Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
May 28,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Special Events on May 29, 2012
The Unfinished Furniture Association will unveil its new branding and growth strategy at the annual Real Wood Furniture tradeshow.
The event runs June 11-13, at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando. Real wood, customization options, and an improved retail shopping experience are three points of differentiation aimed at reaching furniture shoppers that the association will capitalize on as the organization repositions itself.
UFA Board President Tim Case intends to mobilize and ignite its membership made up of manufacturers, suppliers and retailers at this years tradeshow, which is still open for registration.
The UFA board has invested in quantitative research this year and the conclusions point to a substantial opportunity for our members and others to capture a greater share of the market in the home furnishings segment, said Case. Customization and personalization capabilities in this retail niche are more valuable to the consuming public than ever before. We are genuinely excited to present real strategies and solutions for improving our members businesses next month, and we invite all interested parties to join us.
UFA engaged ThinkWay Strategies, for the market research project and recommendations for repositioning the 22-year-old member association. ThinkWay has worked with consumer products leaders Mattel, Fisher-Price and Nabisco, among others. ThinkWay CEO Larry McManis will present research results and conclusions during the tradeshow kickoff event on June 11.
In addition to outlining this new opportunity for attendees, UFA will support its findings with a solid retail marketing strategy, including recommendations for converting retail sales. Connie Post, founder of Connie Post International and Affordable Design Solutions, will deliver the tradeshows keynote address on the topic of upgrading retail presentations.
We will arm UFA members with the tools they need to successfully grow their businesses in 2012 and beyond, Case said. This years tradeshow kickoff is sure to be one of the most exciting in our history.
UFA has a membership of approximately 500 retailers, manufacturers, and sales representatives in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. The associations mission is to support the growth of its members through development of exclusive products, standards, and marketing, created in cooperation with UFAs retailers and member-manufacturers.
May 28,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on May 29, 2012
Six new students have been selected to receive the Celia Moh Scholarship for the 2012-2013 academic year.
This years recipients are: Megan Barrett, Jessica Rose and Danielle Souder, all attending North Carolina State University; William Lyon, attending High Point University; Evan Fay, attending Kendall College of Art and Design; and Taylor Webb, a student at Mississippi State University.
The Celia Moh Scholarship is considered one of the preeminent academic scholarship programs for students bound for careers in the home furnishings industry, paying full-time tuition and fees, room, board and books for its recipients. In addition, the scholarship hosts an annual networking and resource-building trip to the High Point Market, and provides informal internship and career guidance for its scholars, as well as offering an active alumni network for former scholars who are now in the home furnishings industry.
Established in 2001 by furniture industry entrepreneur Laurence Moh, best known as the founder of Universal Furniture and later, Fine Furniture Design, to honor his wife, Celia, the programs strategically managed $3 million endowment investment has provided 73 full scholarships in 11 years.
Scholarship candidates are hand selected by their respective universities and then must complete an extensive application questionnaire, write a personal essay, obtain instructors recommendations, and provide a college transcript illustrating exceptional academic achievement. A scholarship committee comprised of notable home furnishings industry executives selected the students from a pool of premier candidates from eight universities across the country. The six scholarship recipients join three returning undergraduate students selected as Celia Moh Scholars last year.
Previous scholarship recipients have gone on to make their mark in the home furnishings industry in fields such as management, marketing, retailing, product design and development, merchandising and engineering.
May 28,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Internet on May 29, 2012
A new Web site for the Bernice Bienenstock Furniture Library allows users to search the library's 4,000-pluse furniture and design specific volumes.
A team of photographers, stylists and web designers from The Alderman Company, led by Jeff Williams, created the new Web site, which was launched this month. This state of the art site is a platform designed to incorporate video, stunning photography, and web based research tools as well as an e-commerce portal to purchase books.
"The most useful websites are visual and intuitive," Williams said of the developers' intent. "We had access to extraordinary graphic resources. The library itself is gorgeous. It is an updated 1923 mansion with period architectural elements and fixtures. It is so remarkable that it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Iconic furniture has been donated over the years. And, with more than 4,000 oversized and illustrated furniture and design related volumes, there is an inexhaustible supply of stunning images, sketches, drawings and architectural renderingsmany dating back to the 18th century. Our photography and design teams really enjoyed this assignment. We took some dramatic photographs, but it is still cooler to actually be there.
We are very grateful to the talented team at Alderman Studios who have lent their time, talent and creativity to this endeavor," said Charlie Sutton, president of the Librarys Board of Directors. "With more than 5 billion Web sites, the best way to stand out is by having one that is both functional and beautiful. This site takes advantage of the newest web technology and incorporates images of the remarkable books, furniture and architecture in the Library.
May 28,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on May 29, 2012
Italian leather furniture vendor Natuzzi's (NYSE: NTZ) reported first-quarter 2012 sales of 110.4 million euro, down 8.8 percent from the prior-year period.
The company lost 8.4 million euro for the March 31, compared with a loss of 3 million euro in first-quarter 2011.
Total upholstery net sales amounted to 95.8 million euro, down 9.1 percent from last year's first quarter. Those sales broke down geographically as follows: Europe (excluding Italy) 38.9 percent, down from 45.7 percent in first-quarter 2011; Americas 36.3 percent, up from 26 percent the prior year; Italy, 10.6 percent, off 14.2 percent from first-quarter 2011; and the rest of the world 14.2 percent, up slightly from 14.1 percent last year.
Natuzzi attributed decreasing European sales to the sovereign debt-related crisis and contraction in the Euro-area economic activity. Natuzzi's commercial efforts in North America, moderate economic recovery in the United States, and positive sales activity in South America contributed to strong growth in sales for the Americas region. Natuzzi's sales in Brazil showed robust improvement, up 228 percent to 1.7 million euro in first-quarter 2012.
"The difficult economic and market conditions still persist and have been further worsening over the past few months, thus negatively affecting the consumers disposable income and, most of all, fostering a generalized lack of confidence and worries in the future, particularly evident in the European Union countries," said Natuzzi Chairman and CEO Pasquale Natuzzi. "But the overall picture is not entirely negative, though. The reduction in sales, particularly evident in Europe, was partially offset by a considerable increase in turnover from the Americas, where the Group started to recover market shares. In addition, we continued to strengthen our presence in the BRIC Countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), by expanding our distributive network
considerably. Besides, we closely watch some still growing markets, such as those in Middle East and Africa."
Click here for Natuzzi's first-quarter 2012 release.
May 28,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Executive Changes on May 29, 2012
Upholstered furniture vendor Norwalk Furniture has promoted Phil Cline, Carrie Norris, Tim Hallock and Reyna Moore to vice president.
Norwalk, Norwalk, Ohio, made the moves to strengthen the executive management team while providing greater autonomy to its key executives.
In our re-birth during the past three-and-one-half years, this executive team has not only turned the company around financially, but has strengthened and expanded our product line, improved customer service, broadened our customer base, and launched an integrated marketing program, said Dan White, Norwalk Furniture president. Now it is time to give each one the full credit they deserve and the titles they have earned, along with added responsibilities and the ability to directly execute their ideas.
Cline has been promoted from director to vice president of eastern regional sales, concentrating on building and supporting current business, expanding into new markets, and directing field sales operations in the eastern United States. He began his career with Norwalk as a sales representative in 1980.
Norris was promoted from director to vice president of business development. She joined Norwalk last year, bringing 13 years of retail experience. She will continue to build and support current business, lead expansion into new markets including the World Market Center Las Vegas, and direct field sales operations in the western United States.
Norwalk Furniture is in an aggressive double digit growth mode, but we have not lost sight of how critical it is to maintain close contact with our dealers and to provide greater support to our sales representatives on both coasts," White said. "Phil and Carrie will be in positions to be responsive, to keep the executive team in touch with what is happening on retail floors and to determine how Norwalk can continually better serve our dealer partners."
Hallock, who has more than 28 years of manufacturing experience at Norwalk Furniture, will focus on managing manufacturing operations to meet double-digit growth while maintaining the companys 35-day delivery policy.
Of course, added sales means that our manufacturing plant must not just keep up, but strategically improve, and be as innovative in production as we are in our product design, White said. Tim Hallock has been promoted from director to vice president of manufacturing because he thoroughly understands our manufacturing processes but also has effectively streamlined production by constantly looking for a better way.
Moore assumes the merchandising lead in addition to her current responsibilities for marketing, communications and Web strategies. She has worked with Norwalk since 1994 serving in leadership positions in international sales, customer service, operations and management of the companys licensed brands.
Reyna Moore, who has been serving as director of marketing now becomes vice president of marketing and merchandising. She understands consumers and how to speak to them through traditional and web-based marketing, White said. Reyna is well equipped to take on the lead role in directing our merchandising and product development in coordination with Caroline Hipple and Dixon Bartlett of HB2, which provides trend forecasts, fabric selection, showroom design and product development direction to our internal merchandising team. We look forward to seeing how Reyna will add her special touch to the development of new products.