Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
April 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Rugs on April 15, 2010
Capel Rugs, Troy, N.C., announces that effective April 1 the rug vendor has restructured its sales territories, and assigned company's dealers by state to regional sales managers.
"In order to meet the needs of an evolving marketplace Capel has restructured its sales force with dedicated company employees in a flexible plan that still meets the needs of our dealer channel," said Capel Rugs Vice President of Sales Allen Robertson.
The decision to restructure is part of Capel Rugs' ongoing program to make the company more responsive to the marketplace.
"Utilizing Capel employees will improve the level of service to our customers," said Robertson of the new full-time sales team.
Andrew Buchheit, Vickie Carder, Gil Flores, Laura Freitag, Jim McNally, Tom Perraud and Jake Sweeters now each oversee a designated geographic location. The new structure aims to allow Capel Rugs to focus more on maintaining and developing relationships with its customers and meaningful dialog with its dealers.
April 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on April 15, 2010
Specialty sleep manufacturer Durable Products Company, Fort Atkinson, Wis., announced that the unique flat-seal packaging technology it has been perfecting over the past decade has resulted in a 99.9 percent recovery rate for 2009.
A study of the companys 2009 sales of EcoSleep products showed a near-zero return rate, which DPC attributed to a heavily researched combination of packaging quality and domestically sourced materials. The company developed the EcoSleep line in conjunction with the technology, aiming to eliminate a number of issues commonly found with traditional packaging methods.
"We took a decade-long, logistics-backward approach to developing our EcoSleep line and found we could reinvent the traditional torque-compressed approach used by the majority of our competitors to eliminate strain on the product, damages, returns and unhappy customers," said DPC Vice President of sales, Mike Schweiger. "We searched the globe for our compression system and engineered the comfort and support layers to work with it."
DPC addressed two common issues associated with torque-compressed and rolled systems that are widely used in the industry: breaks and "soft spots" in the softer layers foam and products not recovering fully.
DPCs flat-seal technology requires special equipment to compress the mattress to a uniform density before sealing and rolling. When compared with traditional torque-compression and vacuum-sealing systems, this system consistently preserved the structural integrity of the whole mattress without creating undue stress on the mattress components. Mattresses completely recovered to their original shape and size quickly and without defect.
Each EcoSleep component was designed to work with the technology.
Unlike other vacuum seal methods, which cause air to rush through the foam in its weakest point, straining the less dense areas of the foam core, DPC's flat-seal system shrinks the foam evenly resulting in a uniform density for the whole surface. This minimizes the stress which would often result in breaks or "soft spots" in the less dense foam layers.
Comprised of castor oil and recycled foam polymers, EcoSleep's odorless patented foams emit no scent during the mattress' recovery process in the consumer's home. In manufacturing the foams, EcoSleep goes beyond meeting the strict guidelines enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by using a carbon-activated air filtration system to further protect the environment.
EcoSleep will present its full collection during High Point Market in IHFC-M610.
April 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Las Vegas on April 15, 2010
World Market Center Las Vegas today announced on Wednesday the appointment of Ron Radin to lead business development for lighting.
World Market Center is becoming an important and growing resource for lighting buyers with nearly 75 companies representing this category.
Radin is owner and publisher of Homestyle Publications, which has produced more than 30 custom magazines for lighting retailers throughout North America and has a circulation of 2.3 million consumers. Prior to that, Radin held sales and marketing positions with several lighting companies including Adjusta Post Lighting, North Shore Lighting and Casablanca Industries where he was responsible for creation of the Casablanca Lighting division.
"We are very excited to have Ron join the team and believe he will be an asset to World Market Center because of his strong background and the key relationships he has with leading lighting companies in the industry, both domestically and internationally," said Robert Maricich, president and CEO of World Market Center Las Vegas. "Ron will be able to use his expertise to acquire key buyers to Market to expand our platform for existing lighting tenants."
The next Las Vegas Market will be held August 2-6, 2010, concurrent with the launch of two new events, Gift+Home and VegasKids. Attendees can book discounted rooms online now by clicking here.
April 13,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedroom on April 14, 2010
The U.S. Department of Commerce has ruled that the lifting of duties on wood bedroom furniture from China would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping in the U.S. market.
The ruling constitutes the final results of an "expedited" five-year sunset review of the antidumping order on subject merchandise from Chinese manufacturers.
In entry in Wednesday's Federal Register(http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-8565.htm), DOC indicated the "dumping margins likely to prevail if the order were revoked" on product from around 125 individual factories and the country as a whole:
* Dongguan Lung Dong, 2.32 percent.
* Rui Feng, 7.87 percent.
* Markor, 0.83 percent.
* Shing Mark, 4.96 percent.
* Starcorp, 15.78 percent.
* Some 120 companies, 7.24 percent.
* People Republic of China-wide rate, 198.08 percent.
After initiating the proceeding Dec. 1, DOC conducted an expedited, or 120-day, review of the antidumping order due to domestic parties' notification of intent to participate, and "lack of response from respondent interested parties."
April 13,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on April 14, 2010
Hooker Furniture (HOFT) on Tuesday reported net sales of $203.3 million and net income of $3 million--respective decreases of 22.1 percent and 56.6 percent--for its 2010 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31.
Net sales for the fiscal 2010 fourth quarter decreased $3.8 million to $52.7 million, or 6.7 percent. The company reported net income of $3 million or $0.28 per share for the period.
"Given the inconsistent demand at retail, we're pleased that we were able to post a respectable profit in the fourth quarter and that sales seem to have stabilized," said Paul B. Toms Jr., chairman, chief executive officer and president. "Our upholstery division is leading the way on top line performance. Consistent with overall industry trends, our upholstery shipments have rebounded earlier and stronger than wood furniture shipments. Profitability has been positively impacted by reductions made in our cost structure, improved work schedules and capacity utilization in our upholstery division and lower warehousing and distribution expenses."
Toms pointed out that wood furniture incoming order rates are trending slightly better than shipments.
"We're seeing delivery times lengthen somewhat from most of our largest suppliers," he said. "We are addressing the situation by adjusting orders and working with our Asian staff and those suppliers to bring lead times down."
Toms said that despite an order pick-up in late summer and early, most of its retailers report continued sporadic traffic and sales.
"The uptick in orders last fall was as much a function of retailers restocking lean inventories as it was increased demand, because consumers have not returned to retail stores in large numbers or gone back to historical spending patterns," he said. "While we are seeing positive economic indicators such as the stabilization of home values and improving trends in employment and the stock market, we expect that large ticket deferrable purchases like furniture will be the last to benefit from an improved economy."