Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
June 13,
2006 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on June 2006
Mark Smith has been named president of occasional and case goods importer Emerson et Cie. Smith, 41, is son of company founders Marvin and Connie Smith, who retain active roles in the company as joint chief executive officers.
With experience in the business dating from the mid-’80s, Smith has covered the Northern California sales territory, and in 2002 was promoted to vice president and national sales manager. He also has represented many companies as an independent sales representative since 1986, in categories ranging from upholstery to major dining room, case goods and occasional, and has been a member of several rep councils, including Jasper Cabinets and The Platt Collection.
Smith will be based in Greensboro, N.C., but will maintain an office in San Francisco, the High Point-based company’s original hometown.
With Mark Smith at the helm, Marvin Smith will spend more time building new relationships with domestic companies. Emerson et Cie now produces a third of its products in its High Point facility.
Mark Smith’s new role will include extensive travel, with an emphasis on product development. His influence on the line has been felt in the company’s successful April introduction, Prodigy, a pure, grand-scale reproduction of Louis XIII styling in authentically distressed oak.
“We are both excited that we have someone with Mark’s enthusiasm, energy and age to step into the position who just happens to be our son,” Marvin Smith said.
Martk Smith said he plans to build on the success of a company that just posted its fifth consecutive record market in High Point this April.
“I’m not looking to change a lot of how we operate,” he said. “I have a lot to learn and a good mentor to teach me what I need to know. We have a great reputation with our customers and vendors, which I look forward to enhancing for the next several years.”
June 13,
2006 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 2006
Dare we call it a new channel for furniture sales?
Morehome.com, part of the e-commerce site ImprovementDirect.com, is offering four United Airlines frequent-flier miles for each dollar of goods purchased.
Furniture blog InsideFurniture, aired news of the Internet site to the industry Tuesday.
Indoor residential furniture suppliers listed on the site include Bush, Hillsdale Home, Kathy Ireland Home, LPM, Modus Furniture International, O’Sullivan, Powell and Stylus.
Selling furniture over the Internet isn’t exactly new news, but the tie-in with frequent-flier miles reflects a trend among credit-card companies and other purveyors of goods and services to entice consumers.
Who’s the retailer here? The airline or the Internet?
June 12,
2006 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedroom on June 2006
Fran Scheller has joined full-line vendor Broyhill Furniture Inds. as merchandise manager for bedroom and dining room.
Scheller comes to Broyhill from Hecht’s Department Store, a division of Arlington, Va.-based May Co., where she spent 28 years. For the last 20 years, she was the company’s furniture buyer, and also spent time in retail sales and executive training.
“We are very excited to have Fran join the Broyhill team,” said Mike McCollum, vice president of merchandising and design for Broyhill. “Her background in retail merchandising will add greatly to our market-driven direction. We found in Fran a person with an enthusiastic approach to developing innovative products and concepts for the consumer.”
Broyhill Furniture is part of Furniture Brands International, also the parent company of Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Maitland-Smith, Lane, and Thomasville.
June 12,
2006 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 2006
Specialty retailer Pier 1 has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a secondary offering of $165 million in 6.375 percent convertible senior notes due 2036.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based company said the notes were initially sold in a private placement in February. The initial conversion rate for the notes is 65.8328 shares per $1,000 principal amount, or $15.19 per share.
The company will not receive proceeds from the sale. Stock closed Monday at $8.55, down 2.7 percent.
June 12,
2006 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Casual Furniture on June 2006
The Casual Furniture Retailers and the Summer and Casual Furniture Manufacturers Association have announced that Allen Swers and William Carlton “W.C.” Vice will receive the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the casual furniture industry and to their communities. Swers and Vice will be honored at the 47th Annual Apollo Awards Banquet Sept. 15 during the International Casual Furniture and Accessories Market in Chicago.
Allen Swers helped found the outdoor furniture fabric industry in 1982 after coming across a Glen Raven awning and marine sample book. After 29 years in the upholstery and drapery fabric industry, Swers saw an opportunity for outdoor fabric manufacturing.
Swers retired in May 2003 at the age of 82, ending more than two decades of innovation at Glen Raven.
W.C. Vice was born into a farming family in the small community of Carlisle, Ky., and began his career as an entrepreneur at the age of 21 with the purchase of a small grocery store. After operating the grocery for eight years, he joined Vogue Rattan Company in Lexington, Ky., where he spent the next decade moving up the ranks to vice president and director of sales while developing a passion for the casual furniture industry.
At the age of 37, Vice left Vogue Rattan and opened his own casual furniture store in Lexington with his wife, Betty. Casual Living and Patio Center now operates two stores in Lexington and two in Louisville with 35 employees.
Vice was a charter member of the National Association of Casual Furniture Retailers and served as its first treasurer. His store has been nominated for the industry’s prestigious Apollo Award for retailing excellence more than a dozen times and has won the honor twice, in 1974 and again in 1995.
In addition to recognizing Swers and Vice at the banquet, the organization will name the winners of the Apollo Awards, which recognize retail excellence.
Finalists in the single-store category are: Dodds & Eder of Oyster Bay, N.Y.; Fruehauf’s Patio and Garden of Boulder, Colo.; Kolo Collection in Atlanta; Leisure Living in Salt Lake City, Utah; Paine’s Patio in West Falmouth, Mass.; and Sunnyland Furniture in Dallas.
In the multi-store category, finalists are: Carls Patio in Coconut Creek, Fla.; Georgia Backyard in Suwanee, Ga.; Greenhouse Mall in Austin, Texas; Patio & Hearth Shoppes in Centerville, Ohio; Patios Plus in Rancho Mirage, Calif.; and Waterloo Gardens in Exton, Pa.