May 28,
2008 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on May 2008
The first truly contemporary furniture store in Spokane, Wash., will open June 9 when the owner of The Tin Roof opens a smaller space called Concept: Home in a century-old building.
The Tin Roof’s owner, Heather Hanley, said the 5,000-square-foot Concept: Home store will feature solutions for contemporary living, including coffee tables that convert to dining tables and more fashion-forward pieces than have previously been sold in the Spokane area. The store, located near The Tin Roof’s 26,000-square-foot location, will have a design focus with two custom upholstery lines offering almost unlimited options.
“My plan is to attract the designers from our area and give them a space to work with clients in a more designer-oriented store than is currently offered in our area,” said Hanley, who will also live in one of the renovated lofts in the three-story building. “I’m trying to make it a mini design center.”
Even before the official opening, two parties have been held in the newly renovated space, and Hanley plans to offer Concept: Home as the host of private events such as a new magazine’s launch party. The Tin Roof launched four years ago, but Hanley is a lifelong retailer through her family’s ownership of Acme TV, a 56-year-old Spokane institution that sells electronics and home furnishings.
May 28,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Upholstery on May 2008
Berne Furniture, Berne, Ind., has closed its plant, according to an Associated Press report.
Berne, a manufacturer of custom sofas and chairs, told around 20 employees they’d be out of work for two weeks, the report said, noting that the company’s telephone number has a recorded message saying the company is going through a “corporate reorganization.”
May 28,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Upholstery on May 2008
Natuzzi, Italy’s largest furniture manufacturer, saw net sales increase 12.4 percent in its first quarter, but the company announced Wednesday that the falling value of the U.S. dollar and other factors contributed to a net loss of 23.4 million euro. The company posted a net loss of 4.7 million euro in the same period of 2007.
Chairman and CEO Pasquale Natuzzi said, “The negative performance was due to the strong price pressure, especially in the U.S. Market where the furniture industry is still struggling to come out of one of the worst crises of the last decades, and the sharp devaluation of the U.S. dollar against the currencies of countries where we manufacture.”
He said the company announced price increases in March across all of its brands that should enable the company to recover margins. He said the company continues to reduce costs, including improving manufacturing efficiency and “right sizing” the number of employees in factories in Italy, where seat order flow is down about 10 percent.
Natuzzi is also focusing on the development of markets in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, China and India that have been seeing increasing sales.
“We will continue to invest in Natuzzi brand awareness worldwide and closely monitor the profitability of our retail activities (and may) close our non-performing units,” Natuzzi said.
The company operates more than 300 Divani & Divani by Natuzzi and Natuzzi stores worldwide.
May 27,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on May 2008
Our industry is not the only one that faces the issue of knockoffs. Check out the apparel, handbag or cosmetics industries. Design piracy runs rampant there, too.
The difference, however, is that typically those industries are more diligent in prosecuting companies that steal designs.
The latest available figures from the U.S. Department of Security—yep, that department is charged with overseeing such—show a 27-percent increase in the value of seizures of counterfeit products in 2007. The department said it seized counterfeit or pirated merchandise worth about $200 million last year.
Shoes were the top commodity snagged last year, marking a value of $77.7 million or 40 percent of the overall total for the year. Upper-end designers like Manolo Blahnik, Prada and Ralph Lauren, along with sports apparel producer Nike, top the lists of companies impacted by fake goods.
Change gears back to furniture where we talk about design knockoffs and design infringement sometimes openly in market showrooms; sometimes with a slightly lowered voice invoking some phrase along the lines of “this is our interpretation of” the latest, greatest, top-selling design.
In the world of fashion the words used in copyright cases seem stronger, more enforceable—counterfeit, piracy, copies, fake, phony, bogus, imitation. Powerful, noteable descriptions. The average person understands exactly what a counterfeit Rolex is. That same understanding gets muddied when our industry refers to a knockoff of a sofa design from Lee Inds. or Bernhardt’s Martha Stewart collections. It’s as if we excuse it to some degree.
It’s sad really.
We act as if stealing someone’s creative genius is the norm, not the exception, and it’s been going on for ages among furniture suppliers. We’ve had our share of infringement lawsuits, but that number doesn’t nearly add up to the number that it could be when you take an insider’s eye to furniture. A sea of sameness exists on many a retail floor.
Now, however, the tide is starting to turn. With more product coming in from offshore and more retailers looking to fill their stores with private-label products, design distinctions are blurring and along with it the liability for design theft.
Retailers, who for years have remained innocent parties to lawsuits regarding copyright infringement and design theft, are now becoming targets of such lawsuits. Yes, the target.
Over the years, retailers were insulated from being sued by manufacturers who needed the shop owners as customers. Who wants to sue a business partner? Today the lines have changed, and the Far East is fertile soil for new product—some fresh, creative designs, and others direct copies of top-selling furniture designs.
Suing a retailer sourcing its own product is no longer taboo; that retailer is now a direct competitior of companies that go to the expense of researching and creating fresh designs.
The liability is real and legitimate, and attorneys specializing in copyright infringement cases are seeing more and more of these types of lawsuits pop up.
So, bottom line, is your store safe from such a suit? Or are you dancing on a thin line that could impact your business in a significant way?
This month’s Home Furnishings Business discusses the pitfalls of design piracy and the impact they can have on a retail operation. Read on for some insightful information on private labels, ways to ensure you’re safe from legal action, and strategies for maintaining a clean showroom free from copied designs.
May 27,
2008 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on May 2008
So, this issue is all about knockoffs. As someone who has purchased my fair share of fake Kate Spade purses and given away my share of musical mix CDs compliments of iTunes, I’ve grappled with what to say here. As always, I want to be fair and smart, but still genuinely reflect the consumer experience as I see it.
The words you’ll read in this issue will point out the perils, liabilities and value judgments of selling knockoffs. It’s a highly charged topic in the industry, as it should be. We all know it’s not right to copy someone else’s work. We learned that in elementary school. With that said, you can go back quite a few hundred years and find that the basic structure—of a chair, of a chest, of a table—are all pretty much the same. Every now and then, a fresh clean shape appears, maybe a hot finish or something—but really, from Sally’s standpoint there’s a WHOLE lot of product out there that looks darn near the same. Simply consider that Louis Philippe was born in 1773. That tells me there’s a look that’s been going in and out of style for 200+ years. They ain’t got no Louis Philippe TV at Circuit City.
On the other hand, it’s truly necessary to give a shout-out to product vendors who actually invest in research and design. It’s critical to keeping the chain alive. To a certain extent, those manufacturers who actually study trends and bring us looks that engage the consumer (and sell at retail) carry the rest of the industry along with them when they hit the consumer’s sweet spot. None of us are oblivious to the rapid cycling of knockoffs around this place. I’m sure it’s thankless and horrible to be knocked off again and again and again. To hell with it being the sincerest form of flattery.
Are you playing a game with product that’s less than on the up and up? If you are, you know it and you should be smart and thoughtful about the consequences that go along with that.
But now, let’s look at this from a consumer standpoint. If I’m standing on Canal Street in New York, I’m buying a knockoff purse with a LABEL. After all, that’s why I’m there. If I didn’t want the label, I’d walk in a regular store and buy a better-quality legitimate private label and not suffer the indignity of shopping on the street out of a black garbage bag.
Over here in the land of furniture, there’s a dearth of brand names that are meaningful enough to stir a purchase or preference to the consumer. Nobody’s toting a table down the street saying, ”Pssst—lookie here. I’ve got a faux Baker table for you.” IF Sally’s even heard of the vendor’s brand, it may be a deciding factor, all other things being equal. But, at the end of the day, she’s on a quest for a look to match her unique style—not a particular label. It’s possible she’ll complete the entire sale without ever knowing which vendor crafted her product.
So the knockoffs here are different—they’re nameless. Sally doesn’t want a Rolex knockoff that doesn’t say Rolex. Even if the hand “sweeps” instead of “ticks.” She doesn’t want a cover band singing a song she buys on iTunes. But with furniture, she doesn’t know who made what she has, what she’s looking for or what she plans to buy. There’s just not much of a compass to guide her, and she’s usually not looking for a label—and often she can’t find one.
The retailer is the name she is buying. No pressure. Your service, your salesmanship, your reputation, the looks you select for her to choose from. Truth is, we all know Sally can find a very similar look to what you’re selling, either down the street or online. It’s sad and awful and disparaging, but true.
However, if we’re talking about the consumer, she just doesn’t know she’s buying a knockoff. She’s just buying something she likes, from a retailer she trusts, to make her house a home. Imagine that. No sideways, poorly glued-on label required.