by Companies share insights into how they plan to comply with May 24 deadline on new CPSC mandatory stability standard for clothing storage units
HIGH POINT — Premarket kicked off the spring market cycle here as retailers came to town not only to get a sneak preview of April introductions, but also further clarity on how case goods resources plan to comply with new federal tip-over standards that go into effect May 24 for clothing storage units made on or after that date.
Most case goods vendors were unified in their answer to that question: They plan on being compliant on or before the May 24 deadline.
But answers to how they plan to comply varied not only among companies, but also regarding specific products — ranging from chests and dressers to nightstands and chifferobes.
“You have to take it piece by piece,” said Adam Tilley, chief product officer and brand president of 31/21 Home, a division of Magnussen Home. “There is no catch-all solution.”
That said, the company and many others here this week — including retail customers — were primarily focused on compliance with the CPSC standard, which aims to reduce tip-over incidents that have been known to injure and kill younger children.
Some solutions discussed at premarket included the widening of cases from 19 inches to 20 or 21 inches which can be accomplished by adding thicker panels to the back of the case. This also adds some weight to the piece, which would help counteract the impact of children climbing on the unit, in effect using open drawers to reach something in the upper drawer or on top of the case.
Drawer glide extensions can also be shortened from full extension to three-quarter extension, which one source said could save 25 pounds of counterweight on certain units.
Bedroom manufacturer Vaughan-Bassett Furniture told Home News Now that it has redesigned all 12 inline collections to be CPSC compliant, with no price increases related to the changes. In addition, two new case goods collections, including a solid wood group in its Artisan & Post line and one veneered bedroom, also are CPSC compliant.
President Doug Bassett said that the company is achieving this with between 10 and 30 pounds of additional weight, bringing a typical veneered chest from 140 to 161 pounds and a solid wood chest from 170 to 195 pounds. As part of the reengineering, it also went slightly wider — from a half-inch to 1 inch —on certain cases. With some other cases it didn’t have to change the width at all.
He noted that the added material it has added to the back rail on each case is solid wood, which he said not only adds weight, but also makes the case stronger.
Today, he said, the company remains in a competitive position as it has complied with the voluntary stability standard for the past 10 years or more, meaning it had a better starting point when updating the specs to the new standard. He added that the company also has undergone dozens of engineering changes since it began its work to meet the CPSC standard starting last fall.
“If you are starting at the 1 yard line, you are staring 99 yards down the field,” he said. “We have had only 20 yards to go to meet what we needed to meet.”
He said the company will ship its legacy pre-CPSC compliant product representing some $20 million to $22 million in inventory first, which should last until the end of the summer. Its two new CPSC compliant groups will be ready to ship on April 1 and May 1.
In addition to samples in the showroom, the company is also communicating its compliance story during the market cycle with videos and sales sheets explaining the changes in added detail.
“You put all that together and we think it is a pretty compelling solution for dealers who are concerned,” he said, adding that the changes it has made to each case piece are “adding to the structural integrity of the line, not taking away from it.”
Case goods resource FD Home showed a tethered rope system designed to be installed at the back of each case unit. Such a system would be treated in testing as an interlock system as it would allow only one drawer to be open at a time on chests or less than 50% of the drawers to be open at one time on a dresser. This also would require less weight, than on pieces with a non-tethered drawer system.
The company said that it also plans to keep its drawer slides on dressers and chests at 12 inches versus reducing them to 10, which would keep them at full extension capacity.
Regarding nightstands, it will reduce the height on two-drawer units so they fall outside of the scope. However, to maintain the aesthetics of three-drawer nightstands, it plans to keep these at the same height, but outfit them with 10-inch drawer guides versus the current 12-inch slides, which will change how far the drawer opens and thus lower its propensity to tip.
Other companies here at premarket this week said they have reengineered new items in the line to be compliant with the CPSC standard. But many said they are still evaluating changes to inline items as each piece could require different specs to meet the federal standard.
“We are trying to do as much as we can to not change the design of the group,” said Tilley of Magnussen division 31/21, adding that the company doesn’t want its customers to have to refloor existing inline product with a lot of design changes.
While the case goods resource may use shorter drawer extensions and add some weight to case pieces, Tilley noted that it doesn’t expect to have to add a significant amount of weight. Nor does he expect other major changes in specs such as the width of cases, most of which are already 20 or 21 inches wide compared to a more typical 19 inches other sources have quoted in their lines.
Tilley added that the current pricing of new collections, including two new bedrooms, is based on the design and engineering of pieces to meet the CPSC standard. But he said that pricing on inline groups that will be modified some to meet the CPSC standard is still being evaluated.
For many, pricing will ultimately depend on what types of changes that are necessary on certain items. In some cases the details will emerge between now and market as companies fine-tune their options ranging from added weight to the backs and bases to other engineering changes such as interlock systems and the changing of case dimensions to lower their propensity to tip whether force is applied to a drawer front or the top of the case.
Others also are reviewing the impacts that the rule will have on their lines and pricing.
“We do not have a fixed answer,” a source at a large importer told Home News Now. “We are working to get these answers.”
If significant changes affect the design of the piece, then resources said they likely will not only need to change pricing, but also SKU numbers to reflect the differences in items made before and after May 24.
Universal Furniture said that it will be fully compliant with its inline goods by May 24, in many cases adding some weight to each piece, but also some interlocks with a small number of bachelor chests.
Its new 70-piece Weekender collection, the third iteration in its licensed Coastal Living line, is compliant with the CPSC rule and priced accordingly, the company said, noting that the cost of pieces falls within its typical price points.
“We got out in front of this a while ago,” said Neil MacKenzie, senior vice president of marketing, noting that the company has come up with solutions that make the most sense for its customers and end consumers.
While the solutions are different for each unit, he said that end users will “notice no difference in terms of how you interact with that piece of furniture.”
Hekman Furniture instructed its reps to tell dealers that it will have plenty of inventory of existing product that was manufactured on or before the May 24 deadline. It also said that any bedroom storage pieces made after May 24 will comply with the CPSC standard.
