Hooker Furniture to Introduce First Fabric Upholstery Collection

HIGH POINT — After 80 years as a supplier of wood furniture, Hooker Furniture will premiere its first collection of fabric upholstered furniture at the October market here, advancing its whole-home strategy of providing furniture for every room.

Imported from China, the upholstery includes exposed wood and other features that coordinate with Hooker case goods.

Three of the new lines will mate with existing wood groups - Summerton, Windward and Cambridge Park - in the value-oriented Envision Collection for Hooker Furniture.

Two new upholstery and case goods lines will be introduced. One, called Moccato,
will be part of the Envision Collection. Another, Trilogy, will be under the regular Hooker brand and is described as an urban contemporary-meets-pedigreed-traditional look.

Subsequent introductions at future markets are expected to include upholstery and case goods at the same time.

Each group will include one to two sofas, a chair and ottoman, and in some cases recliners and executive office seating. Construction is sinuous springs and down-blend cushioning. Retail for the sofas, which will be limited to one or two covers, will be $1,000 to $2,000.

Since the Hooker Furniture division Sam Moore is a major producer of fabric chairs and its Bradington-Young division produces leather upholstery, Mike Delgatti, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said the logical "growth opportunity would be fabric upholstery" as the vendor moves toward a whole-home merchandising strategy.

He said the company has been getting requests from retailers to add seating. "They were saying, ‘Frankly, we just don't get it. You're already producing leather and chairs. Why don't you produce upholstery?'"

The company chose the import route because, while Sam Moore is an old hand at producing fabric chairs, the factory isn't set up to produce sofas, according to Delgatti.

"That's one issue," he said, adding, "We're also bumping up against some capacity issues. Then the other issue is that all these products have wood trim components and we determined that in order to get the strong value proposition we would be smart to produce the products offshore....

"As far as sourcing, we are using a company that is producing a high percentage of our leather goods so we have a high comfort level with them," he said. Because of its familiarity with the supply source, the company has been able to produce the upholstery line in a tight time frame, Delgatti added.

To keep the upholstery Americanized, he said that in some instances the company will use U.S.-made fabrics. "We've worked real hard to be cognizant of that issue."

In style, Delgatti said the new upholstery product will be diverse, with tropical, rough-hewn, casual and contemporary looks.