Americans are enjoying living “to the outdoors” more than ever. Yet, outdoor furniture can be expensive and age very quickly.

Jennifer Litwin, a Sotheby’s-trained, furniture/furniture shopping expert and author has developed quick tips for restoring outdoor furniture, including wood, iron or aluminum, and sling/strap types.

Litwin, who spent a year “undercover” visiting more than 500 furniture stores for her first book, “Furniture Hot Spots: The Best Furniture Stores and Websites Coast to Coast,” ($14.95) believes that, in some cases, a good cleaning and repair may be a better, less expensive solution than purchasing new outdoor furniture. Read more »

Outdoor furniture once meant woven plastic folding chairs with hollow aluminum frames. Or wooden picnic tables. Or white stackable resin chairs.

These days, the trend is to extend a home’s living space outside with furniture fit for Cleopatra - or Hollywood’s elite. It’s the resort-spa-luxury look on the deck, patio or pool.

Richard Frinier talks about it in a column posted on the High Point International Home Furnishings Market Web site, www.highpoint market.org. He writes of what he calls “Resort-at-Home” trends, “bringing the essence of world travel to our own backyards.”
Whether it’s a double chaise with canopy from Restoration Hardware’s Antibes collection or a Plantation Siesta and Canopy sofa from Gloster, the new furniture is designed to make you forget about folding furniture and plastic Adirondack chairs stacked high at supermarkets. Read more »

The longtime owner of Napanee’s Gibbard Furniture - Canada’s oldest furniture factory - has put the 172-year-old business up for sale, but is determined to keep it in Canadian hands.

Bruce McPherson, whose family has owned the high-end furniture factory for 67 years, has put the business on the block, saying a new owner with more energy is needed to take over the firm, which employs about 100 people.

McPherson, who is 85, says neither he nor his three sons, who are in their 50s, have the drive to push the firm out of the economic slump that has hit Gibbard and other Canadian furniture makers as a result of the strong Canadian dollar and competition from overseas, China in particular. Read more »

Investment funds are now eyeing wooden furniture companies’ shares since the wooden furniture processing industry proves to be the one which has seen the highest growth rate in the last few years.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Vietnam-made wooden furniture products are present in 120 countries throughout the world. 28% of exports go to Europe, 24% to Japan, and 20% to the US.

Tran Quoc Manh, Deputy Chairman of the HCM City Fine Arts and Wooden Furniture Processors’ Association, and Director of Sadaco, said that the industry had been witnessing the growth rate of 40-50% per annum in the last few years. Vietnamese companies can export products directly and not go through third parties. Read more »

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c59147) has announced the addition of “Furniture Distribution in Switzerland” to their offering.

This report offers a comparative analysis of home furniture distribution in Switzerland, providing trends in home furniture consumption, distribution channels’ market shares, furniture imports and short company profiles.

Home furniture consumption is broken down by distribution channel: small scale independent retailers, buying groups, independent furniture chains, non specialised distribution, others. The analysis of furniture distribution by product/segment covers: upholstered furniture, kitchen furniture, upper end furniture. Read more »

Ashley Manor Furniture, an upper-end furniture company based in High Point, is closing July 1 because of tough competition with cheap imported goods, the president of the company said today.

The company has 26 employees at its showroom and factory, both in High Point.

Announcing the decision for closing to the employees was the worst thing he had ever done, President Richard Miller said today.

Miller’s father had worked for the company, and Miller has been president for 35 years.

He knew a couple of employees who had been there with him since the beginning, Miller said. Read more »

The cost of manufacturing sheet metal components for office furniture has been significantly reduced at the Blackburn factory of Plan-It Welding, following the installation in November 2006 of a Finn-Power E5 turret punch press from Press & Shear Machinery. The savings result from reduced power consumption and the greater capabilities of the new machine compared with the one it replaced - a 1988 model from the same manufacturer.

Commented senior supervisor, Andrew Mitchell, “We were on our power limit when we operated the old Finn-Power TP300 hydraulic punch press, whereas with the all-electric E5 we have been able to install an additional drilling and cutting cell in our aluminium section and still draw less kVA overall.”

The economy is a consequence of Finn-Power’s regenerative braking system, which uses capacitors to store energy from deceleration of the machine axes, redirecting it to power other machine functions rather than wasting it. Purchase and disposal of hydraulic oil and filters are also avoided. Read more »

An executive office desk for everyone:

Once upon a time the only person who could have a custom desk was the head of the company.

It was a desk of power, made specifically for that person, a sign of their making it to a higher level and status.

Things have changed over the years. Today, a custom office desk could be the right choice for almost anyone.

While they do cost a bit more than a regular off the assembly line office desk, if you shop carefully and know what will ideal fit your work space, the investment may not be much more to get a piece of office furniture that perfectly fits your needs.

Instead of being stuck picking which desk already on the market will come close to fitting your needs for your office space, having a custom office desk will allow you to get all the things you need in one desk, without compromise.

This can also save you money on extra pieces of furniture you may have otherwise had to purchase to get the job done. Read more »

For many furniture executives, Bob Barker’s retirement from “The Price Is Right” on June 15 signals the end of one of the best promotional platforms our industry may ever have.

Think I’m kidding? Consider that in the final weeks of Barker’s 35-year reign, the list of sponsors supplying prizes included Ashley, Broyhill, Chromcraft, Flexsteel and Kingsdown. Again, all of those companies have been featured on the game show as recently as this week.

Now, those companies didn’t become household names solely due to “The Price Is Right,” but executives at each of those brands would be hard-pressed to name an equally low-cost way of making their products familiar to millions and millions of people. Surely there’s no better form of product placement than having a contestant shaking and sobbing with joy at the site of “A Brand New Living Room!” while a beautiful model’s slender hand points to the logo of the furniture company that supplied it? Read more »

Hooker Furniture Corporation today reported net sales of $77.3 million and net income of $4.3 million, or $0.33 per share, for the quarter ended April 29, 2007.

Due to a change in Hooker Furniture’s fiscal year, the Company’s 2008 fiscal year began January 29, 2007 and will end February 3, 2008. The Company will compare its operating results for the thirteen-week first quarter of fiscal year 2008 with the 2006 three-month second quarter that ended May 31, 2006 (the “2006 quarter”).

First quarter 2008 net sales of $77.3 million decreased $13.4 million, or 14.8%, compared to the 2006 quarter net sales of $90.7 million. Based on actual shipping days in each period, average daily net sales declined 13.4% to $1.2 million per day during the 64 operating days in the 2008 first quarter compared to $1.4 million per day during the 65 operating days in the 2006 quarter.

2008 first quarter net income of $4.3 million decreased $1.5 million, or 26.5%, compared to the 2006 quarter net income of $5.8 million. Earnings per share of $0.33 decreased $0.16, or 32.7%, when compared to the 2006 quarter earnings per share of $0.49. Contributing to the decrease in earnings per share was a net increase of 1.2 million shares primarily resulting from the termination of the Company’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan in January 2007, partially offset by stock repurchased since February 2007. Read more »