Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
February 7,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on February 8, 2010
Gardner White Furniture, Warren, Mich., has teamed up with WXYZ-TV to further Oprah Winfrey's initiative against distracted driving.
On Saturday evening, Gardner-White sponsored WXYZ's re-broadcast of Oprah's No Phone Zone Show, which originally aired on Jan. 18. The re-broadcast reached viewers in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe, Lapeer, St. Clair and Sanilac Counties.
Oprah's No Phone Zone Show has helped spark a nationwide movement against distracted diving.
"Distracted driving is a dangerous, life-threatening practice that has become all too commonplace." said Bob Sliva, the station's vice president and general manager. "That's why we are proud to have joined forces with The Oprah Winfrey Show and Gardner White Furniture to address this problem and the significance of the No Phone Zone pledge to our viewers."
In 2008, distracted driving caused 16 percent of all highway fatalities and more than 515,000 accidents. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia now have laws preventing texting while driving, and 23 more are considering them. Six states and the District of Columbia now ban handheld cell phones while driving.
Following the re-broadcast, viewers were asked to take Oprah's NO-Phone Zone Pledge at Gardner-White stores, where they can register to win a Big Picture Furniture Package, as well as tickets to an Oprah taping in her Chicago Studio.
Gardner-White also is using social media to get local residents to take the pledge.
"The interaction of a Broadcast Television Network, a local business leader, and the Social Media communities is an ideal way to get the word out," said Leslie Carothers, of the Kaleidoscope Partnership, who has been building communities for Gardner-White on Twitter and Facebook. "Parents connected to our communities are now reaching out to their own communities for participation. Distracted Driving affects everyone."
"We want to use our media presence to help save lives," said Garder-White Owner Barb Tronstein. "We are grateful to Channel 7 and Oprah Winfrey for allowing us to help. Leslie has done a great job online. If you look on our Facebook page you will see photos of distracted driving accidents. The larger tragedy is that these accidents are 100 percent preventable."
February 7,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on February 8, 2010
Almost 100 At Home Furniture customers are waiting on more than $100,000 of merchandise they paid for after the East Caln Township, Pa., store closed abruptly last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday.
Police said the business, which sold Ashley furniture, opened in June and operated legitimately until an owner left the United States.
The report quoted an e-mail from an Ashley representative calling At Home "an independently owned and operated store not affiliated with Ashley other than purchasing furniture" from the company, which is "not responsible to fulfill their open orders."
February 4,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on February 5, 2010
Flexsteel Inds. (NASDAQ:FLXS) reported net income of $3 million for the second quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to net income of $300,000 in the second quarter of last year.
Sales for the quarter were $83.5 million, compared to $84.5 million for the same period last year. The company's residential sales were $62.6 million, an 8 percent increase from the prior year quarter posting of $58.1 million.
For the six-month period, the company reported net income of $4.3 million, compared to a loss of $500,000 in the six-month period last year. Sales for the first half of the year were $159.5 million, a 9 percent decrease from sales of $176 million in the first half of last year.
Residential sales for the six months were $118.8 million, just less than sales of $120.1 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, 2008.
The company said it believes sales have stabilized and the consolidation of factories and workforce reductions completed last year has brought its overhead in line with expected demand.
The company also said its home furnishings product has "performed reasonably well in relation to our competition. However, residential furniture continues to be a highly deferrable purchase item and is adversely impacted by low consumer confidence, a depressed market for new housing, limited consumer credit and high unemployment."
February 4,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Las Vegas on February 5, 2010
The Las Vegas Market got an enthusiastic "thumbs up" from participants in Thursday's mini-survey by
Home Furnishings Business.
Most people who took part in the survey were pleased with the show.
Today, wraps up the last day of the market, and
Home Furnishings Business' last question of the day.
Today's question: Who had the best showroom in Las Vegas?
We've even made it easy to participate for those of you on mobile devices. Just visit click
here type in your response and click Submit.
As always, thanks for participating.
February 4,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedroom on February 5, 2010
The U.S. Department of Commerce has placed a country-wide duty of 216 percent on wood bedroom furniture from China in its preliminary ruling on an administrative review of shipments for calendar year 2008.
The administrative review investigation included 200 Chinese manufacturers. Thirteen of those qualified for a "separate" duty rate of 20.36 percent after demonstrating sufficient non-goverment control of their business. Those include:
* Dongguan Sunrise Furniture Co. Ltd. (Taicang Sunrise Wood Industry Co., Ltd., Taicang Fairmount Designs Furniture Co. Ltd. and Meizhou Sunrise Furniture Co. Ltd.).
* Longrange Furniture Co. Ltd.
* Langfang Tiancheng Furniture Co. Ltd.
* Shun Feng Furniture Co. Ltd.
* COE Ltd.
* Tianjin Fortune Furniture Co. Ltd.
* Transworld (Zhangzhou) Furniture Co. Ltd.
* Decca Furniture Ltd.
* Dongguan Landmark Furniture Products Ltd.
* Winny Overseas Ltd.
* Dongguan Yihaiwei Furniture Ltd.
* Baigou Crafts Factory of Fengkai.
* Zhongshan Gainwell Furniture Co. Ltd.
In addition to making a preliminary ruling on 2008 shipments of wood bedroom furniture from China, DOC also rescinded the review of the following manufacturers that had been among 200 companies investigated in the administrative review for that year. Those companies include:
* Dalian Pretty Home Furniture
* Dongguan Dihao Furniture Co., Ltd.
* Dongguan Mingsheng Furniture Co., Ltd.
* Dongguan Mu Si Furniture Co., Ltd.
* Dongguan Sunshine Furniture Co., Ltd.
* Fortune Furniture Ltd., Dongguan Fortune Furniture Ltd.
* Foshan Guanqiu Furniture Co., Ltd.
* Fujian Lianfu Forestry Co., Ltd., a.k.a. Fujian Wonder Pacific Inc. (Dare Group)
* Fuzhou Huan Mei Furniture Co., Ltd. (Dare Group)
* Gaomi Yatai Wooden Ware Co., Ltd., Team Prospect International Ltd., Money Gain International Co.
* Golden Well International (HK), Ltd.
* Guangdong New Four Seas Furniture Manufacturing Ltd.
* Guangzhou Lucky Furniture Co. Ltd.
* Jiangsu Dare Furniture Co., Ltd. (Dare Group)
* Macau Youcheng Trading Co., Zhongshan Youcheng Wooden Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd.
* Nantong Yangzi Furniture Co., Ltd.
* Po Ying Industrial Co.
* Qingdao Beiyuan-Shengli Furniture Co., Ltd., Qingdao Beiyuan Industry Trading Co. Ltd.
* Qingdao Shengchang Wooden Co., Ltd
* Shanghai Fangjia Industry Co., Ltd.
Click here to see the entire Federal Registry entry for the preliminary ruling on the administrative review of 2008 shipments.