Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
June 29,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 30, 2010
A man was arrested after police were called to investigate a possible armed robbery at a Badcock Home Furniture & More store in Rockledge, Fla., Florida Today reported Tuesday.
Rodney Dotson was charged with two counts of carrying a concealed weapon.
"He had walked into the store with a bandana covering his face," a Rockledge Police Department spokeswoman said in the report. "The workers got really frightened and thought they were being robbed."
Two store workers fled as police set up a perimeter and searched the area around the Badcock Home Furnishings & More store.
"When officers finally stopped (Dotson) at gunpoint, we found a couple of knives on him," the spokeswoman said. "But there are no reports of him approaching or making any demands from anyone."
June 29,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Casual Furniture on June 30, 2010
High-end casual furniture manufacturer Brown Jordan, El Monte, Calif., has engaged German furniture designer Mathias Hoffmann to design inspiring collections targeting the design community and trade professionals.
The new collections interact with emotional effect, function, and color. The essential parts of Hoffmann's composition are sculpture, material, feel, and the architecture of space. Hoffmann has worked with European furniture companies such as Rolf Benz, De Sede, Riva and Tonon.
"There is a parallel between Mathias Hoffmann's approach to product design and the design integrity of Brown Jordan," said Bill Brown, chief marketing officer of Brown Jordan International, Brown Jordan's parent company. "For over 30 years Mathias Hoffmann has built a network of world class resources to develop designs that are first of its kind. Hoffmann's ability to inspire members of these teams to design custom solutions allows him to bring his art to life in a way that is striking."
The new collections are scheduled to launch during the fall markets.
June 29,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in economic news on June 30, 2010
New orders for furniture rose 12 percent in April compared with the same month in 2009, when orders fell 27 percent from 2008 levels. Shipments rose 6 percent comparing in April over the prior-year month, when they were off 21 percent from April 2008.
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.
Year-to-date, new orders are now up 10 percent over the first four months of last year, and shipments are up t percent.
Smith Leonard Managing Partner Ken Smith noted that this year's April results may have been impacted by the timing of market. The April 2009 High Point Market dates were April 25 to April 30, while the 2010 dates were April 17 to April 22.
"This may have some impact on the timing of orders received," Smith said in the report. "Any real differences should even out when the May results are in."
Backlogs in April fell 1 percent from March but were up 44 percent over last April.
"Again, timing of the April Market may have had some impact on the April to April results," Smith said. "We continue to expect shipments to catch up with orders over the next few months."
Receivables fell 4 percent from last April and were down 3 percent from March levels, in spite of a 14 percent decline in shipments from March to April.
"As retailers begin to need to finance new business, some may need to ride vendors a bit longer," Smith said.
Inventories increased 2 percent over March but remained 13 percent lower than April 2009 levels. Inventories in April 2009 were 12 percent lower than April 2008.
"It appears that most of the participants have reduced inventories to more appropriate levels considering current volume levels," Smith said.
The number of factory and warehouse employees were flat with March 2010 and was also even with the number in April 2009 when they were down 21 percent from a year ago. This result seems to also indicate that business has bottomed out, at least for now, and is hopefully starting an upward trend.
Payrolls were 9 percent higher than a year ago but off 14 percent from March. The number of working days was higher in March versus April which likely had some impact on the 14 percent decline.
In summary, Smith noted that positive news continued in April for residential furniture manufacturers and distributors.
"While comparisons to 2009 do not tell the whole story, (since 2009 was not only a tough year and it followed a tough year in 2008 as well) it does appear that we have at least hit bottom," he said. "Of course, that all assumes we do not have the double dip that some are worried about with the economy as a whole. Many of the economic models out there do not suggest a double dip, yet we do not know what the impact of the global issues we are experiencing will have. For the time being, we feel that we are getting some momentum back."
Smith added that Smith Leonard just completed its annual survey of operating statistics.
"The results were not very pretty this year, though it did appear that many participants made some hard adjustments during the year that improved their profitability or at least reduced their losses," he said. "Most companies have infrastructures in place that require sufficient volume to cover fixed costs. There had certainly been some good people cut from good companies in the last couple of years. We hope that the business improvement continues or we could lose more companies than we already have."
Consumer confidence, which dipped this month, remains critical.
"We need consumer confidence back," Smith said. "And we need housing to continue to pick up. While we expect housing to fall off a bit after the tax credits, it does appear that housing prices in most areas have also bottomed out. That is a good thing."
June 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 29, 2010
Denver, Col.-based furniture retailer Furniture Row has bought three parcels of land for $6.5 million, the Denver Business Journal reported Monday.
Furniture Row owns the Sofa Mart, Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions and Denver Mattress Co. furniture store chains.
According to the Furniture Row Web site, the company has more than 330 stores in 31 states.
June 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 29, 2010
Nebraska Furniture Mart, Omaha, Neb., has teamed with Simplexity to enable the furniture retailer to sell wireless products and services to online customers.
Part of Berkshire Hathaway's furniture retail holdings, Nebraska Furniture Mart now has a private-label online wireless service storefront through Reston, Va.-based Simplexity.
"We want Nebraska Furniture Mart to become a key online resource for our customers' wireless needs," Jay Buchanan, Nebraska Furniture Mart's electronics division director. "Therefore, it was a logical decision to turn to Simplexity to build and manage our online wireless store. Simplexity is second-to-none in offering the most dynamic and comprehensive e-commerce platform for creating fully customizable and privately-labeled storefronts to sell wireless phones and services."
"We are excited that NFM selected Simplexity to deliver our full suite of wireless products and services to its millions of customers who shop online," said Grant Yoder, Simplexity's senior vice president, consumer wireless division. "NFM already has an unbridled reputation in retail, specializing in home merchandise, appliances and electronics. With our cutting-edge technology, they can now include wireless products and services to their repertoire."
Simplexity's fully integrated e-commerce platform features hundreds of wireless products from manufacturers including HTC, LG, BlackBerry, Motorola and Samsung.