June 22,
2011 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on June 23, 2011
Info Retail has restructured its management team to better meet the needs of its clients in the bedding and furniture markets, as well as to expand into new areas.
We continue to redefine our core business to better serve our expanding client base, said Ron Bushman, president. The strategic shift in our client services better aligns with our focus on high-growth manufacturing and retail clients. We are positioning the company to grow and scale our offerings to meet the needs of current clients and those we seek to attract.
Info Retail recently adjusted positions and added a number of professionals across several key areas including business development and account management.
This strategic realignment leverages Info Retails core strengths in service design and environments, enabling us to better help our clients to build and shape the customer experience, said Bushman. We are working to expand our platform to include all aspects of service design and environments management, as well to expand our market footprint. This realignment initiative further demonstrates Info Retails strong commitment to delivering customer solutions that are useful, profitable and desirable for the user and unique, efficient, and effective for the provider.
As part of the strategic realignment, the company is repositioning its client services and accounts management units into one groupthe client services team. In connection with this change, Info Retail made the following senior management appointments:
¢ Cindy Williams, previous vice president of retail strategy/furnishings, has been named vice president of client services and will lead the customer services team. The newly formed group will focus on idea generation for existing clients as well as attracting new clients in target industries. Williams will also maintain her primary responsibility in bedding and furniture markets. She joined Info Retail in 2003 following a distinguished 10-year career in the bedding market, where she was Southeast regional sales manager for
International Bedding Corporation and manager of specialty sleep at
Simmons Co. At Info Retail, she has led the companys business development strategies, and in her new role she will continue to oversee this strategy.
Our focus will be to discover opportunities where our strategy, design, and solution management services can be applied to help clients to innovate and to increase return on investment in customer environments, Williams said.
¢ Jacqueline LaScala has joined the company as director of business development. She will lead the companys expansion into new markets. LaScala comes to Info Retail with a 22-year career in media sales. Prior to joining Info Retail, she was account executive at Microsoft where she managed strategic accounts including The Home Depot, Verizon, DHLWorldwide, Glaxo-Smithkline, Porsche and Aflac. Before joining Microsoft, she was with
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she held dual roles: account executive managing high-volume accounts and project manager of Mundo Hispanico, a Hispanic publication acquired by newspaper.
¢ Suzanne Donohoe has joined the company as account manager in the home improvement market. She will assist clients with implementing their service objectives and customer environment strategies. Prior to joining Info Retail, Donohoe worked more than eight years at The Home Depot where she served in roles as merchandise marketing manager and media manager, developing integrated marketing plans and strategies supporting merchandising objectives for the company.
¢ Nathan Shannon has joined the company as account and new business development manager in furnishings and bedding markets. Experienced in leveraging consumer insight and markets trend analysis, Shannon will expand Info Retails strategic offerings to clients in home furnishings and sleep products manufacture and retail, and will lead client projects from start to finish. Prior to joining the company, Shannon owned a wholesale furniture business and was an independent sales representative for
Klaussner Home Furnishings and memory foam importer Spirit Sleep. Prior to entering the furnishings arena, he was a business manager for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.
¢ Betsy Gardner, previous project manager, has been named account manager and a member of the companys strategic overview team. Gardner joined Info Retail in 2009. Prior to joining the company, she was a store planning associate at ACS Architectural Construction executing site surveys, merchandise plans, and three-dimension interior renderings for clients such as Macys, JCPenney, Belk, and Trader Joes.
¢ Brooks Ballard, previous director of marketing, has been named director of business intelligence. He will connect Info Retail clients with the agencys multiple sources of business intelligence including quantifiable data, user-centric analytics, and discoveries relevant to each clients unique challenges and market segment. Prior to joining Info Retail in 2007, Brooks was senior manager of e-business and manager of corporate marketing/merchandising at HomeBanc Mortgage and account manager at Georgia-Pacific Corporation where he managed 200+ East Coast accounts including high-volume retail.
With these changes we are capitalizing on the enormous talents of a very diverse and seasoned group of executives to strengthen leadership across our offerings in service design and customer environments," Bushman said. "We are also building an interdisciplinary team of dedicated business leaders consistent with our focus on customer experience and operational rigor.
June 22,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on June 23, 2011
Bedding supplier Spring Air South has named Seth Atkinson eastern regional sales manager.
In his new position, Atkinson reports to the Price family, owners of the Atlanta-based
Spring Air licensee. He will oversee five Spring Air sales representatives covering eastern Tennessee and the states of Georgia and South Carolina.
Prior to joining the company, Atkinson was a territory manger for
Tempur-Pedic. During the years 1998 to 2005 he worked for
Kingsdown.
June 22,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Legal on June 23, 2011
Brando Enterprises filed a lawsuit Thursday against Ashley Furniture over sales and marketing unlicensed "Brando" sofas and ottomans.
Brando Enterprises was created by the Marlon Brando Living Trust to manage core business interests including Brando licensing activities, preservation and archiving of the late actor's memorabilia.
According to an announcement of the action, the suit, filed in the California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles, West District, seeks an injunction to stop Ashley Furniture, Arcadia, Wis., from infringing and misappropriating the Brando name and to recover damages caused by the sales and marketing of the unlicensed "Brando" furniture.
The Ashley suit comes on the heels of Brando Enterprises' recent legal action against Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.
"Companies taking advantage of protected brands appears to be a growing problem for many iconic celebrity estates. Companies may recognize the potential profits derived by associating products with iconic celebrities, however they need to know they are not entitled to generate revenues from the sale of products bearing unlicensed names, images and trademarks," said entertainment and licensing attorney Jeffrey I. Abrams, who filed the suit. "The estates of classic and legendary celebrities such as Marlon Brando generally have representation for licensing matters, and manufacturers have the opportunity to negotiate an agreement that will provide the marketing and promotional benefits derived from associating with an iconic figure."
June 22,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Technology on June 23, 2011
Furnitureland South has released a free iPhone app for shopping the Jamestown, N.C., furniture store's 1 million-plus-square-foot showroom.
Whether customers pre-shop and plan their visit online or begin their project in-store, they can easily access valuable shopping information and create a secure, personalized environment for storing information and images of their favorite home furnishings with the ease and sophistication of the iPhone.
Notable features of the application include guided navigation of more than 1.3 million square-feet of showroom space, and a robust product search that will quickly locate specific furniture items displayed in either of Furnitureland South's two showroom buildings or the 300,000 square-foot Outlet Center. Clients can use their iPhone to scan Quick Response (QR) codes displayed on furniture and accessories to pinpoint their exact location, or save detailed product information and photos to a personal Wishlist. Shoppers can also use the iPhone's camera to take their own photos and add them to an online Photo Album, or contact their expert Design Consultant with a simple touch of the screen.
"Our clients are increasingly tech savvy and, to better serve them, Furnitureland South has embraced mobile technology to create a shopping experience that is unprecedented in the furniture industry," said Executive Vice President Jason Harris. "We believe that the iPhone provides us with a unique opportunity to put better tools and more information in the hands of our customers and sales force alike."
In addition to the new iPhone app, other technological advances include Furnitureland South's newly re-launched Web site features an advanced product search that will sort and categorize items based on price, manufacturer, room, or style, and also includes a live feed to the company's blog, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages. Additionally, in an effort to provide a more paperless buying environment, Furnitureland South will soon offer digital contracts and catalogs for consumers to view and approve on the iPad.
The Furnitureland South App for iPhone is available on the App Store and can be easily downloaded to the iPhone or iPod touch.
June 21,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on June 22, 2011
La-Z-Boy (NYSE: LZB) reported fourth-quarter 2011 sales of $338.9 million a 9.1 percent increase over the prior year period.
Net income of $10.3 million for the quarter ended April 30 was off 26.3 percent from fourth-quarter 2010. For the 53-week period fiscal 2011, sales of $1.19 billion were up only slightly from 52-week 2010's $1.18 billion. Net income for the 2011 fiscal year, $24 million, fell 26.5 percent from the prior year.
The upholstery segment's sales increased 9.8 in the fourth quarter, of which approximately 8 percentage points related to the additional week, and its operating margin was 10.3 percent versus 11.9 percent in last year's fourth quarter.
The casegoods segment's sales increased 8.6 percent in the fourth quarter, of which approximately 8 percentage points related to the additional week, and its operating margin was 5.2 percent compared with (0.6) percent in the previous year's fourth quarter.
The retail segment's fourth-quarter sales increased 48.6 percent, of which approximately 8 percentage points related to the additional week and 24 percentage points was a result of the 15 Southern California stores added to the company-owned segment in the fourth quarter. The sales increase of the core 68 stores was 16 percentage points and the segment's operating margin improved to (5.2) percent compared with (12) percent in last year's fourth quarter.
"Although the overall macroeconomic environment remains challenging, we experienced sales momentum in the fourth quarter across all three segments, particularly in our retail segment where sales increased significantly over last year's quarter, even without the additional week," said Warren, Mich.-based La-Z-Boy President and CEO Kurt Darrow. "Our upholstery group achieved a double-digit operating margin and we continue to be encouraged by the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries store network's same-store sales comparison of 11.8% for the quarter. Although headwinds remain throughout the industry, particularly as we go into the slower summer period, we will continue to execute against our strategic initiatives and believe we are well positioned to capture market share and grow our business profitably as the environment improves."
Looking ahead at business conditions, Darrow is "encouraged by the sales performance for the quarter in each of our three operating segments as well as our same-store sales improvement. Importantly, our efficient operating structure will allow us to show profitable conversion rates on any increase in volume. Going forward, our industry-leading brand, coupled with our network of La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores and Comfort Studios, position us well to further capitalize on a strengthening of the economy, particularly as it relates to consumer confidence and housing. We believe our new brand platform will continue to drive qualified traffic to our dealer network and, importantly, we will continue to invest in our business.
"Although the spring period showed some strength, from a seasonality perspective, the industry experiences weaker demand throughout the summer period and, as a result, our plants shut down for one week of vacation and maintenance during the first quarter, which ends in July. Accordingly, our first quarter is typically the weakest in terms of sales and profits because we ship product for 12 weeks instead of the normal 13 weeks."
Click here for the complete earnings release.