Pan Pacific Makes High Point Market Debut

October 16, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on October 2008 A new case goods and upholstery company, Pan Pacific Inds., is making its market debut in High Point next week.

Owned by two factory owners in China and Vietnam and managed and operated by industry veterans Leonard Frankel and Tim Connors, Pan Pacific will supply bedroom, dining room, accents and upholstery. The company will offer promotional to medium-priced products.

Some of the product offerings are collections that were part of Collezione Europa’s lineup. Collezione filed Chapter 11 in February and still maintains a staff of 10 employees who are working to collect receivables and settle service issues with customers.

Connors, vice president of sales and marketing for Pan Pacific, said the new company acquired six bedrooms, two dining rooms and 40 upholstery frames from Collezione, all of which it will supply to that company’s former customers. At next week’s market, the Pan Pacific is introducing five collections, a few casual dining groups and some accents.

“We’re hoping to learn from our last mistakes,” Connors said. “The A No.1 thing today is to ship the product.”

Connors said the company is working with factories that run smaller cuttings to get the product out to the retailers quicker. Pan Pacific is working with three Asian factories that handle leather and upholstery and four Asian factories for case goods. In addition to the imported upholstery, Pan Pacific contracts with a domestic upholstery producer to provide shorter upholstery delivery times.

Pan Pacific’s headquarters is located in its High Point Market showroom at 312 S. Hamilton Street. The showroom is a 15,000-square-foot contemporary space that Connors said shows the product off in a fresh environment.

The company does not have a warehouse, which Connors said has allowed the company to keep its prices low while other companies have had to implement across-the-board price increases.

In addition to Connors and Frankel, who is the president of Pan Pacific, the company’s management team includes Guy Ray, formerly of Softline, who is vice president of product development for upholstery; and Annie Kwok, product development for case goods.

Pan Pacific has some of the same sales representatives that worked with Collezione, but Connors said he is still looking to fill some territories.