Furniture Daily News

CHADAMAS CHINMANEEVONG The trading company Yip In Tsoi has teamed up with the high-end home furnishings importer Arkitektura in a new joint venture to bring Italy’s B&B furniture to the local market. ‘’Owners of homes and condominiums worth 10 million baht and more don’t want inexpensive furniture. They are looking for furniture that reflects their home. We believe the high-end market has significant potential for growth,’’ said Somchai Akkarawittayapoom, the managing director of BP&M. The new company, formed by Yip In Tsoi and Arkitektura, is targeting wealthy expatriates and Thais who might be familiar with the luxury B&B brand. ‘’While the current customer base is quite small, we will be launching a brand awareness campaign among high-end customers this year,’’ Mr Somchai said. BP&M is also joining with several luxury property developers to promote its new products, including The Park Chidlom, the Infinity, the Athenee Residence, the Royal Residence, Sukhothai Residences and the Cape Yamu resort villas. The company will open a new 10- million-baht, 750-square-metre showroom on Soi Thong Lo later month. The showroom would present B&B furniture and other high-end furniture and accessory brands such as Poggenpohl, Flos, Antares and Durvit. Mr Somchai said he was confident that the company could succeed, even with the uncertain economic prospects for the year. ‘’One facet of the high end of the market is that spending isn’t really affected during economic slowdowns. The rich can always spend,’’ he said. Mr Somchai said part of the marketing campaigns would be through the customer base of Arkitektura. Arkitektura, which posted revenues last year of 150 million baht, expected its income to rise to 250 million this year thanks to the new BP&M joint venture. BP&M holds a three-year sole distributorship licence for B&B products. ‘’We choose B&B products because we like the designer, Antonio Citterio. Besides, this brand is unique and popular elsewhere,’’ said Mr Somchai. He said the high-end furniture market was unique, with each brand commanding its own niche thanks to its style. In contrast, the lower and middle-market segments have seen competition jump due to the influx of Chinese products.

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By Richard Craver JOURNAL REPORTERDanville, Va., has beaten out North Carolina for the second time in 16 months in the recruitment of a major furniture plant by a European manufacturer.Com.40 Ltd., a maker of mattresses and upholstery based in Nowe Skalmierzyce, Poland, said yesterday that it will open a $36.3 million plant in Danville. The plant will be about an 80-minute commute from Forsyth County. The manufacturer said it would create 813 jobs in an area that had a 6.2 percent unemployment rate in December. Com.40 has about 1,750 employees in Poland.In October 2006, Danville beat out Lexington in Davidson County to land the first U.S. manufacturing plant of Swedwood, a subsidiary of the Swedish corporation Ikea, and about 740 jobs.Com.40 also has a connection to Ikea. Its Danville plant will produce mattresses and upholstery to Ikea’s stores in North America.The Virginia governor’s office said that Danville also beat out sites in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas for the project.Com.40 will receive $1.5 million from the governor’s Opportunity Fund. The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission approved $900,000 in tobacco region opportunity funds. The company also is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone program.

The Stockholm Furniture Fair is not just about minimalist design and stylish curves, as Charlotte West found out at the weekend. Lemon chairs, metallic pink cow-shaped sofas and irreverent toilet paper holders lurked among the masses of sleek black couches. Just when I thought I couldn’t stand seeing another sleek black couch crouched low to the ground, I stumbled into the Greenhouse. But there were no plants to be found. Instead of nurturing young seedlings, this Greenhouse provides a place for art students and independent designers to grow. Since 2003, the Greenhouse has been an annual forum for design schools and other young designers to exhibit their work at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in February. The furniture fair itself is primarily a trade event, aimed at buyers and other industry insiders. However, in the last several years, there has been an increased focus on discovering new talent as well as creating momentum for Stockholm Design Week with events and exhibitions in town. The Greenhouse, along with the Designboom mart, was by far the most interesting part of the fair. Both serve as a platform for yet-to-be established designers, as well as create an environment where good and wacky ideas are not squelched by commercial considerations. Designboom is a Milan-based organization that publishes a webzine, as well as arranging design markets and competitions. This year, 35 international designers came to Stockholm to show and sell their wares. These ranged from everything from a Barbie doll duster (with feathers for a skirt) by American designer Tom Butch to the aptly named

Beryn HammilQ:We are in a quandary as to how to decorate our living room with furniture. It is not a high-use area, but it is a visual introduction to our home. Ceilings in the entry and living room are 12 feet high. What do you recommend? John Manzo Granite Bay (Placer County) A: Let’s make this beautiful space both inviting and functional. Then it won’t be just sitting there, pretty to look at, but unused. What draws people into a room? It’s a place that’s comfortable to sit and have a conversation, or it’s a quiet place to listen to music, read or contemplate the day in solitude. It should be somewhere you want to be. Let’s start with an area rug. Choose one that’s 11 by 14 feet so it fills most of the room. It will draw the eye, and ultimately you, into the room by giving you a sense of destination. It also adds the first area of color to the room. (I’ll review colors later.) Next, add a 6-foot-long sofa. Keep it relatively small to maintain a sense of intimacy. Behind the sofa, place a console table to provide a place for a pair of table lamps tall enough to give you good light for reading. Also set a small piece of sculpture or vase of flowers there. Opposite the sofa put a pair of club chairs. They shouldn’t be too large, but comfortable enough to sit in for conversations. Between the sofa and club chairs put a rectangular coffee table with a top measuring 4 feet by 2 feet, 6 inches. It’s large enough to put refreshments on, but not so large as to create a gulf between the two seating areas. I’ve left your piano where you indicated it is. It’s well situated, so someone can be playing it and people sitting in the room can enjoy the concert. To create visual balance as well as to give people another reason for being there, I’ve added a game table opposite the piano. With four chairs placed around it, you now have an area where people can gather for entertainment. These chairs can be drawn to the sofa area when you need more seating. Now let’s make this living room even more inviting with color and texture. Since you didn’t indicate your preference for modern or traditional furniture, nor the style of the house, I’ll give you design ideas that can go in any direction. Use a tone of the strongest color in the rug for the largest piece of furniture, the sofa. If the rug has strong reds, the sofa could be a tone of that red. If the rug has large areas of beige, the sofa could be paler - camel, beige or taupe. Green tones can take moss green to celadon for the furniture. Take another color in the rug as your guide for the club chairs. Again, use solid colors to keep it peaceful, though textures in the fabric will add interest when you’re close to it. The walls should be painted a warm, neutral color; perhaps something between toasty beige and cafe au lait if the rug is in the red tones, or if the rug is in the pale to deep green tones, choose a neutral color in those tones. The wood in the furniture don’t have to match. The game table could be something with an interesting base, perhaps a concrete pillar or wooden barrel with a round glass top. The fabric on these chairs can complement the other fabrics. The plants at the base of your existing pillar room divider should be tall enough to create a visual barrier, but not as tall as a hedge. Add a tall plant on the far end of the room that serves as a natural invitation as well as a visual transition to the nature outside the large windows. A large mirror on the wall behind the club chairs and art on the wall behind the sofa as well as other open areas in the room will give the finishing touches to this room. Beryn Hammil is a Corte Madera interior designer.

Furniture company www.runamucktradingco.com fashions dreams out of wood for people who want beautiful, rustic furniture the way it used to be. Stockton, NJ (PRWEB) January 31, 2008 — In today’s high-tech world everything has become sleeker, sharper, and more efficient. Furniture is no exception–in fact, everything is so post-modern it’s difficult to remember what modern even looked like. Not everyone has been won over by the cold steel and “plastic wood” phase that has descended upon the twenty-first century, and Lynn Fleck knows this. To reach out to the people who are looking for durable furniture built the same way it was in the fourteenth through nineteenth centuries, Lynn and her daughter Rickie Mueller created Run-A-Muck Trading Co. Through their company, customers can find expertly crafted rustic furniture and Southwestern furniture that’s affordable. The furniture sold by Run-A-Muck Trading Co. is made from woods that are renowned for their longevity and appearance, such as cedar and pine. The goal of the company is to offer consumers from all walks of life the ability to afford furniture that reflects the hard work they’ve put in throughout their days–even if it’s only on a sole income. The pieces offered by their company showcase unique human ingenuity you’d be hard-pressed to find at your local furniture chain store, and that’s why they’ve already garnered a great deal of success.Because the furniture the company sells is only what Lynn would place in her own home, customers shopping through Run-A-Muck are going to experience a unique blend of customer satisfaction and furniture expertise. “The goal is to give people furniture they don’t have to hide from their friends,” says Lynn. “I understand how important it is to feel like you’ve got a comfortable place to come home to–somewhere you can entertain.”The aesthetics of www.runamucktradingco.com denote a desire to return to a beautiful cabin in the forest and continue a life of minimalism and charm that has been lost on today’s generations. But it is also easy to see that even though the furniture is based on traditional designs, it is still well suited for homes and people living in the twenty-first century.For furniture enthusiasts looking to breathe in the fresh scent of pine and cedar as they rest comfortably on their laurels, Run-A-Muck Trading Co. can help arrange their ideal living space one piece at a time.Contact: Lynn Fleck (908) 528-3578 www.runamucktradingco.com

DUBLIN, Ireland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c82713) has announced the addition of

A leading furniture Mecca in Asia, Cebu is also one of the safest and most secure places to do business.World ConnectionsA small island with numerous sea and air linkages, Cebu has long been the ideal gateway for doing business in the Philippines. With clear blue skies, world-class resorts and holiday spots, booming economic and export zones and an electrifying milieu, you might think this place has it all, but then there’s more.Few people realize that for all its tropical charm and exhilarating atmosphere, Cebu has a silent backbone of order and security that is prized by business travelers everywhere in the world. It’s the best-kept secret for those who want to get things done in the Philippines and still keep their heads as they avoid traffic jams, bomb threats, security alerts, and the general chaos that comes with traveling to an overpopulated city. Arrive at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIAA) and you’ll notice the relative calm that immediately engulfs you upon stepping out of the plane. The pace immediately slows as you find yourself humming a different tune.Secure Location There’s a reason for that feeling. You are entering one of the safest zones in the Philippines and in Asia, with one of the best records for peace and order. Cebu’s geography is one of its God-given assets. The island is easy to contain and regulate. While being surrounded by water on all sides means that it is a shipping and transport hub, it also implies that the relatively small land area makes Cebu a sanctuary of self-containment—a

The same luxury furniture being offered for Thousands of pounds can be purchased online for just a fraction of the cost.Weston Super Mare,UK, Feb 02,2008–In home-decorating, a well-known rule is that painting, design and the best decorating artist money can buy make up for about 30% of the room’s design. Selecting the wrong furniture renders the entire effort completely obsolete. High quality furniture has always been a key part of designing a bedroom, a living room, and virtually any other room in the house. ‘Designing a room without the proper furniture, is like trying to bake a cake without flour- says Steve Hattrick, owner of Konteaki-Furniture.co.uk - ‘you might end up with an edible mix somehow, but it’s not what you were looking to get- Steve Hattrick, who has a background in IT (Information Technology), has used his experience and expertise to develop the company’s website. Catering to customers who want high quality furniture options at low prices, the Konteaki Furniture is proud to provide a variety of Solid Oak and Pine furniture. The Konteaki furniture company supplies Pine furniture, Memory foam mattresses, sofa beds, Italian leather sofas, and a number of high quality Oak and Pine furniture collections to suit a number of styles and dcor choices. Continuing in the vein of offering low-cost options for high quality furniture, the Konteaki Furniture Company also provides free shipping and delivery for all furniture orders over 500 in price. In order to ensure that each and every customer is pleased with their purchase choices, the company offers a complete 100%, seven day money back guarantee for every product sold through the company’s furniture retail webstore. The Konteaki Furniture Company has just taken in new delivery of Vancouver reclaimed Rustic Oak Furniture collection, and is celebrating by offering the entire collection on special at this time. This is an outstanding opportunity for individuals who want to secure the purchase of an entire furniture collection for an inexpensive price. The Konteaki Furniture Company is a family owned and operated business that created its web presence in 2005. The mission behind the Konteaki Furniture Company is to provide the highest quality furniture to customers at a fraction of the traditional prices. For more information about the Konteaki Furniture Company, contact Steve Hattrick at info@konteaki.co.uk or pay a visit to www.konteaki.co.uk. Contact: Steve Hattrick Konteaki Furniture Great Weston Trade park Weston Super mare United Kingtom. 01934 425050 info@konteaki.co.uk www.konteaki-furniture.co.uk

UPERTINO, CA, (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) knows a thing or two about customer service. NFM, founded in Omaha in 1937 by Russian immigrant Rose Blumkin, is the subject of the famous “60 million dollar handshake” between billionaire Warren Buffet and Rose Blumkin (”Mrs. B”). The company has always put extreme emphasis on giving customers the best deals and superior service in order to foster lifelong relationships. As such, NFM, which operates America’s largest volume home furnishing stores with more than 450,000 square feet of retail space at each location, recently chose SLI Systems’ flagship Learning Search(TM) as a way to ensure the best online experience for customers shopping at NFM.com. According to Internet Marketing Manager Jeff Douglas, SLI’s hosted site search solution was a better alternative to NFM’s previous internally developed site search, which had limited functionality. Additionally, it proved to be a better option over a leading non-hosted online retail search product which NFM had purchased but never had the internal resources available to install or manage.“SLI’s hosted approach was very appealing because it required only a small amount of work on our end to get it up and running — and it continues to be completely hands-off for us,” said Douglas. “In addition, SLI easily adapted to our business requirements that called for handling each of our product families differently. The best part about the whole thing is they did all of this during their risk-free, 30-day free trial — and it performs better than we expected.”Search Data is a Powerful Marketing ToolOne of the biggest benefits NFM has seen is a huge reduction in the number of complaints from customers who couldn’t find what they wanted on NFM’s site, as well as an increase in user feedback about their search experience thanks to SLI’s Feedback Tool. The Feedback Tool enables NFM to poll search users about search results, and gives them an opportunity to describe what they expected to see for the search term they entered. This information further helps NFM refine its search results to be in line with visitors’ expectations.Another area where NFM benefits from Learning Search is in the comprehensive reporting it provides. Learning Search gives marketers detailed information about the keywords site visitors use and the items they click on, which arms Douglas and his team with great insight into what items they should stock up on or add to their inventory.“Knowing what search terms are used on our site and what products generate interest is really useful to our marketing and merchandising efforts,” said Douglas. “For example, before we implemented Learning Search, we had no idea how popular the ‘Microsoft Zune Player’ was among our customers. Without the search data we were missing out on a big opportunity to sell this product to our visitors as we hadn’t yet added it to the site.“Likewise, it’s also great to know what terms DON’T generate good results, because that means we either need to add new products to our inventory or change the way our products are described so they match those search terms. None of this information was provided from our in-house-developed search tool, and as a result our marketing efforts weren’t as effective as they could have been.”Hosted Solution is Flexible and CustomizableDouglas said his team was pleasantly surprised to discover how flexible Learning Search is. For example, the system allows him to set policies for creating different results pages for certain search terms. “If someone types ‘customer service’ in the search box, that person will be directed to the actual Customer Service page rather than an irrelevant listing of products,” he said.Learning Search is also completely customizable so that the look and feel of the search results pages — which are hosted on SLI’s servers — are an exact match to the rest of NFM’s site. And because it’s a hosted solution all the customization work is performed by SLI’s engineering team.“NFM has a long history of giving customers the highest level of service, and we’re honored to have our search solutions chosen by such an esteemed organization,” said Dr. Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “Because we provide a hosted offering, many large and mid-sized retailers like NFM find they have more time to focus on other critical marketing activities. They give us an initial data feed and after that, they can sit back and watch the search work for them. It’s a win-win for our customers and theirs.”About Learning Search and Site ChampionBased on SLI’s patented “Learning Search” advanced analytics engine, the company’s hosted site search, hosted navigation and automated SEO solutions “learn” from user behavior by tracking the search terms people use on a retailer’s site and the resulting items they click on. The SLI solutions give retailers greater insight into what terms they should be both linking products to and including in product descriptions, and which products are the most popular for various keywords. As a result, retailers can ensure the products people are searching for show up in the right searches — whether those searches are conducted on their own sites or on an Internet search engine like Google.Learning Search is a hosted site search solution that continually tracks visitors’ aggregate search terms and the corresponding items clicked on, and uses that data to deliver results based on popularity. For example, if someone searches for “GPS” Learning Search automatically ranks the items so that those with historically higher click-rates are listed at the top. Learning Search also shows how many products exist and in what categories, and gives visitors the option to sort the results by ascending or descending prices, or filter by category. Learning Search is supplemented with a free Site Search Feedback Tool, which is designed to help e-commerce and other Web sites better understand the quality of their site search functionality based on customer input. More information is available at http://www.sli-systems.com/feedback.More than 250 sites use SLI Systems’ hosted search offerings including ULTA, Tupperware, Harry and David, Smith & Hawken, NRS (Northwest River Supplies), FTD and ETronics.com, among others.About SLI SystemsSLI Systems is the developer of learning-based search and navigation technology for corporate Internet sites, e-commerce destinations and consumer Internet portals that Searches, Learns and Improves the user experience. SLI Systems’ hosted site search and automated SEO solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and yielding valuable customer information. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. Current customers include Etronics.com, NBC, Tupperware, and others. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, and Christchurch, New Zealand. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com.FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Nancy MacGregor Hill RealTime Communications 510-733-6228 Email Contact

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