Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
November 15,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on November 16, 2010
Gorman's Home Furnishings & Interior Design has opened in-store designer furniture closeout shops at three metropolitan Detroit locations.
Those locations include Gorman's showrooms in Novi, Lakeside and Southfield. Novi and Lakeside include traditional furnishings, while Southfield is contemporary.
Open daily, customers will receive 40 to 75 percent off dining and bedrooms sets, sofas, recliners, accessories and more. Featured items come from factory closeouts and showroom samples, special purchases and inventory closeouts.
Complementary in-house designer services are available regardless if customer purchase the items at full or closeout price.
"Our designer closeout shops feature better buys, better values, better quality and lower prices," said Tom Lias, president and COO of Gorman's. "We receive new closeouts every week and when they are gone, they're gone."
November 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Financial Reports on November 15, 2010
La-Z-Boy Inc. (NYSE: LZB) reported net sales of $293 million for the second quarter, down 2.6 percent from the prior year's second quarter sales.
The company also announced that it is delaying the release of its fiscal 2011 second-quarter operating results in order to finalize accounting issues involving "the company's dealer entities that are consolidated as Variable Interest Entities."
In a press release, the company said it believes the accounting issues will not impact the company's earnings per share because adjustments will be made to prior quarters.
La-Z-Boy expects to report is second-quarter earnings after the close of the
New York Stock Exchange Monday, Nov. 22. An investor conference call will be held Tuesday, Nov. 23, at 8:30 a.m.
The dial-in phone number for the live conference call will be (877) 407-0778 for people calling from within the U.S. or Canada, and the number for international callers will be (201) 689-8565.
The call will also be Webcast live and archived on the Internet.
November 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Executive Changes on November 15, 2010
Suzette Lapierre has been named vice president of national accounts for the
Sleep to Live, division of
Kingsdown.
Lapierres promotion comes five months after her appointment as national account manager Northeast for Sleep to Live. Since June, she has grown sales, supervised large national accounts and provided strategic direction to the company. As vice president of national accounts, Lapierre will manage the national accounts sales team, as well as other merchandising and sales efforts related to the promotion of Sleep to Live throughout the continental U.S.
A respected veteran in the mattress industry, Lapierre began her career 15 years ago working with specialty-bedding retailer
Mattress Firm as a sales manager and trainer. She later worked at
Sealy as a territory sales representative before moving to
Simmons as regional vice president of sales. Shortly after, she was hired by
Tempur-Pedic as national account manager. Lapierre joined Sleep to Live in 2008.
Suzette has excelled as national account manager for the Northeast region and her promotion to vice president of national accounts is a direct result of her strategic leadership and unique expertise, said Kevin Damewood, senior vice president of U.S. sales for Sleep to Live and Kingsdown Inc. As one of the companys rising stars, Suzette gets the job done and remains a valued member of the Sleep to Live executive team.
November 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on November 15, 2010
The second annual National Home Furnishings Month promotion drew more than 9,000 participating retailers, an increase of 30 percent from the inaugural year.
Sponsored by World Market Center Las Vegas, the 2010 campaign featured a month-long home mortgage sweepstakes that retailers promoted in their stores and on-line during the month of September. Nancy Tassin of Lafayette, LA, was randomly selected out of 106,192 entries and took the top prize of $24,000--a year's worth of mortgage payments.
The broad-based initiative not only focused on creating extensive partnerships with retailers nationwide, but also leveraged prominent online platforms such as Facebook and MarthaStewart.com, as well as an expansive broadcast campaign featuring HGTV's Monica Pedersen, who participated in a satellite radio tour that aired nearly 1,600 times during September.
November 14,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Green on November 15, 2010
Results are in for the third annual Green Home Furnishings Consumer Study from the Sustainable Furnishings Council and World Market Center Las Vegas.
The study was conducted in September among 351 women home owners across the country between the ages of 30 and 60 years. As in the first two studies, the purpose was to provide trend data on consumer awareness, attitudes and behavior as each relates to a variety of environmental issues and the home furnishings industry.
Overall, findings are consistent with prior years showing significant interest in buying green home furnishings, though actual purchasing remaining very low due to lack of awareness and/or availability of options. However, findings appear this year to have been strongly influenced by ongoing consumer concerns about the economy or respondent's own financial well being.
This is observed in a number of different places in the study, beginning with the incidence of qualified respondents. It proved to be twice as difficult to find people who had spent at least $500 on home furnishings in the past year. There is also a consistently more negative response pattern to questions related to pricing, price expectations, purchasing, etc. This suggests that consumers at the present time may be less home involved and more apprehensive about any spending which in turn could depress all reactions, and in fact there is a moderate erosion in most measures throughout the study vs. prior years. This may well reflect some legitimate plateauing of consumer interest and motivation, but it is difficult to discern vs. the clear sense of exhaustion with economic worries.
As in prior years, about 2 in 4 consumers rate themselves as very or extremely aware and concerned about a range of environmental issues from toxic pollution to using up natural resources to deforestation with no clear winner, meaning the "engaged" population has been holding steady at about 50 percent. Most are taking action in a variety of ways from recycling at home to switching to CFL light bulbs, and over half have purchased green products in a variety of categories, but purchasing of green home furnishings specifically remains very low at 4 percent. The main obstacles continue to be lack of awareness/availability. This indicates a supply and marketing problem more than concept or product dissatisfaction. Additionally, there is an ongoing expectation that green products will cost more.
"Environmentally safe" is the preferred term for green products, suggesting health and wellness or safety claims may be most compelling.
Despite these issues, the projected trial rate for green home furnishings is high at 37 percent, a drop of 10 points from 2009 but comparable to 2008. Importantly, this interest is qualified as a style they would like and priced about the same as other options. Before this year, this has meant pricing up to 10 percent more. In 2010, there is a significant shift toward no more than 5 percent, underscoring market price sensitivity. This is not to say that better quality goods cannot carry a premium, simply that there is little pricing or margin opportunity on the sole basis of an environmental benefit. Instead, it is a second tier tie breaker, something that can sway people only after they have been satisfied on style, quality and price.
New questions were added this year to get a better understanding of the market for certified wood, kids and gift. Certified wood performed similarly to green products overall, though at a lesser level, understandable as it is a more limited topic area. Health and safety concerns appear to be motivating for purchasers of childrens furniture with a projected trial rate of 45 percent among moms with kids. Sustainability does not appear to be a factor in buying gifts. These findings are consistent with a broader understanding of the market. Moms are highly sensitized to health issues as family caretakers, and so it makes sense that whatever a persons views, they would be less likely to impose those views on someone else in the form of a gift.