Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
March 8,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in High Point on March 9, 2012
The deadline for submitting photographs of product being shown at the upcoming
High Point Market for inclusion in the April issue of
Home Furnishings Business has been extended.
The final day to submit images is Thursday, March 15, and there is no charge.
To take advantage of this opportunity, you should send quality images of products you will be showcasing.
We're happy to work with digital files. Feel free to e-mail images to Sheila Long O'Mara, editor in chief, at slomara@napco.com. The images should be in JPEG format with a resolution of 300 dpi or higher. At that resolution, the image must be at least 6" x 8".
Along with the pictures, please be sure to include the following information: company name; contact name and number; High Point showroom location and company Web address.
March 8,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Delivery on March 9, 2012
Office Star Products will open its fourth major U.S. warehouse and distribution center in mid-April.
The new state-of-the-art 147,000 square foot, 32-bay facility will be in the Atlanta suburb of Austell, Ga.
The new facility will house a full complement of OSP's extensive line of ready-to-assemble home office and home theater furniture along with its award-winning Ave Six upholstered furniture collection, indoor/outdoor resin furniture and more than 200 models from Office Star's office chair line.
"Our new facility is modeled in part after our state-of-the-art East Coast, Teterboro, N.J., warehouse and distribution center that opened four years ago," said Rick Blumenthal, president of Office Star, Ontario, Calif. "Like our East and West Coast locations, the new Atlanta facility will also house multiple showrooms for customer presentations.
"The addition of our new Southeast warehouse and distribution center will allow us to further serve our clients needs on both a regional and national basis."
March 8,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in sourcing/importing on March 9, 2012
Three U.S. furniture companies expect to receive a total of $65 million in duties collected under the antidumping case against Chinese wood bedroom furniture manufacturers.
That's according to Securities & Exchange Commission filings this week by Stanley Furniture Co.(http://www.stanleyfurniture.com), Bassett Furniture Inds.(http://www.bassettfurniture.com) and La-Z-Boy(http://www.la-z-boy.com)
Manufacturers who did not support the antidumping petition that lead to a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation of Chinese manufacturers had filed actions in the United States Court of International Trade seeking to share in the distribution of duties. As a result those actions, U.S. Customs held back a portion of those distributions pending resolution of the non-supporting producers' claims. The Court of International Trade dismissed all of the actions, and the non-supporting producers appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Customs advised that it expected to distribute the holdback to the Supporting Producers after Thursday.
On March 5, the Federal Circuit denied the motions for injunction, "without prejudicing the ultimate disposition of these cases."
Stanley expects to receive around $40 million in distributions; La-Z-Boy, $16 million; and Bassett, $9 million.
If the Federal Circuit were to reverse the decisions of the Court of International Trade and to determine that the Non-Supporting Producers are entitled to CDSOA distributions, it is possible that Customs may seek to have the supporting producers return all or a portion of our company's share of the Holdback.
March 8,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Executive Changes on March 9, 2012
Mattress manufacturer Comfort Solutions has named Cindy Williams and Owen Shoemaker senior vice president of marketing, and product development and merchandising, respectively.
Willowbrook, Ill.-based Comfort Solutions established the new positions to "keep pace with the speed at which our business is moving," said President Dave Roberts. Williams and Shoemaker report to Roberts.
In her new post, Williams will spearhead all marketing and marketing communication programs for Comfort Solutions' multiple brands and products. Most recently, Williams had served since 2003 as vice president of client services for Info Retail, an Atlanta-based retail strategy and design agency.
She began her industry career in 1991 with Simmons, where she served in several sales capacities before her promotion to national sales manager of the specialty sleep division. During the years 1998 to 2002, Williams was southeast regional sales manager for International Bedding Corp. and worked for England Furniture, an independent division of La-Z-Boy to establish a bedding division.
"Cindy is an experienced, top-notch executive who will not only expand our marketing capabilities but also better position us to achieve our strategic objectives in 2012 and into the future," Roberts said.
Shoemaker, who joined Comfort Solutions in 2009 and has served as senior vice president of marketing and product development, now leads the company's efforts in product innovation, design and merchandising. He also will head up international business development, a new responsibility.
"With his singular expertise in sleep science, diagnostics and human physiology--combined with his strong marketing experience--Owen is well positioned to correlate product design and performance with marketing viability," Roberts said. "He also will have new opportunities to study developments and innovations among our international licensees and in overseas markets, which will advance both our corporate objectives and our business."
Comfort Solutions has 37 international licensees serving 80 countries.
March 7,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on March 8, 2012
Early buyer registration for the upcoming spring premarket is up 9 percent over buyer registration for premarket in September 2011.
To date, 116 retailers are signed up for the event scheduled March 19-20.
"The response for the Spring premarket has been fantastic," said Kevin O'Connor, chairman of the premarket committee, and CEO of
Samson Marketing. "We're looking forward to a strong event that will allow our 25 vendor sponsors the opportunity to work closely with buyers to fine-tune new product offerings and to partner together to create success on retail floors."
O'Connor points out that the positive response to premarket also bodes well for the
Spring High Point Market, set for April 21-26.
"High Point Market is the world's home for home furnishings," he said. "The great thing about premarket is that it gives buyers an advantage with an early preview of important introductions, the newest fashion trends and display ideas, and for enticing looks to draw consumers into their stores."
High Point premarket takes place a month before each High Point Market and gives retailers an opportunity to see new designs before the spring and fall shows. The 25 sponsoring manufacturers for premarket, listed on this release, have made a commitment to show new product in a market ready condition for review.