Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
February 6,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Executive Changes on February 7, 2012
Latex mattress and pillow manufacturer Latex International has promoted 13-year company veteran Mike Tilki to vice president of sales in North America.
Tilki joined Latex International, Shelton, Conn., in 1999 as a product marketing manager. As the company's bedding business grew, Tilki transitioned to the sales force, responsible for managing multiple East Coast mattress component accounts and developing comprehensive sales trainings sessions. After growing the company's customer base, he was promoted to director of sales in 2007 and given responsibility for all national account domestic customers.
"Mike has been instrumental in helping our manufacturing partners maximize the impact of Talalay Latex in their product offerings in terms of value-added and differentiated product," said Latex International Vice President of Global Sales Jim Siragusa, to whom Tilki reports.
Tilki currently has two sales managers reporting to him and is continuing to build his team for future growth.
February 6,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on February 7, 2012
Gift for Life announced that its Jan. 29 20th Anniversary Party for Life at New York's Central Park Boathouse raised $208,000, a record amount.
Gift for Life is the gift, stationery and home decor industries' charitable organization.
"A generous industry truly delivered dramatic results as we combined fun with fundraising," said Leslie Nathan-Street, Gift for Life chairperson. "To date we have raised nearly $5 million for HIV/AIDS research and assistance through the generous help of sponsors and party attendees. Thanks to everyone for helping make this event a huge success."
The Party for Life featured food stations, multiple bars, and a program honoring industry leaders with four awards: Jenny Hammons received the Bert Tonkin Gift of Giving Award; Brandwise and its founders Todd and Jannetta Litzman received the Trailblazer Award; George Kacic received the Chuck Yancy Lifetime Achievement Award; and John C. Portman, Jr. received the Legend for Life honor.
Guests competed for an array of prizes at a silent and live auction including jewelry, home decor, photography services, show tickets, sports events, vacation packages, market trips, marketing assistance, and much more.
Each year, Gift for Life hosts events throughout the U.S. benefitting the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. The primary mission of Gift for Life and DIFFA is to eradicate the AIDS pandemic in the United States.
February 6,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Customer Service on February 7, 2012
Repzio, a provider of iPad and iPhone applications for product presentations and sales, has partnered with
RepTime, a manufacturing and sales software provider.
RepTime, based at the Dallas World Trade Center, provides operational and reporting software for hundreds of sales firms and their showrooms representing multi-lines across North America. The integration with Repzio will allow almost instant capability for these firms to use the Repzio iPad and iPhone platform for selling in the field and in their trade showrooms. Custom Websites with online catalogs and e-commerce are also offered.
"This is a natural and perfect fit for our companies," said Hemal Patel, president of RepTime. "We are both vibrant, forward thinking companies eager to make life easier for our customers. Our systems both work well individually with little need for customer technical support. There was really no surprise when we finally sat down and had our systems running together within hours."
RepZio now has the capability to load multiple manufacturer product lines for one client so that as a single order is written, individual line items can be split out for processing by each manufacturer.
Repzio could form other strategic liaisons in the future.
"The partnership with RepTime is significant," said Alex Fraser, CEO, "but is a first step for us in better serving the diverse industries we are entering. We are not only partnering with other technical and software providers to make life easier for clients, but we are partnering with specific brands that filter from huge market umbrellas to manufacturer, then retail and ultimately consumer levels. We intend to provide an enhanced experience for product presentations, shopping and sales across the entire market range."
RepZio is a native iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch application that allows creative presentation of products and related information and provides an integrated ordering process. The application is used by reps in the field and by manufacturers during trade shows. The company also provides online catalog and ecommerce solutions in conjunction with custom Web site development.
February 6,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on February 7, 2012
Industry supplier
Hooker Furniture (
NASDAQ: HOFT) has reorganized its wood furniture merchandising group into two teams with specialized product line responsibilities.
As part of the reorganization, four managers at the company have been promoted.
"One of the challenges of our broad product line, encompassing everything from niche categories to whole home collections, is the need for more focused merchandising efforts, said Alan Cole, president of Hooker Furniture. "The new team-based and product-specialized approach will clarify responsibilities both internally and externally and help us bring the highest value products to market in a timely manner."
Cole added that the structure will enhance product development agility and creative collaboration while providing clearer direction, more accountability and opportunities for individual and company growth.
Specializing in niche categories such as home office, home entertainment, youth furniture, accents and casual dining is a team headed by Hank Long, senior vice president of marketing, and Cindy Hall, who has been promoted to director of merchandising and product administration.
Hall, who reports to Long, has been with Hooker since 1990 and was most recently senior product manager. In addition to her product development responsibilities, Hall also oversees administration of Hookers product development and merchandising processes.
Reporting to Hall will be merchandising administrator Diana Martin, whose role has been expanded to include coordinating the implementation of a Web-based product development system to improve speed to market and overall responsiveness.
Specializing in the product lines of Mélange, Envision, bedroom and dining room groups and limited distribution/proprietary products is a team headed by Keith Weisglass and Erica Wingo.
As part of the reorganization, Weisglass has been promoted to director of merchandising and major accounts and Wingo, who reports to Weisglass, has been promoted to senior product manager. Weisglass, previously an independent sales representative for Hooker, joined the management team in 2010 in major accounts sales and merchandising. Wingo joined Hooker in 2007 following her internship as a student at High Point University and most recently was a product manager at the company.
These promotions are a recognition of the confidence we have in each of our merchants to take on more focused responsibilities, and their ability to lead us to an even higher level in our product development, Cole said.
The development of major, whole home collections encompassing all wood and upholstery categories, such as Sanctuary, Abbott Place or Primrose Hill, will be assigned to individual merchants as appropriate.
February 6,
2012 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on February 7, 2012
Home furnishings and electronics retailer
Conn's, Inc. (
NASDAQ: CONN) reported preliminary net sales of $189.5 million for the quarter ended Jan. 31, a 4.2 percent increase compared to $181.9 million posted in the same quarter last year.
Same store sales (sales recorded in stores operated for the entirety of both periods, which excludes nine stores that have been closed, one store in the process of being closed and two stores with leases that expired during fiscal year 2012) increased 12.1 percent for the quarter, compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year.
"Despite weakness in the consumer market for televisions, we were pleased to deliver double-digit same store sales growth for the second quarter in a row," said Theodore Wright, CEO. "In addition to the same store sales increase, we also increased our retail segment gross margin percentage by 500 basis points, or 21 percent."
Net sales of furniture and mattresses for the quarter were $27.7 million, a 14.7 percent change from the sales of $20.2 million during the prior year period.
The retailer attributed the growth in furniture and mattress sales to enhanced display and product selection, along with increased promotional activity.
Conn's currently operates 65 retail locations in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma: with 22 stores in the Houston area, 15 in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, seven in San Antonio, three in Austin, five in Southeast Texas, one in Corpus Christi, four in South Texas, six in Louisiana and two in Oklahoma.