July 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on July 29, 2010
Kevin Damewood has been named senior vice president of U.S. sales for
bedding supplier Kingsdown. Damewood is responsible for domestic sales, including leading strategic sales initiatives in an effort to grow Kingsdown's market share and secure new accounts. Damewood assumes the responsibilities left vacant when Chris Henning, former president of North America sales for Kingswood, left to join
Comfort Solutions earlier this year.
"Kevin is respected and revered in the bedding industry for his proficiency in building novel and successful strategic sales platforms," said Eric Hinshaw, chairman and CEO of Kingsdown. "We are excited to add him to our experienced leadership team and have him direct such an important division within Kingsdown."
With more than 25 years industry experience, Damewood has held sales and management positions at
Sealy Corp. and
Simmons Bedding Co. A graduate of the
University of Massachusetts, he was senior vice president of sales for Simmons and established a new sales team and strategic sales direction that helped increase the companys sales and profitability.
I am thrilled to be part of Kingsdown," Damewood said. "Eric and his talented team have built a legacy of being innovators and producing top quality products and delivering first-rate service. Kingsdown possesses the key elements which have led them to be a leader in this industry and are important to the bedding retailer, and, most importantly, the retail consumer. Kingsdown feels like home to me."
July 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in High Point on July 29, 2010
Glider rocker and juvenile case goods supplier Dutailier plans to relocate its
High Point Market showroom to the
International Home Furnishings Center for the fall market.
The company's new showroom will be located at 520 Hamilton. Dutailier's former showroom was located in
Furniture Plaza. "Our look is more European and our new space at the IHFC puts us among other manufacturers whose look is similar to ours," said David Fontaine, vice president of marketing and customer service for Dutailier. "By showing in the IHFC, we expect to see many more buyers that we haven't seen before. I honestly do not think many of the buyers knew who we were. Now they will."
The 30-year-old company is located just outside of Montreal, and acquired E.G. Furniture in 2003, which enabled the company to expand its product offering beyond glider rockers.
Most recently, Dutailier has expanded to offer recliners, which will be shown in High Point. "These new products are comfort recliners with a glide feature," Fontaine said. "It is a unique action that is very comfortable, very relaxing. We offer this full collection in fabrics and leathers."
July 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in economic news on July 29, 2010
New orders for residential furniture increased 10 percent in May compared with the same month last year.
That's according to the latest Furniture Insights survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors from the
High Point accounting and consulting firm Smith Leonard.
While orders rose again, there's still some making up to do: New orders in May of 2009 were down 17 percent from May 2008. Year-to-date, new orders for the first five months were up 10 percent over the same period a year ago. Last year at this time, new orders for the five month period were off 21 percent.
"We mentioned last month that market dates might have had some impact on April orders," which were up 12 percent over April 2009, noted Smith Leonard Managing Partner Ken Smith in the survey report. "The combined results for April and May indicated an increase of 11 percent so apparently the market dates did not affect orders all that much.
May 2010 shipments rose 9 percent over May of 2009, when shipments were down 19 percent from May 2008. Year-to-date shipments are up 6 percent over the first five months of last year, up from 5 percent ahead in April.
May backlogs rose 2 percent from April levels with incoming orders higher than shipments. Backlogs are now 40 percent higher than they were a year ago, down slightly from the 44 percent reported last month as shipments picked up some in May.
"It is somewhat good to see backlogs a bit higher," Smith said. "While some of this increase is likely the result of waiting on imports, we suspect that domestic manufacturers are happy to see them increase somewhat, so that production can be better planned."
Receivable levels increased 5 percent over April 2010, somewhat in line with the 4 percent increase in shipments. Receivables are only 2 percent higher than May 2009 levels, in spite of the 6 percent increase in year-to-date shipments.
"We have continued to be surprised at the low number of bad debts considering how bad business has been," Smith noted.
Inventories rose 4 percent from April levels and were 7 percent below May 2009 levels. May 2009 levels were 18 percent below May 2008 levels.
The number of factory and warehouse employees was about the same as last month and was up 1 percent over May 2009. May 2009 employees were 20 percent lower than that of May 2008. Payrolls increased 4 percent over April but were 19 percent higher than May
2009. May 2009 payrolls were 22 percent lower than May 2008. Year-to-date, payrolls are up 10 percent over the same period a year ago, when they were down 23 percent from the previous year.
"This marked the seventh straight month that orders were up compared to the same month a year ago," Smith said in summary. "Admittedly, the results were compared to very weak numbers in 2009, but these results seem to indicate that 2009 appeared to be the bottom of the recession for our participants.
"We had been concerned with the April results due to the High Point Market coming earlier in 2010 versus 2009, but the combined April and May order rates showed that the results were about the same."
Smith said he's hearing of price increases in materials as well as finished goods imports.
"While most retailers are fighting them, it appears that some will have to be passed along," Smith said. "As we have noted before, in spite of some beliefs, increased prices may allow retailers to make a bit better profits at their levels as well. Same story as we have discussed before--it costs the same to deliver a $300 sofa as it does an $800 sofa.
"We really do not believe that 5 to 10 percent price increases will stop a consumer from buying. In reality, they havent been buying that much at the low prices."
July 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Business Strategy on July 29, 2010
World Market Center Las Vegas will sponsor a home mortgage sweepstakes as part of September's National Home Furnishings Month promotion.
The 10-day retail promotion and sales event, championed by World Market Center Las Vegas and endorsed by eight leading trade associations, will occur Sept. 18-26.
To generate retailer participation in the second annual National Home Furnishings Month, WMCLV is sponsoring a nationwide consumer sweepstakes that will liberate one homeowner from paying his or her mortgage for one year. The sweepstakes runs throughout the month of September and will get extensive online promotion, and the support of participating stores.
Participating retailers can opt-in to be a store where consumers enter to win the grand prize at no cost. Retailers are encouraged to promote this contest in their advertising as well as take advantage of the many free promotional marketing tools WMCLV is offering in support of the program.
"In our second year sponsoring National Home Furnishings Month, we wanted to eliminate all barriers for entry for retailers by developing a sweepstakes that we believe will be truly valuable to consumers in today's marketplace," said Robert Maricich, president and CEO of World Market Center Las Vegas. "This promotion hopes to lighten what can be a hefty burden on today's families while giving them to the freedom to rejuvenate their home with new furnishings. To make it truly turn-key, we are offering creative content and free tools for retailers to 'plug and play' this campaign with their own brand and in their own markets which, in essence, will multiply the collective voice and effect we can have on consumers buying for their home.
Retailers around the country can run the sweepstakes as their own and promote it in their advertising to increase store visits and capture sales. Participating stores will receive a unique URL that their customers can use to enter the sweepstakes on-line after visiting their store; the point of entry will branded with that stores information and logo.
The complimentary advertising tool kit provided by WMCLV includes branding and usage guidelines with public relations ideas, print ads, in-store POS displays, an e-mail template, in-store sweepstakes banner and more. Stores may also opt-in to the online Retailer Locator tool to generate added impressions and web traffic. Retailers who are also participating in the sweepstakes will get a premier listing on the Store Locator.
Retailers can sign up online for National Home Furnishings Month and the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes, or while at the NHFM kiosk in World Market Center C Atrium or C-496 during next week's Las Vegas Market.
WMCLV has also extended a partnership with Sale-in-a-Box, Americas premier supplier of sales event materials for the retail industry, to ensure the promotion toolkit is easy to adopt for store owners and marketers. Sale-in-a-Box will produce printed materials for retailers who want to activate the NHFM campaign in their store.
Created by WMCLV, the Is it Home Yet? advertising campaign and NHFM was an industry-wide initiative that encouraged consumers to celebrate the idea of "home" and refresh their living spaces through new home furnishings purchases. In addition to the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes, the Is It Home Yet? Web site features advice from top designers with home makeover tips and trend information. Exclusive information about sales and promotions at participating retailers across the country is also available online.
In its inaugural year, World Market Center said more than 7,000 retailers nationwide participated in the program and were included on the sites store locator section. Nearly 2,000 retailers downloaded the National Home Furnishings Month Retailer Toolkit last year, which equipped them with marketing tools to support the initiative in their advertising programs.
The average age of consumers who engaged with the inaugural campaign was 49.9 years old. Of all consumer respondents, which skewed 2:1 female, 78 percent said they planned to make home furnishings purchases in 2010, with the living room ranked as the first choice of rooms to be refurnished in their home.
This all-industry marketing initiative is endorsed by National Home Furnishings Association, Western Home Furnishings Association, Home Furnishings Independents Association, Sustainable Furnishings Council, American Society of Furniture Designers(http://www.asfd.com/), Specialty Sleep Association, Women in the Home Industries Today and International Sleep Products Association.
July 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedroom on July 29, 2010
The U.S. Commerce Department has ruled that Chinese wood bedroom furniture manufacturer Zhejiang Tianyi will pay no duties on shipments during the first half of 2009.
That was the final ruling on DOC's new shipper review of the company, which covered the period Jan. 1-June 30 last year; and reflected the department's earlier preliminary take on the manufacturer's case.
"Based on our analysis of the comments received, the Department has not made changes to the Preliminary Results and continues to determine that Zhejiang Tianyi has not made sales at less than normal value," read an entry in the Federal Register.