Profit Management Promotions Sets "Survival" Market Seminar

September 30, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Business Strategy on October 1, 2010

Profit Management Promotions will conduct a seminar on furniture retail "survival planning" at High Point Furniture Market.

"Is Your Business Ready for the Next 5 Years" is scheduled for 8:30 a.m., Wed., Oct. 20.

PMP conducted a two-year review of client assignments and found that fewer than 10 percent of furniture retailers have formal strategic plans in place to address changes in the marketplace and potential opportunities. This pervasive industry problem led to the creation of the seminar.

"Most businesses map out five-year strategic plans to forecast and act upon changing market conditions, yet a shockingly small number of furniture retailers have workable action plans in place," said Ron Cooper, PMP's director of sales and marketing. "To keep afloat in today's rocky economy, they need to pull together a five-year 'survival plan.' What's more, they need to do so now."

Cooper said that only those furniture retailers that map out a focused action plan will survive and thrive over the near-term.

"These plans needn€™t be complex," he added. "But they do need to address critical financial, operational and marketing-related issues that must be acted upon immediately."

The seminar will study the major marketplace challenges confronting furniture retailers, including the multitude of new choices consumers have for purchasing home furnishings--namely Big Box Stores, the growing national chains, closeout stores, independent outlets and Web retailers--as well as the changing attitudes of today's value-oriented consumers, who are unwilling to overpay and who are less concerned with buying products in prestigious "brand name" outlets.

Cooper will present the seminar along with colleagues Michael J. Egan, president of PMP; and Hector Mustafa, the firm's vice president of operations. They will cover the full range of considerations tied to retailers' strategic options: staying the course with their current strategies, pursuing restructurings, investing in capital improvements, business expansion, or liquidating.

Profit Management Promotions, Jamison, Pa., is a leading sales promotion firm serving the home furnishings industry. A growing number of PMP assignments involve "retail restructuring," the process of employing high-impact sales to improve a retailer's strategic growth options or to give a particular outlet a business development boost.

Cooper has more than 25 years€™ experience as a retail store owner and marketer of bedding and home furnishings products. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of PMP's business development program, as well as ongoing customer relationship management.