Monday, October 3, 2011

Inside This IssueBed Bath Moving Merchandising Offi ces to N.J. Corporate HQ ..........................................................page 2

A Little Bit of ConText .....................................................................page 4

Missonigate ......................................................................................page 4

WestPoint Sets a New Course ........................................................page 6

Nestldown Linens Cozy on Luxury Linens – And Customer Service ..................................................................page 10

HTT Hosts Market Kick-off Party ...................................................page 14

THE BUSINESS AND FASHION NEWSPAPER OF THE HOME TEXTILES INDUSTRY | hometextilestoday.com | Vol. 32, No. 23 | $8.00

Anna’s Linens Debuts Exclusive Line With Latin TV Star Brazzi

BY WARREN SHOULBERG

COSTA MESA, CALIF. — Hispanic TV celebrity Domenica Brazzi will be the star of a new exclusive line of home textiles products at Anna’s Linens, the 285-store value specialty chain.

The new program launched with bedding in four styles in stores and on-line at the end of September, to be followed by bath, home décor, window and tabletop collections.

It is the fi rst home textiles program for Brazzi, the host of “Decorando Con-tigo,” a popular Latin American television decorating show. Her promotion-

SEE SOCIAL PAGE 13

SEE BRAZZI PAGE 23

NEW YORK — HTT’s ConText mini-conference on online and social media strategies last month covered a lot of ground — from Face-book to QR codes, Twitter to blogs, and Tumblr to site metrics.

If the world of social media comes off as bewilderingly complex, conference speakers were in agreement on one point: It’s not nec-essary for a business to participate in every facet of social media. What’s important is to select the tools that will further enhance your business’s branding and strategic goals.

“Social media is relational, not transactional,” said Helaine Suval, president of Suval Consultants and former evp, general merchandise manager of macys.com.

Using social media to blatantly push product can quickly

HTT Conference Covers Social Media ABCs

The Nightingale bed, one of four collections in Brazzi’s program for Anna’s Linens.

HFPA Adjusts Spring 2012Market Week Dates

NEW YORK — The board of directors of the Home Fashions Products Associa-tion voted late last month to change the spring 2012 market dates to March 5 to March 8.

The change was made to avoid a confl ict with the Housewares show.

Fall dates are confi rmed for Sept. 10 to Sept. 13, 2012. HTT

Domenica Brazzi

Attendees at HTT’s ConText event learned how social media can be used successfully in business.

Showroom building 295 Fifth Avenue

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2 Home Textiles Today News > hometextilestoday.com

Gordmans Appoints vp, stores

Gordmans Inc. named Andy Lundquist to the post of vice president of stores. He brings more than

two decades of retail management career experience to the job.

Lundquist most recently was svp of stores for Kohl’s Department Stores, where he was charged with over-seeing 270 units. He was also instrumental in the open-ing of more than 300 new stores and six new markets for Kohl’s.

Lundquist began his retail management career in 1988 as an assistant store manager with Richman Gord-man Department Stores, the predecessor of Gordmans.

Family Dollar to Step up Openings

Family Dollar wrapped up its fi scal year by turn-ing in its 14th consecutive quarter of double-

digit earnings increases and said it will return to the aggressive store opening pace that characterized its expansion prior to the recession.

During the new fi scal year, which began Aug. 28, the retailer plans to open 450-500 new stores – includ-ing its entry into California – and remodel approxi-mately 1,000 of its more than 7,000 units.

Earnings per share rose 19.1% to $3.12 for the fi s-cal year. Sales rose 8.7% to $8.5 billion.

Senior Wal-Mart Exec to Retire

Eduardo Castro-Wright, who has held several prom-inent executive roles since joining the company 10

years ago, will retire in July 2012.Castro-Wright is currently vice chairman and ceo of

the multi-national corporation’s global ecommerce and global sourcing businesses. Wal-Mart plans to fi ll both posts by the end of January.

Kohl’s Opens 30 New Units

Kohl’s marked the grand opening of 30 new stores last week in 20 states, bringing its store count to

1,127 units in 49 states.The retailer also has also remodeled about 100

stores this year, up 18% from last year’s remodel pace.

Target Finalizes Zellers DealTarget has completed its assumption of Zellers

leases, which now total 189.Target will convert 125-135 of those leases to its own format, with the fi rst stores to open in 2013. The remaining leases will be sold to other retailers, includ-ing Walmart Canada.

Macy’s Inc. Ramps up RFID Adoption

Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores plan to accel-erate the use of radio frequency identifi cation

technology in merchandise, with RFID tags imbedded in frequently replenished goods in all stores by the third quarter of 2012.

The company began testing RFID two years ago. When implemented, the amount of RFID-tagged prod-uct will account for about 30% of total sales. Cate-gories targeted include men’s furnishings, intimate apparel, men’s slacks, denim and women’s shoes.

RetailBriefs

October 3, 2011

Bed Bath Moving Merchandising Offices to N.J. Corporate HQ

UNION, N.J. — Bed Bath & Beyond, which since its found-ing, has maintained separate cor-porate and merchandising offi ces on either side of New York City, is consolidating both of them at its headquarters here.

The merchandising and buy-ing operations, currently housed in Farmingdale, N.Y., on Long Island, will be transitioned to the operations and financial offi ces located here. The move will be completed by Septem-

ber 2012. It is not known how many

people will make the move or are currently housed at the New York offi ces; the company, as is its standard policy, declined to comment on the move.

T h e t w i n s e t - u p , m o s t unusual in companies the size of Bed Bath, grew out of the locations of where company founders Warren Eisenberg and Len Feinstein lived. While both were intimately involved in all

aspects of the company and continue as co-chairmen, each focused on a specifi c aspect of the business.

Eisenberg, who lives in New Jersey, primarily managed the fi nancial and operations side of the company while Feinstein, who lives on Long Island, over-saw merchandising and buying.

Now, for the fi rst time in the company’s history, all corporate offi ces will be housed under one roof. HTT

BY DAVID PERRY

SHELTON, CONN. — Latex Inter-national has signed a letter of intent to acquire full ownership of Pure LatexBliss to accelerate the growth of the mattress, top-per and pillow brand, officials said.

Terms of the pending transac-tion were not disclosed.

Latex International bought a 51% stake in Pure LatexBliss last year. When it acquires the remaining stake, Pure Latex-Bliss, founded in 2009, will be a wholly owned subsidiary.

Latex International, based here, is a supplier of latex prod-ucts to mattress producers. Atlanta-based Pure LatexBliss sells mattresses, toppers and pil-lows to mattress retailers.

Latex International execu-tives said the purchase would enable the company to better position latex in the mattress industry.

Pure LatexBliss founders Kurt Ling and Joe Hunt will continue to be involved with the leader-ship of the brand, offi cials said.

Latex International said it will continue to actively pur-sue its OEM business in North America with its key manufactur-

ing and factory direct accounts. Latex International does busi-ness in 60 countries.

“In the past two years, Pure LatexBliss has become one of the fastest growing luxury mat-tress brands in the world, doing business in six countries,” said Latex International President and CEO Dave Fisher. “The brand has proven to be a suc-cessful alternative for retailers to maintain high tickets and increase margin dollars of spe-cialty bedding consumers who are ready to spend $2,000 to $3,000 on a mattress but don’t like the feel of memory foam.”

As a part of this new direc-tion, Latex International will shift its Rejuvenite direct to retail pillow line to Pure Latex-Bliss branding, offi cials said.

Fisher said the latex industry needs a stable of strong brands “to sit across from successful memory foam on retail floors, and retailers need more profi t-able alternatives in the specialty sleep market. We believe that Pure LatexBliss is a ‘pure’ stal-lion in our sector.”

Ling added, “Latex Interna-tional has been a tremendous supporter of our company since inception. This deal is good for

us personally and professionally. It allows Pure LatexBliss to go to the next level to service retailers and consumers.”

Fisher said latex “deserves to be at the forefront of the specialty sleep category. This is its time. I am certain that the consumer education, retail sales training, and stature of latex as a category will be raised as Pure LatexBliss continues to succeed, no differ-ently that what has happened in the memory foam category. We will continue to look to invest in key strategic partners who under-stand and are passionate about the benefi ts of Talalay latex.”

Retail reaction to the news has been encouraging, offi cials said.

Since its founding, Pure LatexBliss was a sales and mar-keting company using contract manufacturers and logistics part-ners. The Pure LatexBliss team initially included four people, all friends who had worked together at Simmons.

The company has expanded from one fabrication site and warehouse in Atlanta to four fabrication sites with regional distribution centers in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., and France. HTT

Latex International to Acquire Full Ownership of

Pure LatexBliss

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4 Home Textiles Today > hometextilestoday.com

...comfort within your lifewww.hollander.comwww.livecomfortably.com

OPINIONTodaY

EXCUSE M E , but I always thought the idea of the whole thing WAS to sell out as much merchandise as possible. Did I miss something?

Perhaps I have gotten cynical (perhaps?), but the entire brouhaha around Target’s Missoni program is making me crazy.

With the possible – and I say possible – ex-ception of its website crashing for an inordinate-ly long period of time, I think Target got exact-ly what it wanted out of the Missoni program.

And what’s more, I think Target knew exactly what it was doing.

Just in case you haven’t been zoned in to this saga and have been worrying about silly things like the global economic meltdown, the dysfunctional federal government we elected or the Yankees pennant race, a few moments of back-ground: In September Tar-get rolled out a limited as-

sortment of Missoni-branded merchandise across the store, including home. There was a pop-up store in Manhattan and the products were avail-able both online and in the stores.

That’s when the feeding frenzy broke out. The pop-up store sold out in six hours. The website crashed within hours of going live and there were all sorts of anecdotal stories of shop-pers getting their orders cancelled, postponed or simply evaporated. Many stores resembled Black Friday debacles, and by the end of the fi rst day just about anything with the name Missoni on it was sold out just about everywhere.

Now, I’m not quite sure what Missoni got out of all of this. Very few of those Target customers are going to trade up to the real stuff at prices that are ten-fold or more of their discount cous-

ins.But for Target, the hits just keep on coming.

First off, at a time when the retailer has lost a bit of its cheap chic luster, this was a chance to leapfrog to the front of the fashion line again in one straight zigzag line. The residual effects will be felt for holiday and beyond, to be sure.

There is also the reinforcement of a concept that is becoming ever more obvious in retailing but which remains one many stores don’t get: Limited runs have unlimited potential. This is nothing new. Go back to the Blue Light Special at Kmart (when it was still a retailer rather than a leaking cash sponge) and you’ll see that was one of the original Flash Sales.

The current generation of Flash sites – Gilt, One Kings Lane and others – are using the same strategy: Choose it or lose it. They are training an entire generation of shoppers to not wait around but to make an immediate purchasing decision or miss their moment. H&M does the same thing every year or so with short-run de-signer programs.

And really, it’s the prime motivator of the TJX group of stores. Many in the industry think it’s the prices, but the fact of the matter is you can get just as good a deal on most of that mer-chandise with the right combination of cou-pons and One Day Sales. It’s the limited in-ventory that is the magic of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and all the rest. It’s the reason Tuesday Morn-ing had its original limited operating schedule. Tell them they can’t have it and they’ll want it even more.

Target, I think, knows all of this and you can bet the next limited sale promotion it has will do even better. Maybe it will bring in a little more horsepower for the computers. Maybe a little more back-up stock.

But the boys in Minneapolis did a brilliant job on this one. My Missoni for Target fl oppy hat – no longer available – is off to them. HTT

MissonigateHT T BRUSH E D OF F T H E MON I K E R for its Con-

Text conference series during market and held a mini-seminar on all things digital. It was probably the most enlightening three hours I’ve spent in some time.

For the lowdown on the speakers and their points of view, see our story on page one. The following were my take-away notes from a program that did a great job of de-mystifying the rapidly burgeoning world of social media marketing:

1. It’s not necessary to plunge in to every kind of social media channel. Select those that fi t your marketing goals.

2, Facebook is imperative – either to communication with B2B customers or end-use consumers or both.

3. Facebook is a dialog. Someone in the company needs to be dedicated to monitoring feedback and responding, when necessary.

4. An in-house “brand evangelist” should be dedicated to feeding and caring for social media efforts. But several people in the com-pany should contribute content to widen the point of view.

5. Some of the most impactful social media marketing is about showing rather than telling. YouTube is a great tool – wheth-er providing information, showing off product

and building brand reputation by providing a behind-the-scenes look at the company.

6. Use Twitter to build excitement around an event such as a trade show, in-store appearance or new product launch.

7. Identify blogs that have a strong connection to your product or brand universe and create relationships with them – whether as an occasional expert contributor or as a give-away sponsor to promote new product.

8. Set goals and track results. You should pay attention to:• Number of unique visitors/month• Number of page views/month• How much time visitors’ stay• Number of comments/month• What posts are most popular• Aside from the major portals such as Google, what other sites

are sending visitors your way?Next up: Look for HTT to start implementing these ideas as we

ramp up our own social media projects. HTT

JenniferMarks

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A Bit of ConText

October 3, 2011

Warren Shoulberg

PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

htt111001_004 4 9/30/2011 1:26:39 PM

For 90 years the Textile Building at 295 Fifth has been the leader in showcasing thebest of the home textile industry.

Put your company in a leadership position and enjoy these advantages:

• More actual square footage for your rental $. 295 Fifth has the lowest loss factor in the home textile showroom market.* Compare our space measurementsand you’ll see how you’re paying much less for actual square footage at 295.

• The most Market Week traffic. 295 Fifth is the only building to rent exclusivelyto the home textiles, tabletop and gift industries for showrooms. And we havemore than double the number of showrooms than any other building.

• Free freight service and more freight cars running full-time, including weekendsprior to each Market Week.

• State-of-the-art security and 15 daytime employees—twice the staff of anycomparable building to keep the building spotless and well-serviced.

Become a leader today…for less!

Call Lou Lombardi at 212-685-0530.

LOU LOMBARDI, PresidentMANHATTAN PROPERTIES COMPANYOwner/Management

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Join Us at the Cornerstone of the Home Textile Marketplace

The Textile Building

295 FIFTH AVENUE • NEW YORK, NY 10016 • 212-685-0530 • ceo295@aol.com

Untitled-3 1 8/4/2011 11:23:13 AM

6 Home Textiles Today News > hometextilestoday.comOctober 3, 2011

WestPoint Sets a New CourseNEW YORK — WestPoint Home’s new leadership team has been in place barely three months, but the company came to New York Home Fashion Market with a message about capability, its brands and its designs.

The focus fell on WestPoint’s key licensed brands: Hanes, Izod and Caribbean Joe. How-ever, the company has been conducting consumer research into its own legacy brands – the best known of which are Martex, Patrician and Vellux – with an eye toward revivifying them moving forward.

“I was surprised by how positive and how specific the results were,” said Norm Savaria, who joined the company as president and ceo in June.

“There’s great opportunity to do things with that – to begin to differentiate and show fashion leadership again.”

Taran Chernin, the former vp of product development at Linen ’n Things, who joined the company in June as execu-tive vp and chief merchandising offi cer, said WestPoint also sees growth for the existing licensed properties.

The company has been building its design department in recent weeks and plans to become more aggressive in

touting its fashion chops as well. That includes utility bed-ding, where WestPoint is still the licensee for Lauren Ralph Lau-ren.

“We’re making a concen-trated effort to down alternative to really bring fashion into it,” said Chernin. “We think there’s room for a lot more technol-ogy.”

For the market, one focus area settled capa-bilities — and technol-ogy — in sheets, tow-els, blankets and utility bedding. In the fi rst two categories, products are presented in a range of constructions with fea-tures called out and price points running

from lowest to uppermost.Every buyer comes in “from

a different angle,” noted Nancy Golden, svp of marketing and brand. “We want them to see we can work with them direct or as a distributor.”

New core introductions included the fade-resistant So Soft sheet, snag-resistant Snag No More towel, and the eco-friendly Second Nature towel made of 50% Modal and 50% cotton.

Izod’s fashion bedding has been redesigned to place more emphasis on the roots of the apparel line. “This is more of what you think of as Izod,” said

Golden. “It’s fresh. It’s sporty.”The story across the multi-

category Hanes program remains

“comfort and fit,” she added. Caribbean Joe fi lls in the casual lifestyle slot. HTT

Izod has been recast to emphasize the sports heritage in the brand’s DNA.

NORM SAVARIA

WestPoint Home

NEW YORK — Allied Home’s sleep pillow business continues to grow with the help of a new production facility opened last spring in North Carolina.

With three production lines going, “We’re already approach-ing capacity,” said Andy Schantz, ceo and chief product offi cer.

Allied is already making plans to expand the facility by at least 30% and as much as 50%, he said.

“We added dimension to the company by adding an East Coast FOB,” he said. “Several ports are within a short distance for hauling, and there’s a lot of

skilled labor because this was a big textiles area.”

The company has also added to its sales force in the North-east, Chicago and on the West Coast. Further down the road, Allied may build production in the Midwest, Schantz said.

In addition to the company’s retail business, “Our hospital-ity business is growing by leaps and bounds every month,” he said. “Our approach is like cre-ating product for retail accounts with retail standards and fi ber, fabrics and finishing technol-ogy the consumer shops for in stores.” HTT

Allied Home Piles on Pillows

1888 Mills celebrated its new bedding and bath col-lection license with HGTV celebrity David Bromstad, host of the cable television channel’s Color Splash dec-orating program and the original winner of HGTV Design Star. Bromstad, left, with 1888’s Lexi Schladen-hauffen and Fulton Allen.

1888 Mills Celebrates New Collection

htt111001_006_008 6 9/28/2011 6:35:01 PM

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Classic Wasabi Couef—Couef Inc. by Jamie Schachtel Design Group

8 Home Textiles Today October 3, 2011 News > hometextilestoday.com

Revman Expands Across Categories

NEW YORK — Multi-brand house Revman International had no shortage of new designs on dis-play at market last month.

In a key expansion for its more recent Vera Wang pro-gram, Revman added bath tow-els with a matelasse feel in eight colors as well as bath accesso-ries and robes.

Vera Wang beds take their direction from the designer’s apparel collection. “I think this is a beautiful evolution of where we had been,” said Diane Piemonte, Revman’s vp of cre-ative services. “It’s all about the details.”

Another important designer brand in the portfolio, Tommy Hilfiger Home, has shifted its construction priorities away from pricier yarn-dyes in favor of prints that evoke a yarn-dye look.

“That brings us to the $129 to $149 price points,” said Rev-man ceo Rich Roman. “We’re going to be in the sweet spot.”

The Tommy Bahama col-lection remains a tropical story, “but we’re trying to cover all the bases,” Piemonte said. Revman is showing more toned-down, textured master bedroom looks that can get a pop from the assortment of Tommy Bahama print quilts.

Revman has also extended the Steve Madden collection beyond its signature story of bold prints, adding apparel-

driven looks for the master bed-room.

For Sean John, the direction is clean and minimal, with a nod toward hotel, she noted.

The company’s house brand, Manor Hill, is giving more attention to weaves and doing more with decorative pillows. “Dec pillows are becoming more and more important,” Piemonte said.

Manor Hill is also building out its freestanding offerings in

bath. In addition to shower cur-tains that tie back to bedding, Manor is showing a variety of constructions, including light-hearted prints, floral burnout overlays and appliqué embel-lishments.

Another notable new twist in bath sees the introduction of novelty accessories for the Laura Ashley line. In addition, Revman has expanded Laura Ashley bath with rugs and tow-els. HTT

Tommy Bahama’s Cay Sol is a textural woven that gets its pop with a layered print quilt.

ONTARIO, CANADA — Cam-bridge Towel Co. Inc. focused on its color story for market, with shades of brown, pops of purple, black and blue as the fashion-forward trends. Mono-chromatic stripes and jacquards also got some play.

“When a consumer looks at towels, it’s all about color, color and color. Eighty to eighty-fi ve percent of the market is solid color,” noted Hugh Thompson, president of the Cambridge, Ontario-based company. “We’re very adept at color and always work to create coordinates that work back to the solids.”

According to Thompson, the Canadian company has a dis-tinct advantage as a local sup-

plier. It purchases only about 15% of goods, and manufac-tures the rest. As a result, its carbon footprint is “greener.” It also buys raw cotton rather than yarn, a fact that allowed the company to purchase cot-ton ahead and fare better than some competitors as the price of it rose.

“While everyone was going offshore, we were strategic in keeping our company in North America,” Thompson said. “It makes us more agile so that we can quickly respond to our cus-tomers, not to the supply chain.” Thompson also noted that the company expects to announce a new partnership with an Indian mill soon. HTT

Cambridge Towel Stays Local, Goes Monochromatic

Vera Wang has expanded into bath for Revman.

WEST WARWICK, R.I. — Mul-ticategory home textiles house Natco Home is now adding bed-ding to its portfolio through its recent exclusive alliance with Amtex Ltd.

A fully vertical manufacturer based in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Amtex’s joint venture with Natco calls for both the manufactur-ing and distributing of bedding products in the North American market under the name “Natco Amtex Home.”

The joint venture was set to be finalized by end of September, following approval of certain Pak-istani regulations and the comple-tion of mutual due diligence.

Alan Ross, Natco Home’s coo, said the company’s domestic design, marketing and distribu-tion capabilities combined with Amtex’s size and state-of-the-art vertical manufacturing capabili-ties “will position this new com-pany, Natco Amtex Home, as a major bedding manufacturer and supplier overnight.”

He added that “strategically, this joint venture … adds an excit-

ing new product category for the group; it complements our sig-nifi cant China sourcing and pro-duction capabilities and further enhances our ability to be a qual-ity low-cost provider of all soft tex-tile products for the long term.”

Additionally, it gives the group direct-to-store, pick-and-pack capability from both China and Pakistan.

“We have been working with Amtex Ltd. for over 15 years and the working relationship has always been excellent,” Ross con-tinued. “We are certain we will find further ways to cooperate and expand globally our manu-facturing, sourcing and distribu-tion platforms in the months and years to come.”

Key members of Amtex’s senior management team will be relocating to Natco’s offices here.

Principles from both Natco and Amtex were at the group’s showroom at 295 Fifth Avenue during the New York Home Fash-ions Market and introducedthe joint venture. HTT

Natco, Amtex Align for New Joint

Venture

htt111001_006_008 8 9/28/2011 6:36:41 PM

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In a recent nationwide consumer survey, over half of consumers preferred the pillow fi lled with DACRON® brand fi berfi ll over a pillow fi lled with unbranded polyester and higher thread count tick.*

Brand Fiberfill

Too much ticking?

The DACRON® brand has innovated fi berfi ll technology for more

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* 2011 Online Test with nationally representative blind panel of US home textile decisionmakers. N=1041

10 Home Textiles Today > hometextilestoday.com

First Monday: Specialty Retailing

BY CECILE B. CORRAL

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — Laura Weaver works seven days a week at her four-year-old luxury linens shop, Nestldown.

Understandably, it’s a work schedule many would fi nd gru-eling.

Not Weaver. Her home away from home, Nestldown — located here at The Shops of Southbridge — is where she goes daily to surround herself with her extensive line of high-end home textiles, and more so, her loyal customers.

“I am not looking to globally

dominate anything. I am not looking to be a Walmart by any stretch of the imagination,” she told HTT. “I’ve just done this so long — it’s what I have done and it’s what I do. I just really enjoy my life here and my business and every day. I never get tired of coming to work. As they say, that is the difference between a career and a job.”

Early in her career she ran a Scandia Down store in the San Francisco Bay area for fi ve years. Then she moved on to Los Gatos, Calif., to work for at the high-end linens shop, The Maids’ Quarters, for owner

Claudia Mann.“I was there for about 20

years, and I really learned a lot there,” Weaver said. “It’s from where I draw a lot of my career background. Scandia Down shops are franchised and what they carry is very limited. But working for Claudia [Mann] at The Maids’ Quarters for as long as I did is how I derived most of my knowledge and history.”

At the Maids’ Quarters, Weavers said she “ran the busi-ness — home textiles, baby, bed-ding and bath, furniture.”

After about 40 years of liv-ing and working in Northern

California, Weaver got the itch to relocate to Arizona to try her hand at running her own luxury linens store.

“I really felt I needed a change,” she explained. “Clau-dia had been living here [Scott-sdale] for about 10 years run-ning a chain of dress shops all around the country. So when I moved out here, she was getting started on her new project, and she asked me if I wanted to get involved.”

With the help of Mann’s daughter, Jenny, Weaver found a space in a newly developed high-end mall that was mod-

eled after Fred Segal in Santa Monica.

November 7 will mark Weav-er’s fourth anniversary of her store and own business opera-tion.

Ask her to list her core busi-ness segment at the store, and Weaver points to bedding.

But actually, customer ser-vice is her “most important” offering.

“I think customer service is so important in this day and age,” Weaver noted. “It’s really fallen by the wayside everywhere. But if you want to stay competi-tive, customer service is really

October 3, 2011

Nestldown Linens Cozy on Luxury Linens – And Customer Service

There’s an easier way...

REDEFINING COMFORT.

Contact Guy Eckert at geckert@outlast.com for more information.

outlastsleepsystem.com

htt111001_010_011 10 9/28/2011 6:40:07 PM

11 Home Textiles TodayNews> hometextilestoday.com October 3, 2011

important. It’s just very important to me to make my customers feel welcome and comfortable here, and like they are walk-ing into my own home — because they are. When you are in this business as long as I have been, you really develop friend-ships and relationships and close bonds with your customers. I connect with them. When I was at The Maids’ Quar-ters, our customers became like family. And I see my customers as an important part of my life.”

Among Nestldown’s special services: Complimentary gift wrap all year round, monogramming, engraving, gift certifi-cates, layaway, baby and bridal registries, special and custom orders, “you name it,” said Weaver.

How about company? That, too, she said.

“Sometimes people just want to come in and talk,” Weaver continued. “My cus-tomers all have different needs, and I am here for whatever that need may be. I am not here just to sell someone something. I love retail because it allows me to be able to meet and connect with people, and I get a lot of satisfaction in helping them in whatever capacity.”

By category, bedding leads the business — “it’s what I sell the most,” she said.

The store’s 1,100-square-foot footprint “is pretty well-packed with a lot of stuff. I offer way more than what I sell at store [including customer services]. I feature three queen-size [display] beds on the fl oor, beautiful cabinets.”

Furniture represents only “a small part. The bedding is my primary focus,” Weaver said.

Category product offerings include sheeting, top of the bed, down comfort-ers, feather beds, “anything and every-thing to do with soft bedding.” Price points range from $300 to $2,000, with the most action lately in the $300 to $800 range, Weaver said.

Bath textiles and baby products are also major segments. Bath is broad, encompassing towels and accessories, robes, pajamas, soaps, and rugs. Bath towels and bath sheets retail for $30 to $200.

The baby department “is my happy place. It’s so, so cute, if I do say so myself. It’s small but defi nitely an important part of my business — small but mighty,” said Weaver.

Baby goods include bedding, room décor, and accessories as well as some clothing.

Also in the merchandise mix are table linens, kitchen textiles, decorative pil-lows, throws and some vendor-specific yardage.

Among Weaver’s “hundreds of ven-dors” she works with regularly, the list includes: Sferra, Lintex Linens/Cobra, Home Treasures, Yves Delorme, Anne De Solene, Ann Gish, Cloud 9 Com-forts, Bella Note, Eastern Accents, Leg-

acy, and Home Source International, as well as many others.

Linens as gifts represent also “a big part of my business, too,” Weaver said. In fact, two of Nestldown’s “hottest sell-ers,” she said are The Cuddle Robe from Espalma, which is a polyester microfi ber

robe “that I can’t keep in stock at $90. I have sold probably at least 1,000 of them since I opened my store. It is the perfect gift, it comes in one size fi ts all, and it’s the softest thing you have ever felt.”

The second best seller, which she said “I sell all day long,” is an embellished

decorative pillow that says “And they lived happily ever after.”

Weaver said the pillow makes an appropriate gift for almost any occasion — engagements, weddings, registries, people who adopt kids, people who res-cue animals, “or just because.” HTT

Gift items represent a major part of Nestldown’s day-to-day sales volume. Here are two of the store’s top-selling items. Left is The Cuddle Robe, by Cobra/Espalma, made of polyester microfiber and priced at $90 each. Right is the “And they lived happily ever after” decorative pillow, a 14-by-18 home accessory that Weaver says makes a good gift for almost any occasion at $70 each.

Laura Weaver, who opened Nestldown four year ago in Scottsdale, Arizona, said bedding is her core product category offering. She is seen here standing next to one of three display bedding vignettes featured in her 1,100-square-foot store.

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12 Home Textiles Today News > hometextilestoday.com

Members of the Peykar family celebrated the opening of Nourison’s new Manhattan showroom at 295 5th Avenue during New York Home Fashion Market. Company principal Alex, center, with wife and dec pillow division chief Mina, left, and their sister-in-law Evelyn, right.

Nourison Fetes New Showroom

NEW YORK — High-end bath house Chortex launched its bedding col-lection at market last month with two collections — a stripe and a fl o-ral.

Giving a modern twist to traditional designs, Chortex’s new bed-ding program for the U.S. market is all 200-count 100% cotton per-cale for a soft feel.

One bed features yarn-dyed stripes in blues, brown and a bright pink against a white ground. It includes the top-of-bed comforter and shams as well as matching sheet sets.

The second is a damask-inspired floral with a more contempo-rary floral interpreta-tion and palette, using blues and reds against a white ground.

Also new for mar-ket from Chortex were three bath ensemble programs from Tur-key, including: the 100% Egyptian long-staple cotton Rhap-sody grouping in six solid colors; Irvington, a 700-gram Pima cot-

ton towel available in six solid colors; and Royal Ascot, a 100% Supima cotton prod-

uct that comes in eight solid colors.The average price points for the towels are estimated at: $9 for the

fi ngertip, $20 for the hand towel, $30 for the bath towel and $60 for the bath sheet. HTT

NEW YORK — After spending the past 12-plus markets setting up shop in two large corner suites at The New York Palace luxury hotel, decorative pillow com-pany Spencer N. Enterprises Inc. landed a roomy permanent showroom at 295 Fifth Avenue.

Situated on the Textile Build-ing’s ninth floor, the 3,000-square-foot space — formerly the Homedics showroom — features at least twice as many decorative pillow styles — more than 1,500 — and upwards of fi ve times as many soft window treatments —about 500 looks — than the

company was able to display at its former stage in the adjoining hotel suites in Midtown.

Joy Stewart, president, told HTT that the move happened very quickly. “We literally signed the lease two weeks [before mar-ket began], and then moved in last Monday.”

She explained the new space comes as the company is expand-ing its offering into a more total soft home décor source.

“While our core business remains dec pillows, our win-dow line is rapidly growing and this market we’ve added the new

outdoor cushion category,” Stew-art said. “We’ve been growing but haven’t had enough space to show all of the product, so this showroom helps us do that, plus its much more convenient for our buyers.”

Aside from the bi-annual New York Home Fashions mar-ket, Spencer will also regularly be using this new space — about once a month — to work with customers in this region.

Spencer’s other permanent showroom is a 5,000-square-foot space at its Los Angeles-based headquarters. HTT

Chortex US Includes Bedding Among

Market Intros

October 3, 2011

Spencer Enterprises Moves into New Permanent

Showroom at 295

NEW YORK — Steadfast on its ongoing road to expanded cat-egory offerings, Natco Home came to market with products that represent two new busi-ness segments for the company – bath rugs and bedding.

Natco’s fi rst full-line bath rug assortment debuted during mar-ket week with a broad assort-ment of styles. Developed and designed by evp Bryan Bogas, this new collection includes many fashion styles under one core theme – comfort.

One of the headliners is the

reversible microfi ber bath mat, which is padded for comfort and soft to the touch. It comes in sage, aqua, brown, black, linen, amethyst, and white.

Other constructions include: the Noodle microfi ber chenille with bright poly yarn blend; Shaggy, a poodle-style knit-ted microfiber polyester; the Terry-Loop memory foam knit-ted microfi ber; Multi-Shagg, a knitted microfiber poly high-pile; and the Cordoroy and Cordoroy Stripe knitted micro-fi ber chenille with bright poly

yarns.Market also marked Natco’s

offi cial foray into its newest cat-egory – bedding. Via its recent alignment with Pakistani manu-facturer AmTex, the company is offering retailers an assortment of sheeting and top of bedding products.

The line includes bed-in-a-bag sets, sheet sets, coverlets and decorative pillows, many of them including special fea-tures like wrinkle-free fi nishes, said Nadeem Ifdikhar, AmTex director of marketing. HTT

Natco Debuted Bath Rugs, Sheets at Market

From Chortex’s Rhapsody collection

NEW YORK — The John Ritzen-thaler Co. has added new looks and offerings to its “Soap & Water” microfi ber-made house program as well as upped its printed kitchen and table coor-dinates.

New to the microfi ber wares are polka doted aprons, microfi -ber kitchen towels and microfi -ber sponges as well as matching plastic dish brushers and fash-ion latex gloves.

“We’ve got everything for the kitchen sink, and we’ve made it fun to take the mundane out of the tiresome task of clean-ing,” said Debby Stirner, direc-tor of design and product devel-opment. “It’s like paper clips. You’d rather use the color ones than the plain ones.”

The company said while microfiber works as an alter-native to cotton, it also carries

properties conducive to the kitchen textiles category.

“Microfi ber doesn’t just fi ll a void – it has great functional attributes,” Stirner said.

To its ongoing “Kitchen-wear” printed program of coor-dinates, Ritzenthaler has added an updated version to its Vin-tage Damask with new colors as well as introduced the new Palm and Blue-and-White Flo-ral groupings. The components here include: apron, comfort kitchen mat, kitchen towels, pot holders and oven mitts.

Finally, to its seasonal offer-ing the company presented its new “Inspired By Nature” col-lection. It comes in three styles: the poppies-themed Tranquil-ity; he butterfl y Serenity group; and the Simplicity design fea-turing a bird on a cherry blos-som tree branch. HTT

Ritzenthaler Expands Micro-fiber Program

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13 Home Textiles TodayNewsNews> hometextilestoday.com

damage a business’s reputation in that sphere, she said.

“It’s not about how many fans you have [on Facebook],” she added, “It’s about how you’re going to keep your existing fans engaged.”

Crystal Vilkaitis, director of so-cial media at Snap Retail, which helps gift and home retailers ex-pand their business through on-line and social media marketing strategies, also emphasized the importance of pursuing quality rather than quantity.

“If you only have 100 [follow-ers] and these are people who can buy from you, then that’s what matters,” she said. “What is the purpose of your page? I do recommend setting up some goals — just like you do in sales and marketing.”

Vilkaitis offered what she called the 70/20/10 rule for Facebook:

• 70% of posts should provide value to fans, e.g., tips, trend in-formation, advice, links to rele-vant articles;

• 20% should consist of shar-ing pertinent information from sources outside the company;

• 10% should be self-promo-

tion, including discount offers and new product information.

Brett Goldberg, president of Synqware.com, a software solu-tions company specializing in retail, said the key to online and social media marketing is to cre-ate something that’s “fi ndable, clickable and saveable.”

The Internet has quickly moved from push marketing — e.g., unsolicited email offers — to pull marketing, through which a consumer with a spe-

cifi c need goes out in search of information and/or product.

QR codes, which are mush-rooming on consumer goods ranging from movie posters to product packages, also have ap-plication in the B2B realm, he noted.

Vendors exhibiting at trade shows can put a QR tag on their booth linking to video about the company or contact infor-mation, “just as you would ex-change a business card,” said

Goldberg. QR can also be used on point-of-sale material and postcards, he added.

Blogs can also play an essen-tial role in building a brand’s reputation, although a business no longer has to establish its own blog to leverage the chan-nel, according to Chris Phil-lips, sales and marketing direc-tor for Apartment Therapy, a home furnishings lifestyle blog that draws 7 million unique vis-itors a month.

He noted there are many

high-traffic blogs in existence that focus on home. “Just as you would pitch [a story about a new product] to long-lead magazines and newspapers, you should pitch bloggers.”

He a l so r ecommended launching a pop-up blog. Mod-eled on the concept of short-lived pop-up retail stores, the pop-up blog is created around a particular event such as a trade show or new product launch.

Twitter is also best deployed around a happening, offered Suval.

“Twitter is a call to action,” she said, noting the deployment of Twitter recently to share event information about Fashion’s Night Out.

When gauging the overall strategy, she said, a company needs to ask itself what is at the center of its brand DNA.

“You don’t have to participate in every kind of social media,” said Suval. “Figure out what’s right for your brand.”

A video excerpt of the speak-ers is available on HTT’s home page at www.hometextilestoday.com and on YouTube head-lined HTTContext.

Conference sponsors includ-ed Snap Retail, 295 Fifth Avenue and E.A. Hughes and Co. HTT

Above: Crystal Vilkaitis of Snap Retail spoke of quality over quality; at left: Brett Goldberg of Synqware.com said the key to social media marketing is to create something “clickable.”

ConTextSOCIAL FROM PAGE 1

NEW YORK — Looking to bet-ter court mass market merchants with specific product designs, Surya launched its newly de-veloped in-house brand, Artistic Weavers at market last month.

“This is our new brand that we will develop and sell to our mass market customers,” said Paul Sullivan, svp. “It’s about the value equation. It’s about prod-uct that is innovative and fash-ionable at competitive prices. We’re taking some design feel-ings and colors that are popu-lar at the higher end of the mar-ketplace and then reinterpreting them for Artistic Weavers.”

The mass market channels Surya is targeting includes home centers, warehouse clubs and discount chains, he said.

One of the new rug construc-tions under the Artistic Weav-ers brand is an over-tufted rug grouping of contemporary and transitional patterns. Made in

China of 100% polyester, these rugs are fi rst machine tufted and then are hand-tufted for a raised effect and added texture. A 5-by-8 is priced at $179.

Hitting the same price mark is a rug collection made of 85% wool, 15% nylon. “The palette here is made to work with all fur-niture styles – leather, suede, fab-ric. It’s an important part of the total strategy,” Sullivan said.

Hitting a slightly higher retail bracket — $199 — The third rug construction is a hand-tuft-ed looped 100% wool grouping. “The cool thing about this col-lection is that we’ve washed it three times to reduce the shed-ding,” he said.

Some new novelty looks also fall under the Artistic Weavers brand, and at a more aggressive ticket -- $129. Made of pieces of worn jeans, the Denim collec-tion comes in a variety of patch-work styles. HTT

Surya Unveils New House Brand – Artistic Weavers

October 3, 2011

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14 Home Textiles Today Events > hometextilestoday.com

1. Eric Vergucht, left, and Onur Uyanik, both Chortex.

2. From left, Daniel McKinnon and Meike Kern, both Messe Frankfurt; and Kent Hicks, EA International.

3. Jason Carr, left, and Rodney Carr, both Softline Home Fashions.

4. Budd Goldman, left, and Pam Edgett, both Ellery HomeStyles.

5. Dale Brown, left, and Carla Franciose, both EA International.

6. From left, Myron Mann, Brooklyn Home Ltd.; Harry Kartus, Pem America; and Bill Spencer, PMG International.

HTT Hosts Market Kick-off Party

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October 3, 2011

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15 Home Textiles TodayOctober 3, 2011

1. From left, Keith Bolton, Soft-Tex; Fred Rosen, Rosen & Co.; and Art Perry, Soft-Tex.

2. Spencer Rogers, left, Greenland Home Fashions, and Holly Bliss, Bliss Designs.

3. From left, Gary Lyon, Bianca USA; PBS home improvement host Vicki Payne; and Jim Hamlin, JT Enterprises.

4. Joe Pinelli, Sander Home Fashions; Susan Beresford, Colonial Home Textiles; and Matt Danis, Sander Home Fashions.

5. Carl Legreca, left, Croscill, and Pat Bannon, Linensource.

6. From left, Linda Cohen, Jeff Cohen, both ITM; Debbie Powell, Spark Marketing; and Tom Gallucci, ITM.

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16 Home Textiles Today Events > hometextilestoday.com

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1. From left, Tony Caldeira, Lucy Nesbitt, Carolyn Winderbaum and Lindsey Foster, all of Caldeira.

2. From left, Valerie Yadron, Gerrit Swearingen and Erin Smidt, all Feizy; Jacque LeMay, Fred Meyer; and Q.M. Song, Feizy.

3. From left, Carol Cassel, Jeffrey Fabrics; John Levanchy, Ellis Curtain; Heidi Phebus, HSP Enterprises; Dustin Ellis, Ellis Curtain; and Alex Lowe, Alexander Terry.

4. Robert Ranko, Frontgate.

5. Alan Eisenberg, left, and Kyle Borreggine, both Protect-a-Bed.

6. From left, Lindsey Allison, Ralph Lauren; Linda Wright, Dillard’s; and Cathy Spinos, Croscill.

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Retailers and Vendors Meet and GreetOctober 3, 2011

htt111001_014 16 9/28/2011 6:29:27 PM

Thank You

Once again this market, more people in the industry chose Home Textiles Today than any

other publication for their informational needs in print and online, for their educational needs

with our fi rst ConText Conference onOnline & Beyond and for their networking needs with our Big Market Kick-off Party.

Thank you to our readers, our customers and

the home textiles industry.

Textiles is our Middle Name

HTT 2011 Market thank you.indd 1 9/29/11 12:32 PM

18 Home Textiles Today > hometextilestoday.com

PEOPLETodaY

CARTHAGE, MO. — Compo-nents supplier Leggett & Platt said Paul Hauser, the company’s senior vice president and presi-dent of its residential furnishings segment, will retire Feb. 18.

Hauser, 60, will be succeeded by Perry Davis, currently a com-pany vice president and president of the bedding group. Davis, 52, will be promoted to senior vice president and president of the

residential furnishings segment upon Hauser’s retirement.

Hauser has been with Leggett & Platt since 1980 and has held several posts in the bedding group. He has been president of the residential furnishings seg-ment since 2005.

Davis has been with the com-pany since 1981 and has been in his current post since 2006. HTT

Davis to Succeed Retiring Hauser

MATTHEWS, NC — Family Dol-lar has hired drugstore executive Michael Bloom as president and chief operating officer and pro-moted chief merchant Dorlisa Flur to the position of vice chair, strategy and chief administrative offi cer.

They succeed James Kelly, who is retiring as president and coo after 15 years with the com-pany. Bloom and Flur report to Howard Levine, chairman and ceo.

Bloom was most recently evp

of merchandising, supply chain, marketing and advertising for CVS Caremark, a fi rm with which he has spent 20 year. Prior to that, he spent a decade as a manager/exec-utive with the Virginia-based Peo-ple’s Drug Stores and the Florida division of Toronto-based Shop-per’s Drug Mart.

Flur joined Family Dollar in 2004 as svp for strategy and busi-ness development and has been promoted twice since. Prior to that, she was a principal with global management fi rm McKin-

sey & Company.The new structure “reflects

the result of several years of thoughtful discussion and plan-ning as we prepared for Jim’s retirement,” said Levine. “We are pursuing an ambitious growth agenda to expand our market share and drive greater fi nancial returns.”

Although Kelly is stepping down from day-to-day operations, he will serve as vice chair for six months, assisting Bloom and Flur through the transition. HTT

Management Shift at Family Dollar

OMAHA, NEB. — Gordmans Inc. named Andy Lundquist, who brings more than two decades of retail management career experi-ence, to the post of vice president of stores.

Lundquist most recently was svp of stores for Kohl’s Department Stores, where he was charged with overseeing 270 units. He was also instrumental in the opening of more than 300 new stores and six new markets for Kohl’s.

Lundquist began his retail management career in 1988 as

an assistant store manager with Richman Gordman Department Stores, the predecessor of Gord-mans.

“Andy brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and expertise to Gordmans’ executive team,” said Jeff Gordman, president and ceo. “His tremendous experi-ence developing talent, as well as expanding a big-box retailer from a regional presence to a national footprint, is a perfect complement to Gordmans’ expansion strategy.” HTT

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — Off-price mid-tier department store chain Stein Mart has named its chair-man of the board, Jay Stein, as its interim ceo.

The appointment is effective immediately and follows the retirement of David Stovall Jr., who has held that position since 2008.

“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Dave for his ser-vice to Stein Mart over the last three years, and in particular, his accomplishments in return-ing the Company to solid prof-itability,” said Stein. “We wish him many happy years of well-earned retirement.”

In announcing this news, the company also noted that it has formed a search committee of the board of directors. It is led by Robert Mettler, who serves as the board’s chair of the strategic planning committee.

“We have a wonderful set of strengths that give us a solid foundation for future growth,” Stein continued. “These include our tremendously loyal customer base, strong fi nancial position, and most of all, a talented man-agement team. I am enthusias-tic about deepening my engage-ment with our senior leaders to move forward with our growth initiatives.” HTT

Stein Mart Names Jay Stein Interim ceo

Gordmans Appoints Lundquist VP, Stores

NEW YORK — Revere Mills bid adieu to its longtime president John Vanden Berge with an inti-mate gathering of colleagues and industry friends at the com-pany’s seventh fl oor showroom at 295 Fifth Ave during market.

But the goodbyes are not for good.

Vanden Berge, who has been with Revere since 1995, told HTT he will continue to be an active participant in Revere’s business, serving as a consul-tant and other functions, as needed.

Added company owner and chairperson of the board, Lori Gideon: “John remains involved, still behind the scenes in a very supportive role.”

At the cocktail retirement party, she made a speech about Vanden Berge in which she noted: “John has been a trans-formative figure and has led Revere to be the innovative company that it is today.”

Upon Vanden Berge’s offi cial departure, which was in early August, Revere has assembled a new executive team. Aside from Gideon, it also includes: Jeff Gregg, who was promoted to ceo from his former post as pres-ident; Sue Rivera, promoted to vp of operations; Elaine Aschen-brand, who remains director of marketing and product devel-opment; and Dana Levenstein, import manager. HTT

Above: Vanden Berge’s “succession team” includes Elaine Aschenbrand, director of marketing and product development; Jeff Gregg, ceo; Sue Rivera, vp of operations; Dana Levenstein,

import manager; and Lori Gideon, owner and chairperson.Below: John Vanden Berge with his wife, Nancy

Revere Hosts Party for Vanden Berge; Assembles New Top Exec Team

October 3, 2011

htt111001_018 18 9/29/2011 11:20:21 AM

HAS THE ANSWER

Untitled-1 1 8/31/2011 12:50:57 PM

20 Home Textiles Today > hometextilestoday.com

BUSINESSTodaY

NEW YORK — The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was up 4.2% in the fourth week of September follow-ing a 4.1% gain the previous week.

Retailers reported anoth-er week of mixed results, not-ed Caitlin Levis of Redbook Re-search.

“Business continued to lack strong themes with pockets of relative strength combining with weakness,” she said. “Discount stores as a group managed to hold steady on the week, supported by basics such as house-hold supplies and food, due in part to anticipa-tion for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Department stores, however, continued their falling trend.”

Some retailers are starting to display Christ-mas and Halloween merchandise side by side as

well as re-launching layaway programs, allow-ing shoppers to reserve an item in order to get a head start to the holiday shopping season, she noted.

Month-to-date, September was up 4.4% compared to September 2010, relative to a tar-get of a 4.6% gain. Month-over-month showed a 0.1% drop compared to August, relative to a target of a 0.1% gain.

September is a fi ve-week month on the re-tail calendar, ending on Oct.1. HTT

Same-store sales

Comps Held Steady in September’s Fourth Week

Johnson Redbook IndexFourth week of September, year-over-year % change

WEEK ENDED 9/3 9/10 9/17 9/24 10/1 MONTH TARGET

Department stores* 3.2 3.0 2.7 2.5 2.8 3.8Discounters 5.9 5.4 4.9 5.0 5.3 5.1Redbook Index 4.9 4.5 4.1 4.2 4.4 4.6*Including chain stores and traditional department storesSource: Johnson Redbook Index

October 3, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO — One Kings Lane, a home goods flash sales site, raised $40 million in Series C fi nancing led by a new inves-tor, Tiger Global Management. Additional participants include new investor Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) along with existing investors Kleiner Perkins Cau-fi eld & Byers (KPCB) and Grey-lock Partners.

The funding, which brings the total amount raised to $67 mil-lion, will be used for continued investment in the business to de-liver strong customer satisfaction, new member acquisition, mer-

chandising and technology inno-vation, along with business model expansion.

One Kings Lane surpassed $100 million in annualized reve-nues and added its two millionth member earlier this year.

Lee Fixel, managing director of Tiger Global, will join James Slavet, partner, Greylock and Bing Gordon, partner, KPCB, as observers on the One Kings Lane Board. Aileen Lee, partner, KPCB, One Kings Lane found-ers Susan Feldman and Alison Pincus, and ceo Doug Mack, will continue on the board. HTT

One Kings Lane Secures Funding

SEATTLE — Upscale cooking and kitchenwares chain Sur La Table, was acquired by Investcorp, a Bahrain-based investment group. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Investcorp acquired the 86-store retailer from the Behnke fam-ily and investment fi rm Freeman Spogli & Co., who both will re-main investors. The Behnke family purchased the first Sur La Table store in 1995 and started the retailer’s expansion.

Kevin Nickelberry, a managing director at Investcorp, said the company “has multiple opportunities for growth including new store expansion and e-commerce.” HTT

Investcorp Buys Sur La Table

WASHINGTON — Import cargo volume at the nation’s major re-tail container ports is beginning to see cautious increases over last year again, ending a sum-mer-long downturn as retailers prepare for the holiday season, said the National Retail Feder-ation and Hackett Associates in their latest monthly Global Port Tracker report.

Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the con-sulting fi rm Hackett Associates, covers the U.S. ports of Long Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jer-sey, Hampton Roads, Charles-ton and Savannah on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast.

“With the most crucial spending period of the year just weeks away, retailers have made

careful decisions on the amount of merchandise they need to properly stock their stores dur-ing the holidays,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vp for president for supply chain and customs pol-icy. “This year, retailers have the luxury of importing holiday goods later than last year, which better ensures their inventory levels will accurately meet con-sumer demand.”

Year-over-year growth is be-ginning to resume in Septem-ber, which is forecast to be up 11.8% from September 2010 at 1.5 million TEU. October is forecast at 1.48 million TEU, up 9.5%; November at 1.33 million TEU, up 8%; and December at 1.2 million TEU, up 4.5%. Jan-uary 2012 is forecast at 1.19 mil-lion TEU, down 1% from Janu-ary 2011.

The total for 2011 is fore-

cast at 15.4 million TEU, up 4.3% from 2010. Imports during 2010 totaled 14.7 million TEU, a 16% increase over unusually low numbers in 2009.

Given the seasonal nature of cargo volume and continuing uncertainties about the econo-my, Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett was cautious about cargo volume in 2012.

“We should not be lulled into too much confidence by the relatively strong import vol-umes of August and Septem-ber,” Hackett said. “These are linked to the low levels of in-ventory that needed to be raised to meet the return-to-school and post-Thanksgiving sales. The third quarter will be positive for the ocean carriers and retailers but that will turn into negative growth for the next two to three quarters thereafter.” HTT

NRF: Retail Container Ttraffic Downturn Halts as Stores Prep for Holidays UNION, N.J. — Bed Bath & Be-

yond Inc. saw its net earnings, sales and comps all climb over its second quarter.

Net earnings jumped 33% to $229.4 million, or $.93 per dilut-ed share, in the fi scal second quar-ter ended August 27, compared to the year-ago period’s $181.8 mil-lion, or $.70 per diluted share.

Net sales increased 8.3% to $2.314 billion from $2.137 bil-lion in the 2010 same period, and comparable store sales grew 5.6%. Year-to-date results includ-ed: a 35% increase in net earnings to $410.0 million, or $1.65 per di-luted share, versus $319.3 million, or $1.22 per diluted share in the corresponding period a year ago; a 9.0% rise in net sales to $4.424 billion compared to $4.060 bil-

lion; and comp gains of 6.3%. The company is now model-

ing net earnings per diluted share to be approximately 82 cents to 87 cents for the fi scal third quarter of 2011 and to increase by approxi-mately 22% to 25% for all of fis-cal 2011.

The company ended the quar-ter with 1,155 stores, including: 986 Bed Bath & Beyond stores in all 50 states, the District of Co-lumbia, Puerto Rico and Canada; 70 Christmas Tree Shops stores; 54 buybuy Baby stores; and 45 stores under the names of Har-mon or Harmon Face Values.Since the beginning of the third quarter, which started Aug. 28, an additional three Bed Bath & Beyond stores and two buybuy BABY units opened. HTT

BBB Reports Net Earnings Up

htt111001_020 20 9/29/2011 10:28:57 AM

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HOME TEXTILES TODAY (USPS 497-490) (ISSN 0195-3184) is published 29 times a year except for the weeks of 1/3, 2/14, 2/28, 3/20, 4/11, 4/25, 5/2, 5/16/,5/30, 6/13, 6/27, 7/4, 8/1, 8/15, 8/29, 9/5, 9/26, 10/17, 10/31, 11/14, 11/28, 12/12, 12/26 by Furniture/Today Media Group, 360 Park Avenue South, 17th fl., New York, NY, 10010 a subsidiary of Sandow Media LLC, 3731 NW 8th Ave, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. HOME TEXTILES TODAY copyright ©2011 by Sandow Media LLC. Annual subscription rates: U.S. and Canada $169.97; 1 year, other countries $325.99 for surface mail and $525.00 for airmail. All payments must be made in U.S. currency. Subscription inquiries: HOME TEXTILES TODAY, PO Box 5879, Harlan, IA 51593-1379. Phone: (866) 456-0405. HOME TEXTILES TODAY and THE BUSINESS AND FASHION NEWSPAPER OF THE HOME TEXTILES INDUSTRY are registered trademarks of Sandow Media LLC, used under license. Sandow Media LLC does not assume and hereby disclaims liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material contained herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever. (Posted under Canadian International Publication Agreement No.40624074. Sandow Media/CDS (Mint Hill)

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jennifer Marks10 Ocean Blvd #8B

Atlantic Highlands, N.J. 07716(732) 204-2012 | jnegley@hometextilestoday.com

PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTORWarren Shoulberg

(646) 805-0226 | wshoulberg@hometextilestoday.com

PRODUCT EDITOR Cecile B. Corral428 Bianca Ave. Coral Gables, FL 33146

(305) 661-7493 | cbcorral@aol.com

MANAGING EDITOR Julie Murphy(646) 805-0224 | jmurphy@hometextilestoday.com

DIRECTOR OF MARKET RESEARCH Dana French(336) 605-1091 | dfrench@sandowmedia.com

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, ACCOUNT MANAGER CHINA Jeff Reeves (336) 605-1009 | jreeves@hometextilestoday.com

ACCOUNT MANAGER NORTHEAST/MIDWEST/WEST COAST/CANADA

Mary McLoughlin(646) 805-0227 | mmcloughlin@hometextilestoday.com

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PRODUCTION MANAGER Rich LambTel: (336) 605-1074; Fax: (336) 605-1143 | rlamb@ sandowmedia.com

DIRECTOR, WEB OPERATIONS Chris Schultz | (336) 605-1076 | cschultz@sandowmedia.com

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E-MEDIA PROJECT MANAGER Missy Axe | (336) 605-1005 | maxe@sandowmedia.com

DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE MARKETING Allison Ternes(704) 573-9007 | aternes@sandowmedia.com

PRESIDENT, FURNITURE TODAY GROUP Kevin Castellani

(336) 605-1034 | kcastellani@sandowmedia.com

FOUNDING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Carole Sloan1979-2011

SANDOW MEDIA

PRESIDENT AND CEO Adam I. Sandow

CFO/COO Christopher Fabian

VP CREATIVE AND EDITORIAL Yolanda E. Yoh

EVP, GROUP PUBLISHER James N. Dimonekas

October 3, 2011

NEW YORK — Via a new company-developed fiber and printing con-struction technique, Maples Rugs has brought to market a stand-alone fash-ion bath rug.

Wade Maples, co-owner, said the collection stems from “a new tech-nique we developed to produce a sift yarn with a printed pattern. Normal-ly, it’s diffi cult to print on a soft yarn because it doesn’t stay in position for the printer. But we’ve come up with our own method to solve this prob-lem.”

These printed bath rugs are set to retail for $19.99.

Also new in Maples bath rug cat-egory for market was its micro-nylon collection. The company “changed the construction of a new Invista [branded] fiber to make it softer,” Maples explained. This collection represents the company’s “top of the market” at $24.99.

“It’s our softest rug right now,” he added. “It’s got a soft hand a cush-ioned underfoot.”

All of these rugs are solid colored and come in a broad palette. HTT

Maples Develops Printing,

Micro-nylon Techniques

NEW YORK — Jay Franco and Sons will produce juvenile bedding and room accessories under its newly inked li-cense partnership with Nickelode-on. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur-tles and Winx Club are two of several properties included in the agreement.

Set to launch in spring 2012 nation-wide, the program will target major discount and specialty channels of dis-tribution. Other properties included in the deal stem from popular Nick-elodeon shows, such as Dora the Ex-plorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, Team Umizoomi, and Victorious.

“We believe that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be a very important boy brand that will allow us to offer ex-citing fresh products for TMNT [Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles] fans of all ages,” said Joseph A. Franco, vp, Jay

Franco and Sons. “We’re also looking forward to introducing a new line of products for girls based on the Winx Club.”

The product lineup will include: comforters, sheet sets, quilts and em-bellished decorative pillows as well as bath coordinates and beach towels featuring the stories and characters of each property.

“We are thrilled to be working with Jay Franco and Sons to develop excit-ing product lines based on our newest boy property, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and our newest girl property, Winx Club,” said Hal Snik, svp, soft lines licensing, Nickelodeon Consum-er Products. “This partnership also al-lows us to leverage Jay Franco’s rela-tionships at specialty and department stores to introduce new products from our most popular Nickelodeon shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, and Victorious.” HTT

Jay Franco and Sons, Nickelodeon Align for Kids’ Bedding and Bath Collections

LEGAL NOTICESTATEMENT OFOWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION

(Act of August 12, 1970; Section 3685 title 39 U.S. code)

1. Publication title: Home Textiles Today2. Publication number: 497-4903. Filing date: 10/1/20114. Issue Frequency: 29 times a year except for the weeks of 1/3, 2/14, 2/28, 3/20, 4/11, 4/25, 5/2,

5/16, 5/30, 6/13, 6/27, 7/4, 8/1, 8/15, 8/29, 9/5, 9/26, 10/17, 10/31, 11/14, 11/28, 12/12, 12/26.5. No. of issues printed annually: 296. Annual subscription price: US & Canada: $169.97, Other countries: $325.99 for surface7. Complete mailing address of known offi ce of publication: Sandow Media, Furniture Today Media

Group, 360 Park Avenue South, 17th Floor, New York, NY 100108. Complete mailing address of headquarters of publisher: Sandow Media, 7025 Albert Pick Road,

2nd Floor, Greensboro, NC 274099. Publisher: Warren Shoulberg, Publisher/Editorial Director, Sandow Media, Furniture Today Media

Group, 360 Park Avenue South, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10010; Editor: Jennifer Marks, Editor-in-Chief, Sandow Media, 10 Ocean Blvd. #8B, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716 ; Managing Editor: Julie Murphy, Sandow Media, 360 Park Avenue South, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10010

10. Owner: Sandow Media, 7025 Albert Pick Road, 2nd Floor, Greensboro, NC 2740911. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or

more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None12. Not applicable13. Publication name: Home Textiles Today14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 12, 201115. Extent and nature of circulation Avg. no copies No. copies preceding nearest to 12 months fi ling dateA. Total number of copies 7,421 6,542B 1. Mail subscriptions, outside-county 5,800 5,840 2. Mail subscriptions, inside-county 0 0 3. Paid or requested outside the USPS 160 132 4. Other classes through USPS 0 0 C. Total paid and/or requested circulation 5,960 5,972D. Nonrequested distribution: 1. Outside-county 258 214 2. In-county 0 0 3. Other classes through USPS 0 0 4. Nonrequested outside the mail 899 43E. Total nonrequested distribution 1,157 257F. Total distribution 7,117 6,229G. Copies not distributed 304 313H. Total 7,421 6,542I. Percent Paid and/or requested circulation 83.74% 95.87%

This statement of ownership will be printed in the October 3, 2011 issue of this publication.

I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions criminal sanctions (including fi nes and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

Warren Shoulberg, Publisher

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QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER WANTEDNYC based home textile company seeks a Quality Assurance Manger.

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National Sales Manager and Sales Representatives36-yr privately held mfr and importer of home textiles and general merchandise seeks qualifi ed NY based Nat’l Sales Manager, and, nationwide Sales Reps for a developing/expanding new division of company. Division focuses exclusively on

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Product Development/Production AssociateHome Furnishings company, with design center in Queens, NY, is looking for liaison between design and production. Must have 5 years experience in home furnishings and a thorough understanding of how bedding products are made. Will need to take new products and create specifi cation sheets for overseas mills. Great company and opportunity for the right person.

Send resume and salary history to: response.2008@yahoo.com

October 3, 2011

al materials refer to her as “the most recognizable Hispanic fe-male personality in the fi eld of home décor and lifestyle.”

For Anna’s, the program – the fi rst time it has ever done a proprietary licensed line – is a

major step in offering exclusive branded merchandise to its cus-tomer demographic, which in-cludes a larger number of His-

panic women. “We are offering a broad variety of styles in the line,” said Carie Doll, chief merchandising officer for An-na’s, based here, “which will ap-peal to our customers’ tastes and be offered at an affordable price point. Her audience is our cus-

tomer.” The four bedding

collections, inspired by nature and called Orlando, Casanova, Moonlight and Night-ingale, feature items that all retail for under $120 and represent the

top of the Anna’s mix. Bath prod-ucts, including rugs, will arrive in the stores in December and January and window treatments

will follow in the fi rst quarter of next year.

“I’ve always dreamed of creat-ing a line that would bring great style and value together,” said Brazzi, whose shows appear on the Galavision and Univision networks. “I knew right away that Anna’s Linens was the right place for my line.”

Anna’s will hold decorating workshops with Brazzi, the fi rst of which is scheduled for Houston later this year. Print advertising will break the program, which will be in all Anna’s stores, in the middle of October with TV scheduled to follow. HTT

The new Anna’s program will start with bedding, including Casanova. The bedding collections will be followed by additional products in bath, window and table.

Anna’s Linens Teams with Brazzi

ANNA’S FROM PAGE 1

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