Archive for December, 2009

High Point premarket set for Sept. 13-14

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Spring edition runs March 15-16

HIGH POINT — Sponsors of High Point’s premarket have set the fall event’s dates for Sept. 13-14. As previously announced, the spring edition will run March 15-16.

Held about a month before each High Point Market, premarket aims to give retailers a chance to preview major product collections, secure distribution, and strengthen relationships with key vendors and company principals, according to market officials.

Twenty-four High Point Market exhibitors and three of the city’s showroom building operators are sponsors of premarket this year. They met last week to set the dates and the premarket agenda.

As it did this fall, the September 2010 premarket will coincide with the opening two days of the Las Vegas Market, which is set for Sept. 13-16. The March premarket will occur about six weeks after the winter Vegas market, which runs Feb. 1-5.

Kevin O’Connor, CEO of Samson Marketing, parent company of premarket sponsors Legacy Classic and Universal Furniture, said the High Point event “affords manufacturers and retailers quality time to really connect. It’s a relaxed environment that encourages interaction between top-level executives that is quite unlike the frenetic, time-pressed interchanges of market.”

Brian Casey, CEO of the High Point Market Authority, added: “The emphasis on the ability to review ‘market-ready’ product in advance of market one month later is one of the critical elements making the premarket events so successful.”

Source: www.furnituretoday.com

www.HowardsFurnitureandDecoratingCenter.com

Mattress sales rise 6.2% in October, Industry notches first monthly gain this year

Monday, December 14th, 2009

The mattress industry got a double-barreled dose of good news in October, with bedding units posting a 3.5% gain and dollars increasing by 6.2% from the same month last year. It was the first time this year that the dollar value of bedding shipments broke into positive territory.

Despite the October uptick, unit sales are down 12% for the year to date, while the dollar value of shipments is down 12.9%, according to the International Sleep Products Assn.

The trade association reported the results in its October Bedding Barometer. They reflect the business done by 18 mattress producers that account for about 46% of the industry’s unit sales and about 56% of the wholesale value of the market, ISPA said.

Bedding executives cheered the positive results in October as an indication that the industry is finally shaking off the effects of the recession.

Mattress units were up 5.9% in October, ISPA said, with foundations posting a 1% gain. The dollar value of mattress shipments was up by 6.7%, while the dollar value of foundations was up by 4.3%, according to ISPA.

The average unit selling price of mattresses increased by 0.8% in October, while the average unit selling price for foundations was up 3.3%. Overall, the average unit selling price in October was up by 2.6%, ISPA said. That was the first monthly increase since July, and it marked only the third time this year that the average unit selling price has been in positive territory.

ISPA also released a second set of industry figures for October and for the year. But those figures include “certain anomalies” that distort year-to-year comparisons, ISPA said. Furniture/Today has elected not to report those figures because they are not as representative of industry performance as the figures that remove the “anomalous cases.” All figures in this story are those that provide apples-to-apples comparisons with the previous year’s results.

Source: www.furnituretoday.com

www.HowardsFurnitureandDecoratingCenter.com

Ashley Furniture restructures sales divisions

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Ashley Furniture Inds. has restructured its sales divisions and sales management with a goal of boosting efficiencies and eliminating redundancies, according to company CEO Todd Wanek.

The new divisional structure, which takes effect Jan. 1, will be segmented into three product categories: stationary upholstery, motion upholstery and case goods.

As part of the move, Ashley will engage its independent marketing specialists to be dedicated to each division in order to ensure that the sales organization continues to offer a superior level of product knowledge, product training and assistance to retail customers in areas including advertising and marketing.

Each division will handle products under the Ashley, Millennium and Signature Design by Ashley brands.

The Case Goods Division will represent products including bedroom, dining room and top-of-bed goods.

The Motion Upholstery Division “will key in on the family’s casual living area, and will also include both fabric and leather motion, lift-top and caster occasional tables, home office and walls and entertainment centers,” Wanek said.

The Stationary Upholstery Division will include fabric and leather stationary upholstery, lamps, rugs, throws, decorative pillows, tabletop accessories and occasional tables.

Wanek said that until earlier this month, the company had depended on three divisional sales vice presidents with each responsible for a product brand – Ashley, Millennium or Signature Design by Ashley. Often, these divisions would work with the same accounts in representing their respective brands.

However, as of Dec. 1, the vice presidents have been regionally focused. The vice presidents continue to report to Kerry Lebensburger, Ashley’s president of sales.

“Simply put, prior to this refocus, each of the divisions would often call on the same accounts,” explained Ashley Chairman Ron Wanek.

“There were also some instances where the products overlapped each other,” he said. “As part of our ongoing commitment to be as efficient as possible, we made these changes in order to serve our dealers at the highest level.”

Source: www.furnituretoday.com

www.HowardsFurnitureandDecoratingCenter.com