skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Rowe Fine Furniture created the world’s most delicious custom candy chair for the April High Point Market. This sweet seat is covered in hundreds of pieces of chocolates, gumballs, Life Savers, Tootsie Rolls, orange, lemon and lime candy slices, jelly beans, Starbursts, peppermints, candy buttons and giant lollipops—just to name a few.
This gives new meaning to please don’t touch the furniture.
No, the headline is not a typo. Ava Design, a start up high-end custom furniture manufacturer is relocating from New Jersey to North Carolina not China or the Philippines--North Carolina.
Owner, Matt Carfaro plans to start production during the first week of June in a former Belmont textile mill and display furniture at a South End showroom, according to the Charlotte Observer.
North Carolina has lost tens of thousands of furniture-making jobs over the past decade, mostly to Asian countries where labor is cheaper. The N.C. Commerce Department estimates the state now has 1,450 furniture companies employing 63,300 workers.
However, Carfaro wants to tap into a trained labor force. More than 65 experienced cabinet makers have applied for 15 jobs he plans to fill. In the future, he hopes to employ 35 to 50 people.
Ava Design is focusing on capturing the boutique furniture trend niche. The heirloom-quality furniture is made from American walnut and American white oak, and consoles, dining room tables and small tables can run from $600 to $3,600.
Made in the U.S.A will cost a bit more, but you get what you pay for.
OK, so we all know that 2009 will be a challenging year, and I don’t think our new president will be able to offer a quick fix. Car manufacturers to furniture makers are feeling the crunch as wary consumers pull back. Until consumer confidence is restored luxury good makers and big ticket items will continue to experience decreased to flat sales.
Orders for new residential furniture fell by 28 percent in October 2008 compared to a year earlier, according to a manufacturer survey from High Point accounting and consulting firm Smith Leonard. New orders in October were down by 13 percent from September and year to date though October 2008 orders were off by 12 percent. Shipments of completed orders were 20 percent lower in October 2008 compared to October 2007 and year-to-date shipments were 11 percent less than the year prior.
As a result furniture companies are shedding jobs. I just read that Michigan-based Kindel Furniture Co. laid off 24 employees and is adding a four-day work week. Even though sales were slightly up for 2008, a waning backlog and fewer orders from High Point Market made the cuts necessary.
Rowe Fine Furniture created the world’s most delicious custom candy chair for the April High Point Market. This sweet seat is covered in hundreds of pieces of chocolates, gumballs, Life Savers, Tootsie Rolls, orange, lemon and lime candy slices, jelly beans, Starbursts, peppermints, candy buttons and giant lollipops—just to name a few.
