PMI ready to source upholstery
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, June 16, 2003
High Point — Sourcing agent Pacific Marketing International, which has been focused on case goods, has launched a living room division.
Gil Sturtzel, vice president of sales and marketing, will head the division, which will develop and source collections to create full living room presentations. The division will work with upholstery manufacturers in particular to design wood component parts, exposed wood, coordinating occasional and entertainment, upholstery components and fabrics for sourcing in Asia.
"Our intentions are to design, develop and source collections tying together all these elements to create rooms designed from the fabric to home theater," Sturtzel said. "We aren't going to run over there and sell fabric off the shelf. We're going to merchandise from the very beginning — taking a design element and putting it into the fabric, the wood and the finish."
Nadine Franks, an account manager with fabric supplier Culp for 18 years, has joined PMI to work in the new division as sales and merchandising manager. She will run a new PMI office in Tupelo, Miss., where she will focus on fabric and application, working with manufacturers and designers to develop fabrics.
PMI also will be the U.S. marketing arm for several fabric mills in Asia. It will show for the first time at Showtime, the High Point fabric show set for July 14–17, in a showroom at 315 W. Russell Ave.
"We see happening to upholstery the same thing that's happening to every other category with imports — people either supplementing production with imports, or making it all in Asia," Sturtzel said. "We think there's an opportunity for us to take our expertise in the wood business and combine that with Nadine's experience in fabric and dealing with upholstery manufacturers."
Sturtzel also sees an opportunity to pump up other PMI categories through working with upholstery companies.
"The upholstery manufacturers who are also getting into the occasional table business have a lot of horsepower," he said. "They can sell more occasional for each sofa than suppliers selling the occasional tables alone."
