by More than 120 individual accounts from around the country are expected to attend
FONTANA, Calif. — Full-line furniture resource New Classic Furniture is holding a private invitation-only show here this week that is expected to draw more than 120 dealers from around the country.
The event is being held Jan. 24-27 at its 36,000-square-foot showroom located inside its corporate headquarters.
“We have always done private shows for customers locally, but this is the first time we have actually extended the invitation across the country,” Scott Hill, president of sales and marketing, told Home News Now.
The company invited dealers from the East Coast, the Midwest, the Southeast, the West Coast and the Pacific Northwest to attend.
“We offered to pay for them to fly out and pay for them to stay in a hotel to be able to see what we are doing,” Hill said. “They are coming in from everywhere, which is really nice.
“For business conditions the way they are right now, the reception and the turnout is going to be really good,” he added. “I am excited about it.”
Attending dealers should be too as the company will showcase a wide range of new and inline product. Some of the space will be devoted to its Royal Classics line of highly carved and ornate European traditional case goods and upholstery, which it unveiled at the fall High Point Market.
Hill said another 26,000 square feet of the space will be dedicated to the remainder of the line, much of which also is in stock.
“We will have almost all of our goods there including all the new stuff that we are going to show at the April Market with the exception of maybe 20%,” Hill said. “So 80% of the goods that we show in April will be here and it will give dealers an opportunity to find product that they like and get a jump on hopefully promoting those goods in March or April instead of waiting until the April Market, which means they aren’t going to be able to do anything until June or July.”
Among the new product offerings are six motion furniture frames, six bedrooms and seven new casual dining sets, to name a few core categories.
The mix also will continue the company’s big push in October offering more promotionally priced product that Hill said is allowing dealers to promote loss leaders and “increase door swings.”
“And the accounts loved it in High Point, so now we are doubling down on that with promotional motion and other goods,” he said, adding that “with the shake-up of some key vendors exiting our industry, we have a huge opportunity to gobble up some of that business. Our majors have been asking for it and we have listened and are going to roll those out next week.”
The strategy appears well timed, as more consumers will likely be seeking sharper price points during what could be a prolonged economic downturn.
“All of our inline goods will be there and we will be offering floor placement discounts on those,” Hill said. “We also have a lot of specials on new introductions and some of the price points we are introducing are going to be extremely aggressive compared to what else is in the marketplace right now.”
