Positive attitudes evident at Showtime
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, January 13, 2003
High Point — Despite the time squeeze caused by an early April High Point market, fabric suppliers exhibiting at Showtime here last week experienced strong order-writing and expect the coming year to be stable, if not good.
"It's such a narrow time frame to market," said SRA Fabrics' Shelly Rosenberg of this year's April furniture market, set to open officially April 3 and unofficially in late March.
Executives from New York-based SRA hit the road a few weeks ago to see customers in North Carolina, Mississippi and California. "Everybody's in a rush," Rosenberg said. "When things are tight, you've really got to move fast."
Like many fabric vendors, SRA had fewer appointments this market, and "there was a noticeable difference in traffic," he said. "We normally get a lot of walk-through traffic, but that was way down."
Nonetheless, "It was a good market; people reacted well to our introductions," Rosenberg said. SRA specializes in microdeniers and cottons, both strong sellers, so the company "is expecting an outstanding year."
Doug Henderson, vice president of sales and marketing for Main Street Textiles, said, "Manufacturers' attitudes coming into Showtime were very positive. But I think everyone is nervous about the (April furniture) market being so early. A lot of manufacturers are wondering if (the April) market is going to mean anything because, in some cases, the product they sold in October is just starting to hit retail floors."
And retailers coming to the April market won't know if those goods will sell, he added.
Henderson said he's seen an improvement in business, starting in November. "November and December weren't necessarily a huge improvement, but a nice steady improvement," he said. "A lot of customers we saw at Showtime indicated the reports they're getting is that a lot of retailers had good Novembers and Decembers."
Jack Korngold, vice president of marketing for Costa Blanca, said, "Furniture retail is not a disaster. Most manufacturers have no complaints. It's not boom times but it's certainly far from bad times."
Korngold said the climate just a few years ago was one where "people were working three days a week and trying to figure out what they were to run the next week because there was no backlog."
He expects business to be "fairly flat" this year. "I think with what's going on in the world, especially since Sept. 11, it's pretty darn good," Korngold said. "Fundamentally, our economy is sound and I don't believe we're in a recession or anything like that."
Imports were on the minds of price-conscious producers, some of whom have begun asking about cut-and-sew options.
"The import thing is a huge factor, and will continue to be so over the next couple of years," said John Shane, national sales manager, furniture, for the Robert Allen Group.
He said the company has five or six customers who import fully assembled product from Asia, and 15 or so customers who "are set up to do cut-and-sew over there."
Since it imports fabrics from all over the world, Shane said Robert Allen can offer cut-and-sew programs. "It's new to us, and we're not making a big push now because we want to make sure that it's to people who can do volume," he said.
Shane reported a good market, with positive reaction to new fabrics. But "attendance was noticeably down," he said.
SRA's Rosenberg said, "We're not going to offer (cut-and-sew), but the demand is building. Most big manufacturers have established relationships with cut-and-sew sources."
Main Street's Henderson said, "We're looking at distribution things, whether it's cut-and-sew or other avenues to supply our customers. We're beyond just making roll goods."
Main Street's parent earlier purchased a cut-and-sew operation in Mexico.
