American mfrs. make presence felt
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, January 27, 2003
Cologne, Germany — While their numbers were small, U.S. manufacturers made their presence felt at the Cologne market.
Ashley and Stanley, for example, cracked the German buying group Atlas, which will install galleries of the companies' products at its 20 stores.
"We already had some stores within the buying group who took a chance on our line in their stores, and they referred the group to us," said Cherie Throndsen, Ashley's export manager.
Werner Schaeffer and Kai Schaeffer, who represent Ashley and Stanley in Germany, are designing a 2,000-square-foot prototype gallery of product from both companies. Various footprints will be available. The gallery will have an American theme, with pillars like a Southern home and an arrangement similar to the North Carolina Pavilion in Cologne, which the Schaeffers designed.
Stanley, Ashley and Vaughan-Bassett showed product in the Pavilion, which is sponsored by the North Carolina Furniture Export Office and is open to companies with factories or showrooms in the state.
Margret Bloom, vice president of international sales at Stanley, said American furniture provides buyers, especially in Germany, alternatives to the high-gloss flat-line case goods abundant in Europe.
"In Germany, cocooning is still going on," she said. "They don't want to go flying somewhere like America for their vacation these days, they want to make their homes cozy. That's what American furniture does."
Stanley's display included last October's Cottage Revival introduction. Cottage looks hearken back to traditional Scandinavian furniture.
Lane, showing on its own at the Cologne market, introduced three recliners targeted for Europe, including a traditional model with exposed wood geared toward Scandinavia. Another recliner has clean lines but softer seating than what's typically found in Europe.
"Europeans are slowly turning into couch potatoes as well," joked Bert Jan Oosting, director of international sales for Lane. "We also do a lot of fabric changes and color changes to gear existing product for Europe."
Vaughan-Bassett brought selections from its Elvis Presley Collection as well as a rustic country bedroom in solid oak with painted finishes.
"When we went to Graceland for Elvis week, we gathered 20,000 names and addresses from consumers in return for a piece of the Elvis Presley hardware," said Doug Bassett, vice president of sales. "Six thousand of the 20,000 were from Europe. It was obvious his appeal here was so strong we had to be in Cologne."
The jury was still out on Vaughan-Bassett's business in Cologne, said John D Bassett III, president and chief executive officer.
"We have to be willing to try it for several markets," he said. "We have to try and expand our horizon."
Part of that expansion included walking the show to see what function-savvy European case goods manufacturers were up to.
"We have gotten some design ideas," said John Bassett. "We're looking for new trends, and we think we have a feel for that. When we're here we can walk through so many more spaces than we can in High Point."
Canadian manufacturer Palliser didn't show here, but Peter Tielmann, vice president of marketing, came to see what's new. Palliser already has incorporated a Cologne-style approach to design, piece selection and function in its EQ3 lifestyle collection.
"Cologne is a more structured market (than High Point)," Tielmann said. "You have an integration of the high end and the mass market. You can see what's new and fashionable on the high-end 'runway' floors, and then you go downstairs and see how that filters down over a couple of years into lower price points. It's not a knockoff mentality, it's a fashion direction."
Tielmann appreciates the openness of the Cologne fair and its exhibitors.
"They are not protective about the floors — it's all open," he said. "They know I'm coming into the showroom as a manufacturer. They know the guys in the middle price points need to be inspired."
American exhibitors said they enjoyed good traffic, which they credited to offering a product alternative, and to the fact that some international buyers are making fewer trips to High Point.
"We have 15 distributor networks around the globe, and they're all here," said Lane's Oosting. "Cologne is a good opportunity to show our customers who didn't come to High Point the last introductions from October."
