On a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being the highest on the satisfaction meter, 27.6% rated their purchase a 7, and another 31% gave it a 6.
Only 6% rated their purchase a 1, meaning they were not at all satisfied, while 9.5% gave it a rating of 2, the survey results said.
Interestingly, some 52.7% of respondents said the style of reclining furniture was not an inhibitor to their purchase, but 47.3% said it was. Plus, a surprising 52.6% said they preferred a manual reclining mechanism, and another 16.4% preferred a “push-back” mechanism activated by body pressure. A more modest 31% said they preferred a power mechanism.
Tidwell said around 41% of Franklin’s motion and recliner sales are units that include power mechanisms, while Jones noted that Klaussner’s “fully loaded” motion sofas, which are equipped with a power ottoman, power headrest and power lumbar support, are outselling units with manual mechanisms by an incredible 9-to-1 margin.
“Getting our retailers to commit to flooring at least one piece fully loaded is the key,” said Jones. “It offers a great in-store experience (for consumers). It’s one thing to be comfortable with the power headrest, but once you experience that with the lumbar support, it makes a powerful sales tool.”
And the Impact Consulting survey showed that consumers are willing to pay a little more for these features. The survey said 52.1% of respondents would pay an additional $50 for a power recliner, and another 25.8% would pay an extra $100. And surprisingly, 11.2% said they would pay more than $200 extra for that feature.
So what’s the next hot innovation in motion furniture?
At Franklin, it’s a radically re-designed seating system that makes the product more comfortable and easier to deliver – a win for the retailer and the consumer -- while Klaussner recently unveiled a Bluetooth-based app that allows the user to control the motion sofa through a smartphone or tablet.
Tidwell said Franklin’s new seating system was a huge hit at the High Point Market in April, and its popularity has caused the company to start converting its product line to the new system much faster than originally planned.
“It has really turned our factory upside down. But that’s one of those high-class problems,” he said.
Not only does the new system make its seats more comfortable, the re-design allows the backs of sofas to be removed, which Tidwell said makes it easier to get them through small doorways and stairwells. Plus, if a mechanism ever needs repair or replacement, the service can be done in the consumer’s home. It’s no longer necessary to haul the sofa back to the factory.
“We originally were going to put the new system (only) in our new products, but because everybody wanted it, it’s now going into our new products and best-sellers,” said Tidwell. “And soon, it will be in our entire line.”
Jones said Klaussner’s Bluetooth-based app, called Complete Comfort Control, also was a huge hit at the April market. The free app allows the user to synchronize the seat to a smartphone or tablet and then operate the power mechanisms – all three of them – from the device. Such apps previously were available only with high-tech massage chairs costing thousands of dollars more.
The app includes a memory function that moves the seat to the user’s favorite position, as well as a reset button that takes the seat back to its upright position. Jones said the app is available at no upcharge with Klaussner’s motion sofas, sectionals, free-standing recliners and high-leg recliners.
“It was extremely well received. We’re looking forward to a lot of good retail action from it,” he said.
