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October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 1, 2010
Looking back 20-odd years ago, Belfort Furniture barely gave a thought to rugs and decorative accessories as part of its merchandise mix.
At that time, the Dulles, Va.-based retailer was housed in a cement warehouse where it was a challenge to pound nails for hanging pictures. Heidi Nelson, visual display manager and buyer for accessories and rugs, said other than a picture and a couple of lamps per vignette, the stores selection of accessories was sparse.
Today, Belfort Furniture is designed as a 100,000-square-foot retail mall with multiple buildings on the same property just outside Washington, D.C.
Over the years, decorative accessories have become a part of our business, Nelson said.
The portion of Belforts business has continued to grow significantly over the last five years, and the retailer continues to boost the categories by expanding its selection, training its sales team on how to sell, and finding creative ways to spark consumers attention.
It started out that we wanted our displays to look better, Nelson said. Then, our customers wanted to buy the accessories we were using to decorate with. Just seeing the turns on the pieces helped spark that business.
Belforts floors are merchandised in vignettes, and for the most part, accessories are sold from those vignettes. Through Nelsons strategy of buying three- or four-of-a-kind items and a continual fresh flow of product, Belforts customers are come back frequently for the ever-changing selection.
There are staples that we have, and we change out accessories regularly, she said.
We get people coming through looking for artwork, lamps and accents.¨¨Layer it on¨Each of the different buildings on the Belfort complex has a different focus. Theres Belfort Basics, which carries lifestyle furniture and coordinated room packages with an emphasis on more immediate delivery; Belfort Interiors with its leather gallery, casual dining, home entertainment, home office, home theater seating, and motion and recliners; Belfort Galleries, a full-line furniture store; Belfort Kidz and Mattress; and a clearance center and warehouse complex.
The clearance center houses a special area carved out for accents that has a bit of a Paris Flea Market feel, with a layered effect that gives consumers the feel of the hunt.
Racking up sales¨Belfort has a team of designers that Nelson credits with selling a chunk of rugs for the retailer, and that portion of the business continues to make an impact.
The retailer has a dual approach to display when it comes to its rug selection. Most of its rugs are displayed on various sized racks, and Belfort tries not to sell showroom models from the floor.
It takes two very strong men to hang rugs (on the 9x12 racks), so we try to encourage customers to order rugs, Nelson said, adding that if a consumer insists, the deal is done and the rug goes out the door.
A rug platform, featuring closeouts and mill strikeoffs, is also on display allowing consumers to dig through bargain rugs for the pleasure of the hunt.
In training
Selling accessories and rugs is an easy way for retail salespeople to increase their average tickets, Nelson said. Its a logical addition to tables to ask a customer Will you be needing lamps?, she said.
Belfort has done a lot of training in selling decorative accessories and rugs, but Nelson admits that it still doesnt always work out. She encourages design consultants and retail sales associates to know their showroom and whats available to coordinate with furniture pieces.
Weve done training for the sales team where we take a cream, sock arm sofa and dress it up four different ways, Nelson said. Ill show them how to transform a room by changing the pillows, the art, the tables and rug. HFB
October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 1, 2010
Smaller furniture stores can serve as satellites to augment the furniture retailers main store (with a broader inventory) and use technology to show expanded choices.
Retailers are increasingly finding that size isnt everything. The trend toward smaller stores is a natural outgrowth of consumer-centric retailinga philosophy focused on targeting specific consumer groups and refining your store to reflect their needs and wants.
To cite one mega-sized example, Walmart, the worlds largest retailer, is scaling down storesthe largest of which now cover as much as three football fields.
Target, The Gap (and Old Navy) and Ashley Furniture are also finding that stores focused on their best customers can be more productive than locations that try to appeal to many disparate groupsby providing enormous selection. All three of those chains have announced new formats that favor shopper convenience and trim the wide selection that consumers tell us can be more confusing than helpful.
Large-format retailers are finally listening to all the busy moms who begin each shopping trip by unbuckling a child from a car seat, unfurling a stroller and packing it with the diaper bag, toys and other items her child needs for any store visit lasting more than a few minutes.
So, at a time when tiny Minis have replaced massive Hummers as the coolest car of the day, Target has cut store sizes to as little as 60,000 square feet (from whats typically 128,000 square feet) as it focuses growth on more urban locations. The Gap, responding to a 40 percent drop in sales per square foot from 1999 to 2009, has found it can trim store sizes from 18,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet and remain almost as productive, according to published reports.
In our industry, Ashley has been even more aggressive with its smaller-is-better strategy with its announced plans to franchise a new format with stores of about 5,000 square feet, a fraction the size of its fast-growing Ashley HomeStores. Also, Ethan Allens newest store in Kentucky is about 6,000 square feet, significantly slimmed down from its 30,000-square-foot space in Manhattan.
My firm currently has several smaller-sized locations in development. One we recently finished also argues in favor of the smaller-is-better approach. When originally built in 2006, the Dwellings store in St. Michael, Barbados, was a concise 6,500 square feetoffering everything from furniture to tabletop goods and kitchenware. This year, it was more than doubled to 15,000 square feet by expanding showroom space to the second floor, where owners Luis Carrillo and Gael Alluard added a customer resource center for custom orders and a bed-and-bath section.
A fraction of the size of many of the full-line furniture stores here in the U.S., Dwellings is open, inviting and easy to shop. It has made good use of technology by installing large-screen displays in its customer resource center that can be used to show additional items in a collection the customer likes, but the store doesnt have space to stock all the time. With high-resolution images, Dwellings shoppers can have confidence about the decisions they make when ordering add-on items or customized goods, including upholstery or case goods offered in a variety of finishes.
Another aspect of Dwellings is that its designers are focused on serving clients with in-home visits. Many of the stores high-end customers in the resort community have new seasonal condos or year-round homes, and they need to furnish several rooms or the whole space. In short, in-home consultations are the best way to serve these customers, and Dwellings designers are well-equipped to draw on the resource centers tools on an in-home visit by connecting to store servers (and vendors) via the Internet.
Also, with Dwellings carefully chosen selection of cash-and-carry tabletop items and home goods, shoppers return frequently to purchase gifts or an item like a bedspread that caught their eye on an earlier visit.
In the next few years, as chains like Target and The Gap focus on smaller stores, its likely that some furniture chains will also be favoring scaled-down locations in high-traffic (high-rent) shopping centers. In some cases, those smaller furniture stores can serve as satellites to augment the furniture retailers main store (with a broader inventory) and use technology to show expanded choices and make in-home consultations more compelling.
As those trends develop, youll also see more furniture retailers follow the lead of furniture chains that have already taken steps to make large stores seem smaller. For example, one trend is to create a separate mattress shop entrance and a store-within-a-store for shoppers who want the best selection, but dont want to negotiate through 60,000 square feet of furniture to find the mattress department. New, separately branded entrances work with all sorts of categories, including sofas and office/home office furniture. HFB
October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Aggregated Content in Financial Reports on November 1, 2010
from http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r3625251202&f=10761
Promotional upholstery producer American Furniture, a subsidiary of publicly traded Compass Diversified Holdings, said second quarter sales slipped 2.3% due largely to a drop in motion furniture sales.
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October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Delivery on November 1, 2010
Furniture Origins parent Origins Holdings Inc. will move its Zocalo division headquarters from San Francisco to Statesville, N.C.
Zocalo will share offices and distribution in Statesville with Furniture Origins divisions Shadow Mountain and Magnolia Home. Zocalo also will handle general management, sales, finance, marketing and merchandising out of Statesville. The move allows OHI to garner significant efficiencies while fully integrating its back office functions.
"This move is part of our ongoing strategy of enhancing synergies between the brands while providing superior service to our consumers and leveraging efficiencies and our economy of scale," said CEO Seth Jutan. "This move will in no way affect the unique design sensibility and positioning of the Zocalo brand to the consumer."
Furniture Origins is a global, fully integrated furnishings manufacturer and distribution company with offices in the United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia. Furniture Origins acquired Zocalo in September 2009.
October 31,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Lighting on November 1, 2010
American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) has invested $32 million in the debt refinancing of accent furniture vendor Stein World, Memphis.
American Capital's investment takes the form of a senior term B loan and senior and junior subordinated debt. GE Antares Capital, a unit of GE Commercial Finance, and Dymas Capital Management are investing in a senior term A loan and are also providing a revolving credit facility. Goense Bounds & Partners, New York Life Insurance Company, Stein World management and private investors are currently invested in the equity. Goense Bounds is the majority equity investor.
"Our investment in Stein World not only backs the growth of an excellent accent furniture company, but also develops a new relationship with an experienced private equity firm, Goense Bounds. This is our 10th new private equity partnership in 2005 and 14th in the last twelve months," said American Capital Chief Operating Officer Ira Wagner. "American Capital's strong position in the market, flexible capital, dedicated professionals and experience in a variety of industries make us a great partner for private equity firms seeking financial support for their portfolio companies."
American Capital has invested nearly $3.6 billion in the last twelve months, over $2.9 billion year to date and $164 million quarter to date.
"Stein World's unique outsourced business model and 'fashion-current' business approach has enabled it to experience significant growth in the attractive accent furniture market. In addition, the Company's differentiating one-week delivery ability, exceptional customer service, large product offering, strong Asian sourcing relationships, and lack of customer and product concentration have solidified Stein World's unique market position," said American Capital Managing Director Ian Larkin. "Furthermore, Stein World's volume allows it to cost-effectively address the demands of its retail customers and achieve economies of scale unmatched by its competition. We believe in the strong management team that has delivered impressive financial results and are confident in the leadership of President Andy Stein, a highly motivated visionary."
Stein World offers a broad selection upscale residential accent furniture and decorative lighting.