Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
July 11,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on July 12, 2010
Furniture retailer American Signature/Value City has issued a voluntary recall of around 24,000 entertainment centers due to fall hazard.
American Signature, Columbus, Ohio, took the action in cooperation with the Consumer Products Safety Commission(http://www.cpsc.gov/).
The recalled entertainment centers with model names "Arts and Crafts," "Vineyard Manor," "Lake Cottage," "Studio One," "West Indies" and "Plantation Cove" were sold in various colors including dark brown, natural, black and white with fixed or adjustable shelves. The units' shelves can detach and fall onto consumers when the entertainment centers are moved.
American Signature Inc. has received four reports of the shelf above the television collapsing, causing two injuries. Injuries include a child who was struck on her fingers and an adult who required stitches to his mouth. There were also two reports of minor property damage.
The entertainment centers were sold at Value City Furniture, Rooms Today and American Signature Furniture stores from October 2002 through December 2009 for about $1,650. The individual shelf was also sold separately for about $70.
American Signature is sending free repair kits to consumers who purchased the recalled entertainment centers. Consumers should not move the entertainment centers until they install the free repair kit. If the entertainment center must be moved, remove the center shelf above the television first. Consumers should contact the store where they purchased the entertainment center if they do not receive the repair kit.
For more information, consumers should contact the store where the entertainment center was purchased. Consumers can find the location of American Signature Furniture stores at (866) 274-6631 or Value City Furniture stores at (866) 823-7867, contact American Signature toll-free at (877) 793-3423 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firms' Web sites at www.vcf.com or www.asfurniture.com.
July 11,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Las Vegas on July 12, 2010
More continuing education programs for design professionals will highlight the upcoming Las Vegas Market, August 2-6 at World Market Center Las Vegas.
"Nearly a quarter of our buying audience is comprised of designers, and that segment is on the rise. February's Market saw a staggering a 40 percent increase in registration among international designers," said Randy Wells, vice president of the Las Vegas Design Center. "Thats due in large part to the incredible series of design-focused speaking engagements, original events and CEU-accredited seminars. We are a venue where the design community comes to be intellectually and creatively stimulated."
Highlights include the first-of-its-kind Alfresco furnishings exhibit located in the expansive Grand Plaza, which brings together the finest in design, merchandising, display and inspiration for outdoor living. In addition, the fashion-forward destinations on B-2 (Alfresco Spaces, Design + Living and Context) look to draw enterprising designers looking for "new and next."
Everyone is looking to reinvent themselves right now in order to stay relevant, said Margaret Casey, director of programming for World Market Center Las Vegas. Designers have an endless appetite for fresh inspiration and sometimes its tough to take care of business and be creative. Any topic that supports them being successful in both areas can be found on the agenda here at Las Vegas Market.
Examples include "WithIt Keynote: Meet the Minds of Luxury Residential Interiors," Monday, August 2, 3-4 p.m., Building B, 16th floor. This panel discussion, coordinated by WithIt West Coast Vice President Kassie Smith, will hone in on the luxury market through the eyes of some key players, including Kay Lang, designer for Mandarin Oriental' Lee Lundquist of Robb & Stucky; Leigh Mitchell of Dahlgren Duck & Associates; and Jennifer Matthews, publisher of Luxe Magazine. WithIt is a women's leadership development network serving the home and furnishings industries.
Throughout the week, varied events will continue to enlighten. Also on Monday, designer and Shabby Chic brand founder Rachel Ashwell will present "Turning Inspiration into Reality," 11 a.m.-noon, Building B, World Forum. Atwell will discuss her design inspiration and how she's propelled her company forward for 20 years.
Steve Nobel explores the state of the market during "Aiming at Affluence: Marketing Interior Design to Luxury Clients," Tuesday, August 3, 11-noon, Building C, room 176. The founder and cairman of The Luxury Home Alliance and sustaining member of The Luxury Marketing Council Worldwide looks at the efforts underway to promote the value of design to the affluent population. Lunch will follow in Jordan Spencer Design Showroom, C188.
Market-goers will have a chance to see Las Vegas' new CityCenter development with "Luxury Champagne Tour: CityCenter Art & Architecture," Tuesday, August 3, 2:30-5 p.m., meet at transportation terminal. CityCenter, which opened December 2009, is a 67-acre urban community filled with fine art and spectacular architecture. Properties showcase design by architects such as Pelli Clarke of Pelli Architects, RV Architecture led by Rafael Vinoly, Helmut Jahn, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Rockwell Group, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Foster + Partners, and Gensler. CityCenter Fine Art Collection, the first major collection of contemporary art in Las Vegas to be integrated into public space, features work by 15 internationally renowned artists including Maya Lin, Jenny Holzer, Nancy Rubins, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Frank Stella, Henry Moore, and Richard Long. See it all after enjoying champagnes and hors d'oeuvres at Van Cleef & Arpels. Advance registration is required based on a first-come, first-serve basis and available by RSVPing to citycentertour@wmclv.com.
"Art of Design Awards: Redefining Luxury" is set for Wednesday, August 4, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Building C, 1st floor, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Carolyn Englefield, Veranda editor-at-large, discussing redefining luxury in today's marketplace. The program will feature featuring Roger Thomas, Bobby McAlpine, Suzanne Kasler and Art of Design recipient, Jason Phillips.
Freshen your cyber-relevance with "New Media Day: Design Bloggers--Building a Community of Design," Thursday, August 5, 10:30-11:30 am, Building B, floor 16. Moderated by Julia Noran and Tori Mellott of Editor-at-Large, this panel discussion features five top U.S. and international design bloggers, who will explore how new media is changing the interior design industry. Panelists will take questions from the audience via Twitter tweets. Featuring Jackie Von Tobel, Tobi Fairley, Ronda Carman, Brad Ford and Laura Day.
First Friday at Las Vegas Design Center will reacquaint attendees with "The Divas of Design/The Great Lady Decorators 1870 to 1955," Friday, August 6, 10-11 a.m., Building C, floor 1. Author Adam Lewis will share parts of his book, the Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design 1870-1955, which is the first book to fully survey the complete history on the subject of the legendary lady designers. Featuring Elsie de Wolfe, Dorothy Draper, Frances Elkins, Syrie Maugham and Mrs. Henry Parish II and others.
Las Vegas Market will be accompanied by the launch the new Gift+Home and VegasKids. Attendees can book discounted rooms online now.
July 11,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Markets on July 12, 2010
The JulyAtlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market and Atlanta International Area Rug Market have announced an expansive lineup of events featuring a variety of presentations, guest appearances by celebrity chefs and renowned designers, seminars and cooking demonstrations, as well as parties, promotions and giveaways.
The July 2010 Market special guests include:
* Suzanne Kasler, Friday, July 16 1-2 p.m. Building 1, Floor 4, Room 4-B-1: Kasler explains how time and place inspire each unique project and gives a behind-the-scenes look into her design process.
* Jonathan Adler, Friday, July 16 2-3 p.m., Building 1, Floor 14, Room 14-D-9: The lead judge on Bravo's "Top Design" teaches how to keep up with new market trend ideas while staying true to an original point of view.
* Eddie Ross, Saturday, July 17 1-2 p.m., Building 2, Floor 9, Room 939A: Lifestyle expert and blogger shares 15 stylists' secrets to easy entertaining.
* Tyler Florence, Saturday, July 17 Noon-2 p.m., Building 2 WestWing Floor 8, Demonstration Kitchen: This celebrity chef and restaurateur is joined by his father, Winston, as they prepare some of the best family inspired recipes.
The Market's featured event is the inaugural Icon Honors awards celebration, with a headlining performance by five-time Grammy winner Michael McDonald, July 17, 7:30 p.m., the Marriott Marquis. Created exclusively by AmericasMart in partnership with the Gift and Home Trade Association and HFN, Icon Honors is the first international program fully embracing the gift and home categories in an independent recognition of exemplary achievement across the industry for product manufacturing, product sales representative businesses and retailing.
Setting the stage for educational events is AmericasMart University, offering complimentary business classes taught by business professionals. In addition to the 13 courses in the curriculum, AMU will spotlight two keynote addresses. Oliver Blanchard will discuss how social media can increase customer interaction and loyalty on Saturday, July 17; and Kathy Juckett will provide information on how retail can survive in a post-recession world on Sunday, July 18.
Nearly 30 other classes, seminars and workshops are available outside of the AMU program. Many of these offerings are category-specific, enabling retailers to grow in their niche arena or learn more about pursuing new options for cross-merchandising and attracting new customers.
For full listings of events, buyers can visit www.AmericasMart.com or consult the Buyers Guide upon arrival to Market.
July 8,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on July 9, 2010
Bassett Furniture Industries, Bassett, Va., (NASDAQ:BSET) reported second-quarter 2010 sales of $57.8 million and net income of $100,000. That compares with sales of $57.7 million and a loss of $9.9 million in the same quarter last year.
The results for the quarter ended May 29, 2010, included $0.6 million of periodic costs associated with carrying idle retail facilities. The results for the quarter ended May 30, 2009, included $1.4 million of restructuring charges including $1.1 million of asset impairment charges related to retail store and office closures and $0.3 million of severance charges, a $0.3 million lease termination charge related to the closure of the company's Greensboro, N.C. retail office, and $1.4 million of periodic costs associated with carrying idle retail facilities. Excluding these items, net income for second-quarter 2010 would have been $0.7 million as compared to a net loss of $6.8 million for the same quarter in 2009.
As of May 29, Bassett Furniture Direct's total store network included 59 licensee-owned stores and 45 company-owned and operated stores. During the second quarter, Bassett acquired certain assets of, and now operates, one additional licensee store. The company also opened two additional stores late in the second quarter of 2010, one new and the other a store that was closed in 2008 by a former licensee. Bassett closed its Mt. Pleasant, S.C., store in March as a result of an eminent domain condemnation. In addition, two single-store licensees should complete conversions to multi-brand furniture stores during the third quarter of 2010.
"Our focus on strengthening our balance sheet and improving our operations showed more progress in the second quarter," said Robert H. Spilman Jr., president & CEO. "Gross margins improved substantially in both our retail and wholesale segments. Cost reductions and working capital management enabled us to retire the remaining $15 million obligation on our long term bank facility as well as another $5.8 million in mortgage debt. And, for the fifth consecutive quarter, we were able to generate positive operating cash flow; this time in the amount of $1.8 million. The economy has not shown a meaningful turnaround for the furniture industry overall. Therefore, we will continue to conservatively manage the business while being as aggressive as we can in our efforts to grow the company."
Click here for Bassett Furniture Industries' complete second quarter press release.
July 8,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in sourcing/importing on July 9, 2010
Import cargo volume at the major retail container ports is expected to increase 16 percent this month, compared with the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker released by the
National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
This fall, however, is expected to bring a change in the climbing rates as retailers cautiously manage inventories.
We are still seeing increases in imports, partly because last years volumes made for easy comparisons and partly because of real improvements in the economy and consumer spending, said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy. But retailers are being cautious as they look at numbers for employment, housing and the availability of credit. There clearly cant be consistent growth in consumer spending when customers dont have jobs. That means retailers are going to have to manage their inventories more carefully as the year progresses. Were still going to see increases in container volume, but not as large as what weve seen so far. As retailers head into the peak shipping season, they will also to need to address challenges they are currently facing with lack of vessel capacity and with labor and congestion issues at some of the ports.
U.S. ports handled 1.25 million 20-foot equivalent units in May, the latest month for which actual numbers are available. That was up 10 percent from April and 20 percent from May 2009. It was also the sixth month in a row to show a year-over-year improvement after December broke a 28-month streak of year-over-year declines. One TEU is one 20-foot cargo container or its equivalent.
June was estimated at 1.24 million TEU, a 22 percent increase over last year as summer merchandise arrived on store shelves. July is forecast at 1.29 million TEU, up 16 percent from last year; August at 1.26 million TEU, up 9 percent; and September at 1.29 million TEU, up 13 percent. October which would traditionally be the highest-volume month of the year as retailers stock up for the holiday season is forecast at 1.24 million TEU, up 4 percent, with November projected at 1.13 million TEU, up 3 percent.
The first half of 2010 was estimated at 6.8 million TEU, up 15 percent from the same period last year. Imports for 2009 totaled 12.7 million TEU, down 17 percent from 2008s 15.2 million TEU and the lowest since the 12.5 million TEU reported in 2003.
The latest economic indicators are starting to look bleak, including consumer confidence, industrial production and employment numbers, Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett said. Sales will be slower in July and August; that much is certain. Inventories will rise, resulting in some sharp seasonal volume reductions.
Hackett said some of the current surge in container volume reflects the fact that shipping companies have recently restored some of the services that were cut back during the recession of the past two years.
Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the consulting firm Hackett Associates, covers the U.S. ports of Long Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Calif.; Seattle, and Tacoma, Wash., on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; and Savannah, Ga., on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast.