Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
January 10,
2007 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on January 2007
Full-line vendor Hooker Furniture has launched a re-designed Web site with a color scheme, layout and content geared toward making it more helpful to consumers making a furniture purchase decision.
The new site also was built to support high-volume traffic by streamlining site navigation and boosting Web page performance. In addition, search engine optimization features were installed to make the site’s pages more visible to major online search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
“We believe that the Internet has taken a leading role in impacting offline purchase decisions,” said Kim Shaver, vice president of marketing communications. “Because the online experience has become an integral part of the overall furniture shopping experience, we wanted to enhance that experience for the consumer, increasing their purchase likelihood and their interactivity with our brand. The addition of search engine optimization features is designed to increase qualified traffic to our web site, which in turn will increase the flow of qualified traffic we can send to our dealer base through our dealer locator.”
The company’s online catalog also has been re-organized by product category to make choices easier for the consumer. New content has been added to help consumers in their furniture purchase decisions, with features including decorating ideas, shopping tips, quality cues and furniture care and cleaning. The company’s investor relations section has been upgraded with up-to-the-minute stock-price information, stock performance history and analysis, and financial-related company news. The investor relations section will be the host site for live Web casts of the company’s quarterly investor conference calls when earnings are reported.
The Web site will play a key supporting role in promoting eight factory-authorized national sales periods during 2007. The sales periods, along with accompanying sweepstakes and other promotions, will be featured on the home page of the Web site with a dealer locator pointing consumers to retailers who are participating in the event.
The company also offers an electronic newsletter, and expert guest columnists write the content for the e-newsletters and Web site.
The new Web site was designed by Princeton Marketing of Greensboro, N.C., and constructed by Internet Databases of Blacksburg, Va.
Hooker’s Web site is at www.hookerfurniture.com.
January 10,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on January 2007
Jennifer Harmon has been named vice president of contract for Tietex Interiors. She assumes responsibility for the company’s business initiatives with the contract interiors market.
Michael R. Durham, Interiors chief operating officer and president, said Harmon leads design and new business development efforts in the contract sector and that she brings Tietex a comprehensive technical background and passion for color and textile design.
“Jennifer has the creative talent, technical skills and proven leadership experience to address the complex and demanding needs of the contract sector,” he said of the 15-year industry veteran.
Prior to her Tietex appointment, Harmon held several leadership positions as design and development director at Chatham; and most recently, was creative manager for hospitality at Victor Studio Inc.
Tietex Interiors is a division of Tietex International. The corporation employs approximately 1,000 people worldwide with manufacturing locations in Thailand, United States and Mexico.
January 10,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Mattresses on January 2007
Culp, one of the world’s largest upholstery fabrics marketers, has purchased the Burlington House mattress fabrics product line from Greensboro, N.C.-based International Textile Group.
Culp, which is based in High Point, agreed to pay $2.5 million in cash and approximately 880,000 shares of its common stock to ITG in a deal that’s expected to close by the end of January.
An announcement from Culp valued the entire deal at around $8.3 million.
“We are pleased to announce this agreement with ITG and believe this transaction will further enhance our strong competitive position in mattress fabrics,” said Culp Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Culp III in the company announcement. “ITG has made the strategic decision to discontinue its U.S. mattress fabrics product line and we view this as a great opportunity for Culp.”
He noted that mattress fabric accounted for approximately 40 percent of the Culp’s sales in its second fiscal quarter, and that investments in the segment over the last two years have committed the company to the business.
“We believe this transaction provides the opportunity to increase our annual sales in mattress fabrics by approximately $25 (million) to $30 million without any investment in fixed assets,” Culp said. “Culp has the necessary capacity in place to absorb the additional volume, and we look forward to working closely with ITG to ensure a smooth and orderly transition. This transition is expected to occur over the next four months. We are excited about extending our market reach in this important business for Culp.”
According to a company statement, ITG is selling Burlington House in order to focus on markets where it is able to differentiate itself. The company recently entered the auto fabrics business through a merger with Safety Components International.
“The consolidation of the Burlington House and Culp mattress fabrics product lines will provide mattress customers with a cost-competitive focused supplier and will allow ITG the opportunity to invest the proceeds in expanding its global footprint in its core businesses,” said Joseph Gorga, ITG’s president and chief executive officer.
January 9,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on January 2007
With an effective date of July 1, for the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s new federal flammability standard, the International Sleep Products Association, together with the Sleep Products Safety Council, has organized an expanded SHOPtalk workshop to be held February 21-22, at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, IL.
Past SHOPtalks have covered the basic requirements of the standard, as well as steps on how to make and test compliant products. The next SHOPtalk offers expanded, updated information that provides more in-depth details on how attendees may modify internal process to meet the new regulation.
“Our goal is to help our member companies understand what’s needed to comply with this new rule,” said Debi Sutton, ISPA vice president of marketing and member services. “We know every company is at a different level of understanding in the compliance process, and we’ve been working diligently to help everyone get up to speed. This is the third series of flammability workshops we’ve offered over the past three years, and this one will provide more specific details and information. And our Flammability Resource Toolkit which is available at our SHOPtalks provides important support materials in this effort.”
A wide array of the latest fire-retardant products and services will be exhibited at the workshop, and an optional lab tour and burn demonstration at Underwriters Laboratory is being offered. During that tour, attendees can see how the new test is actually conducted and have their questions answered firsthand by lab technicians.
Industry experts presenting the program include including – Al Podratsky, president of global supply chain partners; Bob Sabalaskey, vice president of manufacturing and product engineering, Lily Management Group; Gordon Damant, Sleep Products Safety Council technical spokesperson; and Mary Toro, associate director, Office of Compliance, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
To register, or for more information on this and the future spring SHOPtalk, visit www.sleepproducts.org/SHOPtalk/flammability.
January 9,
2007 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on January 2007
Rose Furniture in High Point wont be closing its doors after all, according to a report from the local Fox News affiliate.
Rose had announced it would go out of business in October, when it laid off around 150 of 250 employees. On Monday, however, the company told the remaining workers they’d be keeping their jobs.
Those remaining workers had spent the last several months overseeing a massive going-out-of-business sale in hopes of unloading all unsold inventory. Apparently, that gave Rose time to find new investors.
Rose President Buck Kester said he was surprised by the change in fortune.
“I’m very excited about the future, and our new business model is an exciting model for not only High Point, but for the furniture industry in general,” he said in the report.