On Tuesday, May 29 the Sundance Channel puts the spotlight on the furniture industry and its sustainable efforts. Furniture manufacturer Herman Miller and design firms Scrapile and MIO Design will be featured in the series “Big Ideas for a Small Planet,” in an episode titled “Furnish.

The program focuses on the global impact of furniture and singles out the firms for making strides to improve their environmental footprint. Herman Miller will discuss its comprehensive design process, from conception to manufacturing, using the Mirra chair as an example. The manufacturer was also featured in the series’ “Waste=Food,” episode. Bart Bettencourt and Carlos Salgado, the design duo behind Scrapile, will create recycled furniture from scrap wood. Philadelphia-based MIO Design will showcase sustainable home-product designs. Read more »

The last remnants of furniture from the former Helikon Furniture Co. didn’t travel far before finding themselves in a new furniture showroom soon to be available for purchase by the general public.

Just as the marquee furniture maker was shutting down in the historic Ponemah Mill No. 1 building in Taftville, the owners of Ponemah Mill No. 2 were preparing to open a new retail furniture showroom and factory outlet store.

“The timing was perfect,” said Robin Owens, sales manager for the Amazing Furniture & Mattress Factory Outlet that celebrated a grand opening Thursday at 599 Norwich Ave. in Taftville. Read more »

An attempt to revive the once-major Triad retailer Rose Furniture from the brink of collapse has failed, with the store announcing Thursday that it has shut down for good and will enter receivership.

The announcement comes after CEO Buck Kester had expressed optimism recently that, after a brush with bankruptcy last fall, the store could be saved under a new, lower-cost business model that focused on quick deliveries and fewer customized sales.

That business plan required an agreement on a debt repayment plan from all of the company’s creditors, though, and according to Kester one of the company’s largest creditors rejected the proposal. Read more »

The furniture industry is very important in Adams County and, more specifically, in Berne. The city is known as the furniture capital of Indiana.

But just who came up with that title?

According to Connie Potter, executive director of the Berne Chamber of Commerce, an employee of one of the four original furniture factories noticed that for a town the size of Berne, there was a lot of furniture being made and decided to call the city the furniture capital of Indiana.

“It’s pretty much a self-proclaimed thing, but nobody’s ever disputed it,” Potter said. “I guess you could just say it fits.”

At one time, Berne was home to four furniture factories and three furniture stores. The four factories were Dunbar Furniture Co., Berne Furniture, Smith Brothers of Berne and Swiss City Furniture. Read more »

Research and Markets has announced the addition of The Furniture Industry in Brazil to their offering.

This report offers a comprehensive picture of the furniture sector in Brazil, providing trends in furniture production and consumption, furniture imports and exports. Factors determining the demand for furniture are examined, as well as furniture distribution and furniture supply structure.

Brazilian furniture production is broken down by product: household furniture, office furniture, contract furniture.

Short profiles are provided for the main Brazilian furniture manufacturers and distributors, with turnover, production plants and employees, exports and product mix. Read more »

Responding to industry requests, the non-profit National Furniture Bank Association (NFBA) announced that it is offering an additional sponsorship level, Help1Up Friend, to accommodate individuals and corporations of all sizes wishing to get involved.

Help1Up is the home furnishings industry’s free, socially responsible, and environmentally friendly used furniture removal service for the general public. This service is made possible through a network of dozens of furniture banks across the country. Furniture banks collect used home furnishings from the public, give the donor a tax receipt, then provide the furnishings directly to families in need. Typical recipients of the used furniture are women and children escaping domestic violence, families living below the poverty line, and victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

The Help1Up Friend sponsorship is $100.

“We’ve had many requests from individuals asking how they can support us,” said NFBA executive director Don Lawrence. “People who become a Help1Up Friend are not only ensuring that we can keep opening more furniture banks, but they also demonstrate their commitment publicly and setting an example for others to follow.” Read more »

Concept Industries, of Grand Rapids, MI, announces the production of the first natural fiber mat made for office furniture panels, provided for commercial use by HON Company, marketed under the name Nature Core.

HON is introducing Nature Core as an option on its Initiate line of office systems. Nature Core is the first product to come to market that is a renewable replacement for fiberglass and other synthetic materials that have long been the only options for office furniture.

Nature Core is a composite of natural fiber and a small amount of synthetic stabilizer. It is not only a renewable agricultural fiber, but it is also recyclable. Nature Core is the result of two years of research and development, and is the first of many new environmentally friendly products that Concept Industries is bringing to market. Read more »

Everything’s coming up roses at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, just concluded at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. OK, that’s an exaggeration. It wasn’t all floral, and it wasn’t all roses, but the recent decorative and back-to-nature trend in modern design is definitely, er, flowering.

From the three-dimensional flowers on Tord Boontje’s Little Field of Flowers rug collection for Nanimarquina (he’s the Dutch designer who started the ball rolling a year or two ago with his whimsically botanical chandelier) to the Le Fleur sofa by Pasquale Natuzzi, from the magnetic flowers of British textile designer Michelle Butler of Isolyn to the botanical inspiration of the new textiles from Rockville Centre-based textile company Carnegie Fabrics, flowers and trees are inspiring modern designers as they have designers throughout the ages. Read more »

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “Employment and Wages in the American Furniture Industry 2007” to their offering.

The study analyzes employment and wages in the American furniture industry. The report is finely segregated by geographical regions, industry segments, and employment categories. A special chapter is reserved to describe the role and impact of unions in the American furniture industry. Read more »

A Board of Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) here on Wednesday approved a strategy developed for repositioning the furniture industry of Pakistan in collaboration with USAID.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Industries and Production, the board meeting was held here in the Committee Room of the Ministry of Industries, Production & Special Initiatives (MOIP&SI) Wednesday.

The meeting was chaired by Jahangir Khan Tareen, Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, was also attended by Shahab Khawaja, Secretary MOIP&SI, Arshad Nasar, Chairman, OGDCL, Mian Muhammad Address, CEO, Sitara Chemicals, Salman Burney, MD. Glaxo Smith Kline and Abdul Bari Khan, CEO, PIDC. Read more »