Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
December 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Outdoor Furniture on December 18, 2012
Contemporary lifestyle furniture supplier Kube Import has relocated to a new showroom for the January Las Vegas Market.
Kube will exhibit in a 2,600-square-foot showroom in space B-759 for the winter show.
Based in Palm Harbor, Fla., Kube Import sources dining sets, occasional chairs and tables and outdoor furniture from factories in Asia. At the winter market, the company will introduce a variety of new outdoor furniture, including round, glass-top dining tables with powder coated aluminum bases, dining chairs, and chaise loungers, sling chairs and other occasional seating.
Kube's products are priced in the mid-range. The company also offers a line of European contemporary styled sofa-sleepers with innerspring mattresses.
"Most of our focus this market is on outdoor furniture," said Lars Vestergaard, co-owner of Kube with Peter Feifer. "We'll be featuring a variety of fresh, contemporary designs, including a few new sofa-sleepers."
According to Vestergaard, Kube's relationship with its sources enables it to deliver sharply priced, quality products that offer consumers a strong value.
Although Kube offers direct container shipments, it also is geared to service smaller retailers and requires no purchase minimums.
Vestergaard said that the winter Las Vegas Market is always a "strong show" for the company, "so we're really looking forward to showing our dealers - and prospective dealers - all of our exciting new product."
December 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on December 18, 2012
Bedding protection specialist Caber Sure Fit will launch an interactive training portal designed specifically for its DreamSerene line in the first quarter of 2013.
The program will feature informative PowerPoint presentations, videos and Web-casts to provide retail sales associates with the product knowledge to grow their attachments rates and increase sales. In addition to training material, the DreamSerene portal will serve as a way for retailers to keep track of sales staff progress and user activity.
The site will offer customizable learning plans allowing retailers to design training to fit the needs of their business and fill the gaps in their sales performance. Online collaboration tools such as forums, message boards and chat rooms will provide retail sales associates from Canada and the United States a way to stay connected and share tips on how to increase add-on sales selling skills. Caber Sure Fits Web training will feature a rewards program adding an incentive to motivate retail sales associates to complete the training. Participants will receive points that can be redeemed for prizes.
We recognize that retail sales associates play an important role in growing our brand awareness. Investing in an online training portal is a necessary step to promote our products in the United States, said Markham, Ontario-based Caber Sure Fit President and CEO Bernard Weinstein. The DreamSerene online training portal is a fun, interactive program designed to increase sales and provide RSAs with helpful tips to improve their sales skills. The rewards program adds a nice incentive for them to complete training and get them excited about DreamSerene.
Caber Sure Fit will show at Las Vegas Furniture Market in the Classic Sleep showroom, WMC-B0970.
December 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on December 18, 2012
Ashley Furniture Homestore licensee KHF Holdings, Louisville, Ky., has chosen its latest round of "A Hope to Dream" recipients.
A Hope to Dream seeks to provide less fortunate children with a comfortable twin mattress set to aid in a good nights sleep. This is made possible by a $5 donation made by KHF from every mattress sold. As of December, KHF, which operates five Homestores in Louisville and Indianapolis, was $8,915 over its projected fundraising goal. Since KHF Holdings, LLC adopted this national program in November 2011, KHF has been able to help 137 local children by providing them with a safe haven to sleep at night.
Through a partnership with Talon Logistics, KHF will be able to help 90 less fortunate kids in 61 families in Louisville and Indianapolis receive a warm bed in time for the holidays.
I am so excited that we were able to help so many children this time around, especially this close to Christmas," said KHF Holdings Marketing Manager Katie Uttich. "Every child deserves a safe place to sleep at night and to be able to tie in such a great program with products we provide people everyday really makes everything we do as a company worthwhile. We could not have helped so many children without generous support from our local vendors and our great customers.
KHF Holdings maintains partnerships with local vendors to help advertise the program throughout the local community.
The majority of the Louisville, Ky., donations will take place Wednesday. All additional deliveries will be scheduled during the next couple of weeks in both markets.
December 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on December 18, 2012
Mattress retailer Sleepys and bedding vendor Sealy have teamed with the Rachael Ray Show to provide Sealy mattresses and bedding to an audience of people affected by Superstorm Sandy.
Guests of the show, all of which suffered losses during the storm ranging from personal possessions to complete destruction of their homes, were gifted with new Sealy Posturepedic mattresses and bedding as part of the shows largest giveaway in its history.
The donation is part of Sleepys ongoing Bedder Days program established in 2011 to partner with select organizations serving those in need, particularly after a natural disaster or other event that displaces individuals from their homes. The aim is to provide basic comfort to individuals who are facing a difficult time and are dreaming of bedder days to come.
The largest ever Rachael Ray giveaway was a complete surprise to the audience and featured special guests Regis Philbin, a bevy of Rockettes and two holiday elves.
Proper sleep is fundamental, and its tied to overall health and peace of mind, says Adam Blank, Sleepys COO. Sleepys mission is to provide healthy sleep for everyone, but particularly for those affected by a disaster, the first steps to recovery and normalcy are often associated with sleeping in your own bed.'
December 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on December 2012
In each December issue, Home Furnishings Business takes a look at reports of store closings and openings in our daily newsletter, HFBusinessNOW!
Overall, things are looking up.
This years stories from December 2011 through November this year totaled openings and closings representing 73 and 67 storefronts, respectively. Those closings were loaded toward the front half of 2012, and included RoomStores 26 locations in one fell swoop.
From Dec. 1, 2010, through Nov. 15 last year, we had 57 reports of store closings. From December 2009 through November 2010, we had 45 such reports. News items on store openings for that period jumped from 58 the prior year to 76; and 2010 had been a big improvement over 2009, when we had 42 store-opening stories to go along with 58 closing reports.
Looking further back, 2010, 2011 and 2012 openings compare favorably with 2008from November 2007 through November 2008, HFBusiness Now! had 36 reports of store openings, and 21 closures.
As weve noted before, there might be closings and openings we missed, but we run the same news searches everyday, so year-to-year we kind of like this non-scientific summary.