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High Point Market highlights

Momentum carries across casual categories

By Cinde W. Ingram and Lindsey Hughes -- Casual Living, 10/26/2009 9:50:00 AM

Expansion of indoor looks for porch, patio and full outdoor use continued in a range of home furnishings at last week’s High Point Market.

Outdoor furniture makers who had experienced a positive Casual Market in Chicago last month said they continued to find a warm reception from mostly indoor furniture retailers in High Point.

Gloster’s booth included the debut of its Cloud collection, a fully upholstered line designed to withstand outdoor use. “Reception to our product as a whole has been good,” said Braddan Johnson, Gloster, marketing manager.

“We have had an incredibly successful market; our average orders are up 20%,” said Alex Boyer of Two Palms Casual, a division of Furniture Classics.

Boyer said Two Palms Casual had spent time following the High Point Market in April crafting strategies to capitalize on its strengths in hand-carved solid wood and hand-woven caning. As a result, it reinterpreted some of its best-selling indoor designs using teak and Viro caning for better weather resistance. “We worked hard to add new life blood to our casual division,” Boyer said. With this successful showing in High Point, Two Palms plans to return to the Casual Market in Chicago next September.

At Acacia Home & Garden, retailers were writing orders for the expanded W.I.N.O.S. Collection, which adds bright colors choices at a gloomy economic time. Acacia’s other casual furnishings also were drawing attention.

Capel Rugs displayed a large number of outdoor rugs near the front of its showroom. When asked how the outdoor rug category is faring, Bud Young said, “It’s phenomenal. I’m amazed at the number of press requests we’re getting for outdoor rugs from around the world. And the interest is growing from a lot of different directions – Europe, Canada and South America.”

The Rug Market also displayed plenty of indoor/outdoor rug options near the entrance to its showroom. Vice President Aaron Shabtai said the category continues to gain interest, and more designs are in the works.

Surya Rugs’ display included not only a range of outdoor rugs, but a new line of outdoor pillows. Both product lines were proving popular, according to Eric Nyman, Surya sales analyst.

Elaine Smith of Elaine Smith Pillows also reported her pillows were attracting plenty of interest. “Many buyers love that our outdoor pillows can transition indoors as well,” she said.

“We are having a great show,” said Martyn Fernambucq, director of merchandising and marketing of Napa Home & Garden. “We showed for the first time at the International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market in Chicago in September. We were overly pleased with the amount of orders we wrote at the show, and our success is continuing in High Point.”

Fernambucq expressed excitement about the 150 introductions debuting in High Point. “Buyers are going crazy over our Napa FireLites,” Fernambucq said. “We have 30 different styles now, and soon we will have close to 100, which we will debut in January in Atlanta.”

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