Sales As Soft As Sofas Chill Spirits At Furniture Show Embattled Industry Struggles To Emerge From Slump, Sees Signs Of Recovery

With consumer confidence down and retail sales soft, sponsors of the world’s largest furniture trade show are realistic about prospects and analysts are expecting few introductions of radical designs.

About 70,000 buyers and exhibitors from every state and 85 countries attend the fall International Home Furnishings Market, which began its nine-day run in High Point on Thursday.

The exhibition comes during one of the industry’s worst periods in recent years. Retail sales were soft in the first half of 1995, which translated into fewer shipments from manufacturers.

“This is not a year that will go down as one of our greatest,” said furniture industry analyst Jerry Epperson.

For that reason, he said, retailers should not expect to find many bold introductions for the 2,200 exhibitors. He labeled it a “no-risk market.”

“A lot of product will be bread and butter,” said Epperson, who follows the industry for Mann, Armistead & Epperson in Richmond, Va. “There won’t be a lot of gambling or bold new thrusts in furniture design.”

Epperson projected furniture shipments will remain flat for the rest of this year before rebounding with a growth rate around 7 percent in 1996. The growth rate was more than 10 percent in 1993 and 1994.

A good market is important for host North Carolina. Sixty percent of all U.S. furniture is made within a 200-mile radius of High Point.

“Retailers have had good moments and slow moments,” said Richard Barentine, executive director of the International Home Furnishings Marketing Association, sponsor of the trade show. “We’re watching the economy and trying to do things to get consumers to buy more furniture.”

Barentine said economic factors have changed in the industry’s favor, including lower interest rates, an improvement in home construction and minimal competition from other durable goods, including automobiles, for consumers’ disposable income.

Barentine says that while retailers visiting the exhibits may not place as many orders as in the past, they will be buying to fill needs on their showroom floors.

Changing tastes could dictate some sales.

Michelle Lamb, founder and chairman of Marketing Directions Inc., which publishes a trend report on the furniture market, said the appeal of casual design is waning.

She predicted furniture buyers will start looking at more traditional styles, including Gothic and French country.

Some of the major manufacturers, including Lane, Drexel Heritage and Baker, are showing furniture in the Gothic style, which features crests, crosses and even gargoyles.

Designers say the stripped-down styles of the last decade have left a void in people’s homes. There is a “hunger for decoration” and a “swing back to formality,” Lamb said.