High Point market puts spotlight on American-made furniture

Chris Warren, owner of N.C. furniture manufacturer Mayland Court, wears the term survivor as a badge of courage.

The fact that Warren and his customized wooden-furniture company from Spruce Pine are still around to show at last week's High Point Market is a testament to grit, innovation and the loyalty of 1,600 interior designers.

Still, he has had to cut his workforce from 25 to seven in the past four years to match production with demand.

“There were 1,500 furniture workers in Mitchell County in the 1990s,” Warren said. “Now, there are seven, and they're all mine. That's a lot of household incomes wiped out by the imports.”

But Warren, a second-generation furniture executive, has a gleam in his eye when it comes to the future of American-made furniture, in part because he was surrounded by 29 other exhibitors in the first-ever 16,000-square-foot Made in America pavilion at the market.

Karen Olson, a spokeswoman for International Market Centers, the group governing the largest showroom buildings in High Point and Las Vegas, said she expects all 30 of those exhibitors to renew their leases for the spring 2012 trade show.

“The pavilion has been a hit because it gives retailers looking for U.S-made products not only a place to shop, but also to see the variety of what's still made here,” Warren said.

“Consumers are becoming more conscious of where furniture is made. If they perceive a price value along with the quality of U.S. product, they’re willing to pay more.”

How much more, however, remains the biggest question looming over the latest of several buy-American market initiatives. Market exhibitors and retailers say that although there aren't any official numbers, the percentage seems to range from 10 percent to 25 percent.

Linda Simms, co-owner of furniture retailer Arch Murray Inc. of Westminster, Md., said she was shopping at the pavilion because her customers are increasingly dissatisfied with imported furniture.

“When the Chinese product first came in, the quality was typically good,” Simms said. “But the next wave or two, the quality wasn’t as good. Typically what you were shown at market wasn't the quality you got in the container.

“We’re hoping to find U.S. suppliers that can pass our criteria for price and quality. We recognized how bad the economy is. We want to help keep and create jobs here, too.”

Analysts have said the global recession has created manufacturing opportunities in the United States because of rising shipping, raw material and labor costs in China.

Sparking more reason for optimism was a report by The Boston Consulting Group, released Oct. 7, that listed furniture as an industry that could gain jobs from manufacturers returning production to the United States.

“We’re on record predicting a U.S. manufacturing renaissance starting by around 2015,” said Harold Sirkin, a senior partner of the group and lead author of the analysis.

Responding to that renewed demand could be challenging since many wooden-furniture plants, particularly in North Carolina, have been mothballed in the past 10 years.

“To get back in will be expensive,” said Ken Smith, director of furniture services for Smith Leonard PLLC, a financial-services company based in High Point. “To be able to compete, very expensive equipment will need to be purchased unless you are in a niche.

“Upholstery is another story, as we never lost the custom-order business and probably will not. As the expense gap narrows there, it could be that some of the imports could move back to existing or new companies.”

Not all of the Made in America buzz was in the pavilion.

Four Hands, based in Austin, Texas, but primarily an importer, gained a share of the spotlight by offering an upholstery collection made by private-label group Kellex in Valdese.

Wade Oppliger, Four Hands’ vice president of upholstery, said the company chose the Valdese manufacturer over one in Mexico because it offered the best blend of quality, value and price. The Valdese company also is able to make and ship the upholstery in a 30- to 45-day window, compared with a typical eight to 12 weeks from China.

“We believe this made-in-USA product will resonate with our customers, and hopefully become a larger percentage of our business over time,” Oppliger said.