Furniture Show
Raises Its Profile

American furniture manufacturers are warily watching a new Las Vegas furniture show that some worry could eventually shift the domestic furniture sales focus from its North Carolina hub and give importers a greater leg up over U.S. companies.

The Las Vegas Furniture Market, which begins Monday and runs through the week, is the latest venue for furniture manufacturers and importers to display their new wares to retailers. The show's creator, World Market Center, initially positioned it as a regional event targeting West Coast retailers. But the amenities that Las Vegas offers has drawn far more exhibitors than anticipated, leading some industry executives to speculate that it eventually could undermine the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C., the largest and longest-running U.S. home- furnishings show.

Many domestic manufacturers based in North Carolina have resisted booking space at next week's show. Several cited the cost as a prohibitive factor; furniture companies are trimming expenses to better compete with importers of Asian-made furniture. Edward Tashjian, vice president for marketing for North Carolina-based Century Furniture, says attending the new show would be complicated and expensive. He estimates it would cost as much as $2 million, including travel costs, to replicate the 75,000-square-foot showroom his company has at High Point. Moreover, his company is just 90 minutes from High Point, allowing it to make last-minute product changes.

Art Dreams Inc.'s $190 poly-resin 'High-heel' end table.

Imports have been an increasing force in the U.S. furniture market. Last year, furniture from China and other countries accounted for 43% of all U.S. sales, up from 23% in 1995, according to a recent study by Richmond, Va., investment-banking firm Mann Armistead & Epperson Ltd. Last year, retail sales of furniture in the U.S. jumped 7.9% to reach $75 billion.

The Las Vegas show has attracted more registrants than many anticipated, with 40,000 attendees and 1,200 exhibitors signed up. The city has an estimated 130,000 hotel rooms. By comparison, the High Point show, which began in 1909, draws about 75,000 people and 2,600 exhibitors to each semiannual show. Many attribute this interest to Las Vegas' location and amenities. The High Point area has only about 14,000 rooms, and many hotels hike up rates during the furniture market. A basic motel room can cost close to $200 a night.

"I'm paying $100 a night to stay at the Paris" hotel in Las Vegas, says Jake Jabs, CEO of Denver retailer American Furniture Warehouse. In the past, he has paid $300 a night in High Point for a room that he calls "a dump."

For exhibitors, however, show costs promise to be much greater than High Point. Exhibition space in High Point rents for about $12 a square foot while the going rate in Las Vegas runs between $28 and $30 a square foot. Furniture companies say labor costs are higher in Las Vegas, too. John Wampler, president of furniture importer Forbidden City, a division of Lifestyle Enterprise Inc., estimates that it costs his company about $10,000 to unload each of its seven furniture trucks; in High Point, he says he pays about $300 per truck.

The new show doesn't yet approach the scale of High Point. It has just 2.5 million square feet of display space, compared with the 11.5 million square feet in North Carolina. But the Las Vegas show's originators, Shawn Samson and Jack Kashani, have begun construction on a second, 1.6 million-square-foot building and say they aim to have 12 million square feet by 2015. The two are Los Angeles developers with interests in shopping malls.

If attendance continues to grow, manufacturers will be forced to open their checkbooks. "Manufacturers will go wherever their retailers want them to go," says Mann Armistead & Epperson's Jerry Epperson Jr., a furniture-industry analyst.

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