June 21,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 22, 2012
Morris Furniture Co. has opened its newest Morris Home Center in Florence, Ky., and will celebrate with a grand opening event Tuesday evening.
The new 100,000-square-foot Morris center includes five stores under one roof. Combined, the five stores represent Northern Kentucky's largest single home furnishings showroom.
"The new Morris Home Furnishings, Ashley Furniture HomeStore, The Better Sleep Shop, The Morris Big TV Store and the Morris Back Room give consumers one-stop shopping convenience," Larry Klaben, president and CEO of Morris Furniture Co. said. "Shoppers are able to see the area's largest selection of upholstery, leather sofas, dining rooms, living rooms, bedrooms, mattresses and HDTVs all in one place. Visitors can enter any one of the four exterior entrances and visit four stores and the Morris Back Room through mall-like inter-store connectivity for a truly unique shopping experience."
The complex opening has added 60 new jobs to the company's employment. An estimated $5 million has been invested in remodeling, fixtures and showroom inventory.
"We are excited to bring our Morris Home Furnishings, Ashley Furniture HomeStore, Better Sleep Shop, Morris Big TV Store, and Morris Back Room stores to Northern Kentucky," Klaben said. "We opened our first Morris Home Center in Cincinnati in late 2010, and the response has been fantastic. This location allows us bring the same one-stop shopping concept to Northern Kentucky."
Morris Furniture Co., Inc. started in Dayton in 1947 and currently operates 17 home furnishings showrooms throughout Dayton, Ohio, Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, and Northern Kentucky. The company opened a Morris Home Center in Springdale in November 2010. This five-store complex was built next to the company's existing Ashley Furniture HomeStore. The company also operates a 45,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore in Crescent Springs, Ky.
Morris Home Furnishings was selected as the National Home Furnishings Retailer of the Year in 2008 by the NHFA.
"Our Morris Home Furnishings showroom features home furnishings for today's lifestyles," said George Hartley, COO. "Our showrooms are designed to give consumers the easiest way to shop for their furniture needs. This showroom is organized into lifestyle environments to match the shopper's needs. Instead of manufacturer galleries that divide a showroom and duplicate styles for consumers, this concept displays furniture collections together by style. Shoppers looking for casual furniture will find all our casual furniture offerings for each room in their home displayed together."
June 20,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Upholstery on June 21, 2012
Craftmaster Furniture has expanded its warehousing capacity in Taylorsville, N.C., by 50 percent.
We have added the capacity due to the success of the two new programs that we introduced at the past April market," said President and CEO Roy Calcagne of the move, which added 25,000 additional square feet to the upholstered furniture vendor's existing capacity. "The first is a new Quick Ship program that was tremendously successful. The program consists of 10 best selling groups that are in stock and ready to ship within 48 hours. This program is designed to allow our dealers to reduce their inventory levels and let Craftmaster hold the finished products in our facility. We take the inventory risk and cash flow burden off of our customers and provide a very quick turn around at no additional cost."
The second program is the introduction of the new Encore Leather Collection which is a fully built, 100 percentleather product produced in the Lacquercraft facility in Jiashan, China.
The response to this program was overwhelming," Calcagne said. "We underestimated the reaction of our dealers going into market and found that our current capacity was not going to be sufficient to handle the orders we received at the market and afterwards."
The Encore warehouse program stocks 20 leather groups in the Taylorsville facility and offers the dealers the benefit of not having to buy containers if they prefer not to. Although all styles are available on a direct container basis at a reduced price if the dealer would like.
The beauty of this program is that we flow the containers through our facility and allow a dealer to try a few groups from our warehouse program and not have to buy large quantities to test," Calcagne said. "When they are successful, they then have the option to buy on a container direct basis if they choose to. It really takes the inventory risk out of the process when buying new items."
Craftmaster is a subsidiary of Samson Holdings along with Universal Furniture and Legacy Classic Furniture.
June 20,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on June 21, 2012
Devin Garrity has joined foam products vendor FXI as vice president of sales to lead its sales team and support the companys consumer bedding division.
In his new role, Garrity will work closely with FXI/Anatomic Globals retailers and representatives to expand the number of stores carrying bedding products. He will also be managing new product introductions such as the Dr. Breus pillow line that will start shipping this summer.
Garrity, who has two decades of experience working with brands that include Comfort Solutions, Spring Air, Sealy and Leggett & Platt, most recently was vice president of sales and marketing for Comfort Solutions licensee Dixie Bedding Co. in Miami Fla., where he was responsible for product development, sales management, budgeting and sales forecasting. Previous to that, Garrity was the regional vice president of sales at Spring Air, where he was credited with doubling sales during his four year span with the company.
This is an exciting time for our company and we are thrilled to welcome Devin to our team," said Media, Pa.-based FXI Senior Vice President of Consumer Products Diane Adams. "As FXIs consumer bedding division continues to grow, having a proven sales leader is imperative to our business strategy and new product development and introductions. Devins vast experience in the field made him the ideal candidate for this position.
FXI has a wonderful mix of innovative products and a great team that I am proud to be working with, said Garrity. I believe this is a tremendous opportunity and I look forward to using my industry connections to open new doors and possibilities for retailers throughout the country.
June 20,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Markets on June 21, 2012
Home furnishings vendor Arteriors Home is expanding three company showrooms located in New York, Las Vegas and High Point, N.C.
Dallas, Texas-based Arteriors Home debuted at Las Vegas Furniture Market with a space in World Market Center Las Vegas in January 2006. This summer, Arteriors is moving to, the 4,530-square foot space B360 on the third floor in the newly refurbished Building B.
Two years after opening in the New York Design Center, the company will double the size of its showroom in September with a new space on the sixth floor, space 608.
Arteriors Home also will 1,912 square feet to its existing High Point Furniture Market showroom space at the International Home Furnishings Center by incorporating the space across the hall, H315. This expansion will be complete for the upcoming Fall market beginning Oct. 13.
Expanding our showrooms in these key markets now is the best way for us to support our customers and give them an opportunity to experience our growing assortment of products first-hand, says Mark Moussa, CEO and founder of Arteriors Home.
The showroom expansions follow a move to a new 204,000-square-foot warehouse and office facility in Carrollton, Texas, in March. Arteriors Home also plans to re-launch its Web site in early 2013.
Our goal is to meet our customers needs by providing them opportunities to shop our lines in the most convenient ways possible through our showrooms, sales representatives, website and print catalog, adds Moussa. We are marking our 25th year in business in ways that will help position us for the next 25.
June 20,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on June 21, 2012
The International Sleep Products Association praised the Rhode Island state legislature's adjourning without voting on several used mattress recycling bills.
ISPA said those rules would have imposed significant and unreasonable additional costs on mattress manufacturers, retailers and consumers.
As an alternative to state recycling programs such as those proposed in Rhode Island, ISPA is leading the push for a national mattress recycling program.
ISPA firmly believes that the best approach to efficiently recycling used mattress materials is to do this nationally, said ISPA President, Ryan Trainer. "This will encourage economies of scale which will result in more efficient recycling and lower costs. It will also create a uniform set of rules regardless of where the new mattress was bought or the used mattress was discarded. State-specific programs will inevitably lead to inconsistencies from one state to the next and higher recycling costs."
ISPA has been working since the 1980s to encourage responsible recycling of used mattress materials and supports the development of legitimate recycling operations. The association will continue to work with state and local governments to address the mattress disposal challenges that municipalities face while continuing to advocate for a broad-ranging national solution.