United motion sofas feature easy setup
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, March 1, 2004
TUPELO, Miss — TUPELO, Miss — Promotional upholstery resource United Furniture Inds. has expanded into motion furniture with a line of modular sofas featuring a locking system that allows individual seats to be taken apart and shipped separately.
The locking system, unveiled at the market here, will conserve warehouse space and make it easier for retailers to deliver the product to the consumer's home, said Jay Quimby, national sales manager.
"This gives dealers a unique delivery solution," he said. "With our modular system, one person can deliver and set up a 92- to 94-inch sofa."
Sofas will be shipped in three cube-sized cartons, each of which can be carried by one person. Once inside the house, the seats are locked together with a mechanism on which the company has applied for a patent, Quimby said.
The modular system also makes it easier for delivery people to navigate stairways, narrow hallways and small doorways, he noted.
The new sofas, which are targeting retail price points of $599 to $799, are available with leather/ vinyl, microfiber and fabric covers.
They are being made at United's newest factory, a 150,000-square-foot facility in Sulligent, Ala., which is southeast of Tupelo near the Alabama-Mississippi border.
