Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
March 28,
2007 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on March 2007
Industry veteran Fred Bates has joined Broyhill Furniture Inds. to head a new initiative for the company that will bring greater focus to the company’s product by using retailer and consumer feedback.
“Broyhill is the most recognized brand in America, but our product needs a little polishing,” said Jeff Cook, the company’s new president. “Product is our No. 1 focus. We are going to add momemntum to the power of the Broyhill brand through the product as opposed to just polishing the brand.”
Bates worked for Haverty Furniture Co. for 47 years and retired as vice president and regional manager, as well as serving on the company’s board of directors for 26 years.
“Fred has been charged with gaining invaluable feedback from our retail customers and bringing all of our product lines to life, in design as well as function,” Cook said. “As one of the most respected individuals in our industry, who is known for developing product that consumers are looking for, his first priority is to help us design reliable styles that are right for our customers.”
Bates will visit retailers across the country and will work with the company’s product development team.
“My focus will be to identify what consumers in the middle market are looking for today,” Bates said “It’s a different breed in the marketplace, and we are going to pay close attention to their needs and wants.”
Cook said “Fred will be our eyes and ears focused on one purpose: to listen to our retailers and better understand what consumers ask for when they come into the store, what they like and don’t like. He will come back and tell us what needs to change, and that will be the first of many steps to help us return Broyhill to dominance in each and every product category.”
March 28,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
Myriad Software has released version 4.4 of its Eclicktic furniture retail management software, which includes five major upgrade features.
San Diego-based Myriad also said version 4.5 will be available soon, and that several other releases are on the way this year.
Sales Campaigning, a key component of Version 4.5, will be one of Myriad’s concentrations in future 2007 releases,said Carolyn Crowley, the company’s president and co-founder.
“E-mail is the best, the fastest and the most cost-effective way to reach customers,” she said. “Stores can get e-mails out weekly or monthly. And their customers, as well as prospects, are more likely to pay attention to these personalized messages, rather than to traditional junk mail-style advertising.”
Version 4.5’s Accounts Payable and Container Capacity enhancements, along with the Charge-Back Reporting and Tracking feature, respond to niche business demands of major furniture retailers.
Enhancements to Myriad’s Container Capacity feature, include a new efficiency quotient to overseas shipping. Retailers will know to the cubic foot how much space is occupied and how much remains to be filled. It will be much easier to decide to hold shipments a week or two until container space can be maximized.
Version 4.5’s Charge-Back Reporting and Tracking feature now integrates with inventory, providing retailers with a multifaceted program that allows users to adjust inventory counts at the same time charge-backs are reported and tracked, all in the same program.
March 28,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
Denver-based Furniture Row, which operates more than 330 storefronts, announced Wednesday that it is doubling the pace of store growth this year. It plans to add as many as 20 Furniture Row shopping centers -- each of which holds up two four storefronts.
Calling Furniture Row one of the fastest growing furniture retailers in the country, the announcement said the company has opened eight to 10 Furniture Row Shopping Centers a year over the past four years. The centers house several storefront’s including Furniture Row’s Sofa Mart, Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions and Denver Mattress Company nameplates. The announcement called the plan for 20 shopping centers “unprecedented.”
The company, which has adopted a policy against speaking with trade media, did not provide additional details, such as whether the new shopping centers will take Furniture Row beyond the 31 states it now operates in.
The company held a high-profile groundbreaking event Tuesday in Denver for a 93,500-square-foot, four-store shopping center that will open this winter. “We are especially excited to start construction of this third, new Furniture Row Shopping Center in the Denver Metro area,” said Tom Faulkner, president of the Furniture Row Centers. “This (store complex) will become the new flagship store for our company.”
Furniture Row is one of the only sponsors in stock car racing’s top division, Nextel Cup, to own its own race team. On Tuesday, Kenny Wallace, driver of Furniture Row Racing’s No. 78 Chevrolet, drove a 130,000-pound excavator to demolish a former Oak Express store that will be replaced with the company’s new flagship shopping center.
March 28,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
Brown Jordan International, Louisville, Ky., announced Wednesday that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against two of its rivals.
The suit filed in federal court in Kentucky alleges that all-weather woven furniture products being sold by Lloyd/Flanders and Laneventure infringe on patents Brown Jordan acquired from Sun Isle. Brown
Jordan acquired more than 60 U.S. and international design patents, utility patents and pending applications relating to all-weather woven furniture products from Sun Isle in November, as well as trademarks that include the Sun Isle name.
“We’re hoping these legal actions will be a key opportunity to educate manufacturers and retailers on the existence of this intellectual property,” said Chris Carmicle, BJI’s president, national accounts and direct imports division. “All of the patents are a matter of public record and should be taken extremely seriously.”
March 27,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 2007
Karen McNeill-Harris has been named executive director of the American Furniture Hall of Fame in High Point, N.C., succeeding Joanna Maitland, who retired last year. McNeill-Harris operates McNeill Communications Group, a public relations and marketing firm specializing in home furnishings, and she is a past president of Women In The Home Industries Today (WITHIT).
In her new role, McNeill-Harris will be responsible for developing new services to promote greater understanding of the U.S. furniture industry, supervise the annual process for nominating new inductees and manage communications efforts that will include a newsletter, Web site, marketing materials and videos. The American Hall of Fame honors individuals whose outstanding achievements have contributed to the continued growth and development of the U.S. furniture industry. It also seeks to collect and preserve the industry’s cultural, economic and artistic history.