We're in for an interesting market
Carole Sloan, Senior Contributing Editor -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2008
Well we're into the ides of March — in furnitureland, also known as prep time for next month's High Point Market. And yon upholstered furniture suppliers have a somewhat lean and hungry look.
Many furniture companies seem to be tempering their exuberance and will be introducing fewer fabric SKUs, according to a number of their fabric suppliers. For many sofa and chair sources, this means having their fabric mavens take a sharper look at which covers will be most meaningful to their April intros.
There was a hint of this new direction at Showtime in December, where upholstery company fabric teams included a member of management looking at the opportunities for SKU count with various textiles. (This didn't necessarily mean a constricting of the sample ordering, because of the "rep is a friend and it'll make him or her look good" syndrome.)
Meanwhile, there seems to be a broad acceptance of post-industrial and post-consumer polyester fabric products — otherwise known as recycled soda bottles, etc. The quality of the fabrics appears to be as good, or even better, than many other fabric constructions and the premium of 50 cents to 75 cents on average per yard apparently isn't setting the buyers back too much.
It's when folks get into the world of organic cotton that the ranks of devotees narrow dramatically. The available crop of organic cotton does not appear to be increasing as fast as the demand, and the premium pricing is a deterrent to some.
Add to these elements the fact that prices are indeed going up in China, not just for fabrics but everything else. This will have to be factored into both existing products as well as new products.
For certain, it will not be a dull market week.
