Telescope Casual’s Dune chaise has been a strong seller at recent High Point markets. (Image courtesy of the company)
Domestic producer leverages inventory and builds on long-standing relationships to meet demand.
HIGH POINT — Telescope Casual‘s prominent spot on the first floor of Showplace is a huge a walk-in draw for curious High Point buyers even in normal times, but that appears to have been supercharged this spring.
With tariffs rewriting the value proposition for domestic producers, Telescope aims to introduce its performance-focused product line to new customers while shoring up the contract relationships that have always been a strong point for the company.
“The main thing I am hearing is designers and buyers saying they’re tired of hearing or talking about tariffs,” President Henry J.W. Vanderminden IV told Furniture Today. “We’re in a very fortunate position being American-made. We’re sourcing our raw materials from within 500 miles of the factory, or less, if we can.”
Vanderminden stressed that, while the company is not completely insulated from the knock-on impacts of tariffs, they believe they can stay nimble and meet the challenges that arise.
“If this drags on, it’s going to affect some of our raw materials, but we anticipate changes to come in small percentages. But right now, we’re business as usual, and business is very good,” he said.
Another factor working in Telescope’s favor, according to Vanderminden, is that its established buyer relationships have been strengthened as more people seek out domestic products.
“Our current customer base is looking to rely on us even more, and we’ve built up our inventory to have a buffer in case of surging demand. We’ve been working all winter to do that,” he explained.
In a business environment rocked by uncertainty, Telescope was willing to take a risk in the face of potential tariffs, and Vanderminden believes that it has paid off.
“We use our facility, our employees, our vendors to build inventory at four different levels,” he revealed. “We brought in more raw materials, we converted more of them to parts, and we also built quite a bit of finished product, which is the highest risk of manufacturing because we have so much variety. So we had a very good inventory built up. Our goal was to make it peak on April 1, which we did. And the timing was no coincidence.”
Vanderminden says that Telescope has also taken major steps to increase efficiency, while also hiring more workers to help meet anticipated demand.
“(The team has) also worked towards making more efficient operations more efficient, and just recently we had a bit of a surge that has enabled us to hire more people when maybe some other companies with tariff exposure are laying off,” he said.
Telescope Casual‘s High Point showroom is located on the first floor of Showplace.
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