Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
June 19,
2008 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Mattresses on June 2008
The Spring Air Co. plans to enter the $400 million retail bedding market in India through its Middle East licensee.
W.J. Towell & Co. and Ashok Sharma, a bedding professional and CEO of Spring Air Middle East, have created a joint venture called Spring Air India that will result in the company having three manufacturing facilities producing 500 pieces a day and 30 Spring Air-branded retail showrooms in the country by 2010. The first plant will open in September just outside New Delhi.
Plans call for Spring Air India to establish manufacturing facilities in the western part of the country near Bombay and also in the south near Bangalore by the end of 2009. Retail showrooms will be going on line as manufacturing capability is added.
The company said that at present, 7 percent of the retail bedding market in India is innerspring product and is expected to reach 25 percent over the next five years.
“This is very exciting news, both for our licensee and for our company, as it gives us a great footprint in one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world,” said Spring Air CEO Bob Hellyer. “W.J. Towell has been a great business with us, and we look forward to sharing in the success of this new venture with them.”
Spring Air Middle East is a fully owned venture by W.J. Towell & Co., a 135-year-old business enterprise from Oman with sales of more than $1 billion.
June 19,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 2008
On Wednesday, police arrested a former Las Vegas Ashley Store employee, Lucia Reveles, and charged her with the murder of store manager Robert Bills, who was shot and mortally wounded the day after Thanksgiving in a robbery attempt.
While 17-year-old Thayer Burton already had been charged in the crime while in jail for another robbery, the investigation continued since police believe Burton had accomplices. That led to Reveles’ arrest, whom police believe provided information to the alleged gunman.
June 19,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 2008
Ethan Allen, Danbury, Conn., has selected Pierce Mattie Public Relations of New York to spearhead its home furnishings public relations campaign. Pierce Mattie will be overseeing the relaunch of Ethan Allen’s new Web site in the fall of 2008, as well as the June opening of Ethan Allen’s Manhattan flagship Design Center.
“The Pierce Mattie team is thrilled to be working on the launch of the flagship Ethan Allen Design Center in Manhattan,” said Lance Buckley, senior account director at Pierce Mattie. “Ethan Allen is an iconic American brand and it is an exciting time to be working with the company as they introduce their fresh approach to design.”
June 19,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 2008
Highland Park Furniture has selected Storis Management System’s Vision R8 system as its new operating platform. Highland Park has store locations in West Central Florida doing business as Furniture and Mattress Clearance Center.
“Our decision to go with Storis was easy for us. We found their Vision R8 fully integrated server business solution the best fit for our business model,” said Brent Agar, director of operations. “Vision R8 is intuitive and offers a variety of tools that will enhance our operations. We were specifically impressed with their inventory control functionality which will provide real-time processing of all activity within our warehouse.”
Highland Park will utilize the Vision R8 core products including: Business Intelligence tools to easily break down business metrics, InTouch CRM product, Relationship Marketing, Logistics, Customer Service and more. Storis is based in Mount Arlington, N.J.
June 18,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 2008
Pier 1 Imports reported a net loss of $32.8 million in its first quarter as total sales declined to $310 million from $356 million and comp-store sales declined 5.4 percent.
In an earnings release, executives at Pier 1, which launched a bid to acquire the Cost Plus World Market chain earlier this month, cited a number of positives, saying the loss was a 42 percent improvement over its $56.4 million loss in its year-ago first quarter. Officials said they expect to reach profitability for the year.
President and CEO Alex Smith said, “Throughout the quarter we continued to focus on our business priorities which are designed to return our company to profitability and beyond even in difficult times. ... While there is work yet to be done, we are well positioned and will remain focused on generating profitable sales. Our significantly increased conversion rates prove that customers continue to respond favorably to our improved assortments and the enhanced in-store shopping experience.”
He said comp-store sales comparisons were challenging in March and April as the company cleared out Modern Craftsman items and shifted marketing dollars to the second half of the year. The release said comp-store sales increased by 7.5 percent in May.
Earlier this week, officials at the 292-store Cost Plus World Market chain rejected Pier 1’s $81 million offer, saying it was ill-timed due to the current home furnishings market and took away from the efforts of Cost Plus to continue to improve.
Some financial analysts have said the buyout attempt by the 1,100-store Pier 1 chain runs the risk of hurting turnaround efforts at both chains.