Leather gets some looks at premarket
By Joan Gunin -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2008
High Point — Premarket, while sparsely attended, achieved its purpose for leather upholstery resources that gave retailers an early look at High Point introductions and garnered their reactions.
"Mission accomplished," said Michael Campbell, president of Leather Italia U.S.A. "We had appointments and wrote business on them. We are happy for the demand for us to be here."
Leather Italia showed three new stationary frames from its expanded direct container program targeting retails of $799 each.
"Premarket is all about retailers and midsize dealers coming here to see introductions," said Roy Calcagne, president of Craftmaster. "We also work on special projects with them and show them those frames. About 70% of our Craftmaster product was here so we had a good showing of that."
Universal recently merged its imported upholstery line under the Craftmaster umbrella.
"Everyone was receptive and in a good mood," Calcagne added. "We had nice response, so we are pleased."
Palliser also had new product here. A series of sectionals, launched in fabric covers last market, has now expanded into leather offerings, while the citi sofa collection gained two home theater pieces.
Palliser Direct, a Winnipeg, Manitoba-based warehouse program, has expanded to five groups (two motion, three stationary) with immediate delivery to dealers.
In addition, the company introduced four other motion groups at retails of $899 to $999. "They offer good comfort, good leathers and a good story," said John Phillips, executive vice president of sales, upholstery.
Natuzzi offered some items specific to individual customers here, as well as some frames introduced at the Cologne show in January.
"We will have a strong mix of product for market," said Cary Benson, president of Natuzzi Americas. He has spent time flying cross-country meeting a number of Natuzzi retailers since taking over from Fred Starr seven weeks ago, but still met some buyers for the first time here.
"With about 28 appointments over two days, we saw good traffic overall," said Benson.
At Aspenhome, "Better leathers and better styling and new collections continue to be our strong suit," said Jena Hall, vice president of marketing. "Motion and home theater are also doing well because they add value."
Chrome accents were prominent on the updated assortment of contemporary offerings from Chateau d'Ax. Red leather also was prominent.
"The modular business continues to grow," said Harry Cierler, director of North American operations for Chateau d'Ax, pointing to photographs in retail circulars showing an array of modular frames from the company.
Modular groups also were evident at Robinson & Robinson, where Group President Peter Robinson said, "We continue to be cautiously optimistic about business as we have been for the last five years." But he added that the leather business continues to be challenging.
