SF wins glowing reviews
Market raises manufacturers' hopes for rest of year
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, January 27, 2003
San Francisco — While the furniture business is spotty everywhere, few would describe the winter market here in anything less than positive terms.
In the warm glow of a market, exhibitors said they were getting the traffic they needed and that the show was serving as a nice springboard for their regional business.
Despite the threat of war combined with a malaise in consumer confidence that seems to be holding back a large portion of the North American economy, market exhibitors — who now seem to be importers at least as much as manufacturers — said they were pleased with the show and with the direction of their business.
"The moods of the retailers we have seen have been very upbeat," said Brian Lange, vice president of sales and marketing for Best Chairs, echoing the comments of others. Lange said Best Chairs' business is on the rise, and the San Francisco market is helping the Indiana-based company make a stronger impression in California.
"We grew 21% last year, but business on the West Coast is a little more challenging for us," he said. "However, we're managing to get the job done because California is one of our top states."
One homegrown exhibitor, Fairchild of California, also reports it is doing well. President Scott Haigh said the company had a 5% increase last year and is running its factory at 95% capacity.
"January has been an outstanding month. November and December were disappointments but January has far exceeded expectations. It seems like January is becoming a strong month," Haigh said, guessing that young families may be spending Christmas money and bonuses for furniture.
Tim Connors, vice president of sales and marketing for Collezione Europa U.S.A., was also upbeat. "Our business has been good this year and the traffic at the market was strong and steady for us," he said.
Phillip Reynolds, vice president and sales manager for Laneventure, said the San Francisco show will help the company achieve its objective of expanding West Coast distribution.
"Our business nationally is holding up fairly well. It is a bit slower on the West Coast, largely due to the freight issue and the fact that we are an East Coast producer," Reynolds said, although he added the company was "very pleased" with its market activity.
Laneventure wanted to make the show meaningful for West Coast retailers so it introduced several products here, and got a positive reception.
"We wanted to give the West Coast dealers an edge, and about half of our booth space was devoted to products we had not shown before," Reynolds said.
Business on the West Coast has been "excellent" for Magnussen Home, and Jeff Cook, president, said he expects the San Francisco market to keep the trend going. "We had a good, steady flow of customers, and from seeing some of the order writing, I think we will be up significantly," he said.
A recent push into bedroom has helped fuel Magnussen's double-digit sales gains.
With results such as these, the San Francisco Mart would seem to have a strong future, but the looming threat is the World Market Center in Las Vegas, scheduled to open next year. Las Vegas was a topic of many discussions in market showrooms.
Several exhibitors who are making the effort and investment to show here said the San Francisco market was worth supporting. Larry Smith, senior vice president of corporate marketing at Berkline/BenchCraft, described showroom traffic Friday and Saturday as "robust" and said he hoped it indicated continuing retail support for a major market in San Francisco.
"But it is sort of like waiting for a jury. The way (retailers) vote is the way we will have to go," Smith said.
| Acknowledgements | ||
| Editor-in-Chief Ray Allegrezza, Business Editor Larry Thomas and Senior Editor Gary Evans contributed to this story. | ||
