HUDSON's BAY:Visions of Furniture Fashion
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Michael Knell’s HomeGoodsOnline.ca HGOWinter 2013-14 merchandiserVolume Two, Issue 5 KEEPING UP WITH HUDSON’S 2014 LAA HONOUREE BAY: Visions BOB KAY of furniture fashion BrandSource sets a new store design TCHFM direction Preview: Our forecast: Made to modest growth Measure ahead CONTENTS u FROM THE EDITOR as the network of independently 6PULLING TOGETHER owned stores looks for new This community isn’t doing as ways to grow. The goal to create well as it should. We need to pull an environment where she is together and getting to Toronto comfortable while telling her she’s 18 for market in January is a pretty the store’s main focus. good place to start. After all, industries are like communities ADVERTISERS’ and the community that is the 30INDEX furniture, mattress and major appliance industry is getting SPOTLIGHT smaller. For the independent 32KEEPING UP retailer, TCHFM has a lot to offer. WITH BOB KAY It’s rare to meet an entrepreneur MARKET PREVIEW who has kept one business afloat 8MADE TO MEASURE for half a century, let alone The Canadian Home Furnishings several. For Bob Kay, chairman Market is this country’s only and founder of Springwall national furniture and mattress Sleep Products, growing several industry event. This year, the successful businesses at once, while focus will continue to be on staying focused on mattresses, bringing retailers the latest styles, was a welcome challenge. Our trends and colours in the product profile of the 2014 recipient of they need to merchandise. It will the Lifetime Achievement Award also be the industry’s best face-to- was written by regular contributor 26 face networking opportunity. Our Ashley Newport. report is written by HGO editor Michael Knell. BY THE NUMBERS PROFILE MODEST36 GROWTH AHEAD 18 VISIONS OF Furniture store sales should grow FURNITURE FASHION modestly in 2013. So should those Hudson’s Bay is making an all-out of home furnishings stores. The effort to return department stores consumer’s net worth is improving to their glory days as furniture and the housing market continues merchandisers. Taking their cue to be relatively strong. These from their core business, apparel, should result in a very measured the emphasis will be on fashion level of growth for big ticket and better quality goods. For this retailers in the months ahead. reason, among others, it has been named Canada’s 2014 Retailer ON OUR COVER Made in Canada is a 8 of the Year. major merchandising theme for 2014 Retailer of the Year Hudson’s Bay and RETAIL so is contemporary styling including the 26BRANDSOURCE Reverie classic Sahara leather sofa and SETS NEW DESIGN chair in sterling ivory fabric from the DIRECTION Winnipeg-based EQ3. Also seen is its Mega Group’s primary national new custom table collection, featuring a go-to-market strategy added four wood top coffee table and a market top new stores to its network in the end table along with the Martian floor second half 2013. Each reflects lamp. (Inset): 2014 Lifetime Achievement a new, a more contemporary, Award winner Bob Kay, chairman of 32 attitude towards the consumer Springwall Sleep Products. 4 > HGO merchandiser WoolLATEX OrganicCOTTON The NATURAL solution for the whole family Call us today for an appointment with your local representative and for details on how you can become an authorized NATURA dealer. (800) 567-7933 naturaworld.com HomeGoodsOnline.ca < 5 FROM THE EDITOR u MICHAEL J. KNELL HGO merchandiser WINTER 2013-14 • VOLUME TWO, ISSUE 5 ISSN 2291-4765 www.HomeGoodsOnline.ca Pulling together PUBLISHER & EDITOR Michael J. Knell This community isn’t doing as well as it should. [email protected] We need to pull together and getting to Toronto for market in January is a pretty good place to start. MANAGING EDITOR Anthony E. Bengel [email protected] NDUSTRIES ARE LIKE COMMUNITIES. IN FACT, A SMALL INDUSTRY really is a small town with its own attitudes, mores, standards and ways of CONTRIBUTORS Ashley Newman doing things. Like those idyllic small towns so beloved in novels, every- one knows everyone else and, for good or ill, everyone knows everyone ART DIRECTOR Ielse’s business. As a member of Canada’s furniture, mattress and appliance Samantha Edwards industry for the past 30 years or so, I can attest to the truth of that statement. Sam I Am Creative The trouble is, our community is getting smaller. As you’ll read elsewhere in [email protected] this issue, the years following the Great Recession of 2008 haven’t been kind to us. Those who work in the housing and automotive industries were the only IT DIRECTOR ones to enjoy the benefits of a low interest economy, because consumers were Jayme Cousins so stretched otherwise there was no room left in their wallets for high quality In House Logic [email protected] goods we have to offer. But unlike those small communities, the furniture, mattress and appliance PUBLISHED BY industry hasn’t been all that great at coming together in times of adversity. We Windsor Bay Communications Inc. don’t even work all that well together when it’s to and for our mutual benefit. P.O. Box 3023, 120 Ontario Street Want a few examples? Call me as they’re too numerous to mention here. Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0 But we have to start pulling together and there’s a pretty easy way to begin. T: 613.475.4704 F: 613.475.0829 Get out of your office, wherever it is and regardless of where you work in our industry’s supply chain and get yourself to Toronto in time for the opening of Michael J. Knell, Managing Partner the Canadian Home Furnishings Market on January 11, 2014. Spend a few days PUBLISHERS OF looking at product and talking to other people in the industry. HGO This Week Home Goods Online.ca Look up the leadership of our two industry associations – the Canadian © 2013 Windsor Bay Communications Inc. Home Furnishings Alliance and the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Asso- All rights reserved. ciations – and ask how you can get involved. We also need to a strong associa- Windsor Bay Communications does not accept tion for Canadian furniture retailers and TCHFM just might be a good place any responsibility or liability for any mistakes or to start talking about that as well. misprints herein, regardless of whether such errors We have got to start pulling together. Because we’re living in the new eco- are the result of negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever. Reproduction, in whole or in part, nomic normal, and small industries can only thrive if, from time to time, they of this magazine is strictly forbidden without the work together. prior written permission of the publisher. AFFILIATE MEMBER Michael J. Knell Publisher & Editor [email protected] 6 > HGO merchandiser The Metro East Collection combines clean lines with subtle shaped details to create a design that’s sleek and sophisticated. The new Ebony Brown finish when accented with the gleaming modern hardware brings a stylish elegance to any decor. When pairing the Ebony Brown finish with the new Pearl White finish the group is transformed into a striking modern look with hints of glamour. To increase the design possibilities the group can also be purchased in any of Durham’s wood finishes or Durham’s new Premium Designers Choice paint finishes. HomeGoodsOnline.ca < 7 TORONTO MARKET PREVIEW u Made to Measure N THE CALENDAR, THE NEW YEAR The Canadian Home Furnishings Market officially arrives on January 1 after a is this country’s only national furniture night of revelry, which admittedly and mattress industry event. This year, can take a variety of forms. But for Omembers of this country’s furniture, mattress the focus will continue to be on bringing and major appliance industries, the New Year doesn’t really start until about ten or twelve retailers the latest styles, trends and days later with the opening of the Canadian colours in the product they need to Home Furnishings Market (TCHFM), which has made its home for the last four decades or merchandise. It will also be the industry’s so at the International Centre in Mississauga, best face-to-face networking opportunity. Ontario – about a stone’s throw from Pearson International Airport. BY MICHAEL J. KNELL The 2014 edition of Canada’s only national furniture industry event will open on Satur- day, January 11 and end on Tuesday, January 14 and has been themed Made to Measure. However, things get kicked-off on the Friday 8 > HGO merchandiser Made to Measure evening with a welcoming reception followed From traditional to contemporary, rustic to Left: The Julian by the annual Canadian Home Furnishings modern, every style and taste is accounted for – collection was a top Awards gala. all under one roof,” said Pierre Richard in an seller this year for TCHFM is owned and operated by the open letter to the industry. upholstery house Quebec Furniture Manufacturers Association This will mark Richard’s first TCHFM as Brentwood Classics and (QFMA). This year’s event is expected to attract president and chief executive officer of both the is shown here in a fabric some 2,000 or so independent furniture store event and the QFMA called Catcher Zinc. owners; plus merchandisers and senior execu- “The market offers an exceptional opportun- Right: The Monaco tives from the regional and national chains ity to not only view, but also experience, the bed from Vancouver’s as well as a number of interior designers and very best that the Canadian furniture industry Van Gogh Designs is decorators over it four-day run.