LAS VEGAS — Most furniture showrooms were open here on Saturday, and many manufacturers are highlighting a significant number of new items on the floor.
After several post-pandemic years of sluggish order writing due to a backlog of inventory for many retailers, manufacturers are now focusing on supporting retailers ready to refresh their floors. New styles, sizes and material mixes are part of the offering this market, along with value propositions designed to persuade consumers to take the purchase plunge.
At Kuka Home, product highlights include new upholstery SKUs with distinctive cane features incorporated into the frames, “everywhere chairs” and the B Social group designed for consumers looking for a smaller scale and trending styles.
“This is not the Kuka of five years ago,” said Matt Harrison, president. “One of our goals is to continue to elevate our brand and to address different pockets of consumer generations throughout the line, and our management team is developing product for aspirational retailers, national big-box retailers, traditional retailers and e-comm.
“Within each segment, the underlying strategy is to be trendy and on target, and our product mix reflects that idea here in the showroom.”
One of Manwah’s introductions for Las Vegas Market includes a motion recliner with a new mechanism that allows the chair to rock while reclined. Comparing the sensation with a “floating on water” motion, company President Gabriel Natale said the chair is one of several Manwah products that will support company goals in 2024.
“2021 was the best year in the company history, but with the COVID shutdown and logistics issues, we could only fulfill 70% of it, which cost us a lot of placements,” Natale said. “It took us a year to get placements back. Now we are at the same 2021 place, or in some cases better, with our product retailing extremely well. Although we see 2024 as a challenging year, we are positive we are positioned very well.”
At Furniture of America, cohesive collections aligning living room, bedroom and dining areas are front and center this market. Jodi Brookshire, corporate vice president sales and marketing, said that new items include modulars designed with style, flexibility and comfort in mind.
“We’ve expanded our selection for existing products as well as new options,” Brookshire said. “Across the board, we are focused on giving our dealers new opportunities with high-value propositions.”
In the Cozzia showroom, technology and trend are merged with new colors and materials interspersed throughout the good/better/best categories. Crystal Bruns, director of national accounts, said that the company is highlighting product, promotions and fresh marketing assets designed to introduce the brand to new customers.
“We’re starting a promotion in July where dealers can buy two of our Svago chairs and get our new table that fits between them for free,” Bruns said. “Another Svago introduction for our Lite 2 model is the addition of gray to the color options. We’ve also nixed the remote on this model and added our smart dial. It’s $1,499 at retail, so it’s a great starter option.”
Every item in the Violino showroom is new for Las Vegas Market, according to Taylor Helson, assistant merchandising and marketing coordinator.
“This is all new product from our factory,” Helson explained. “Since COVID, we’ve been focused on trying to meet our accounts where they are, so now we’re showcasing promotions to help them out as much as possible and give them something to get their customers excited about.
“We want to be very intentional about what we’re showing,” Helson continued, “and we’ve added more function and style to many of our tried-and-true products.”