Patio & Hearth Product Report July/August 2016

LLOYD FLANDERS

MONESSEN/HEARTH & HOME TECHNOLOGIES

HESTAN OUTDOOR

GENSUN CASUAL LIVING

10th Anniversary Issue

www.patioandhearthproductsreport.com

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contents July/August 2016 • Volume 11, Number 4

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Features GUEST EDITORIAL – MILLENNIALS MATTER

By Jeff Fromm

AS I SEE IT – THE DESIGN LEADER

By Sharon Sanders

An expert on millennial consumers compares their buying habits with those of older customers.

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Steve Elton of Brown Jordan explains how the company became an industry leader.

44 MY TURN – PRESERVING A LEGACY

By Kimberly Rodgers

SPOTLIGHT – HAPPY HUES

By Greg Thompson

Today’s outdoor fabrics feature bright colors and exquisite patterns that are luxe enough for the indoors.

18 MARKETING MANEUVERS – TARGET MARKETING

By Kimberly Rodgers

With family ties spanning generations, OW Lee is known for fostering strong, long-term relationships with retailers and customers.

48 PRODUCT INNOVATION – A FOCUS ON FORM

By Sharon Sanders

Two stores in very different locations demand distinct merchandising efforts.

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Woodbridge Fireplace’s innovative and stylish designs are winning over design-conscious consumers.

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HEARTH RETAILER – TIES THAT BIND

By Sharon Sanders

CORPORATE PROFILE – THE REBIRTH OF AGIO

By Cheryl Dangel Bartolini

Southern Hearth & Patio’s staff forges lifelong bonds with customers.

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Agio’s latest collections feature modern looks and ontrend styles as consumer interest moves toward contemporary offerings.

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OUTDOOR GRILLING – CREATIVE MARKETING

By Cheryl Dangel Bartolini

A retailer reaches out to the community by offering classes and special events.

34 SHOWROOM SHOWCASE – MAKE IT FUN

By Cheryl Dangel Bartolini

This patio store finds success by staying open only during the warm months.

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INSIGHT – STRONG AND NIMBLE

By Cherise Forno

Dansons’ focus on a two-brand strategy has contributed to its explosive growth.

60 INSIGHT – A WARM RECEPTION

By Cherise Forno

Fireplace retailers and their customers have responded positively to the new Allen Home brand of hearth products.

62 SHOP TALK – CREATING EXPERIENTIAL RETAIL

By Ryan Bloom

An expert in experiential retail reveals how conducting in-store special events strengthens profitability.

64 LAST WORD – TRUE FIRE

By Greg Thompson

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Mendota Hearth’s inserts and logs feature some of the most realistic flames in the marketplace.

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76 In Every Issue REFLECTIONS

Editor’s Message

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INDUSTRY NEWS Edited by Kris Kyes

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ICFA PREVIEW SHOW™ ROUNDUP

WHAT’S NEW: 6 HOT PRODUCTS TO SELL NOW

70 PRODUCT PROFILES

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PRODUCT PROFILES DIRECTORY

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AD INDEX

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editor’s message

Reflections I’m pleased to report that this issue marks the 10th anniversary of Patio & Hearth Products Report. At a time when most new companies fail within less than five years of startup, and print magazines fold as web content dominates, we are very proud of our milestone.

It’s hard not to look back and recognize how much life has changed since our July/August 2006 preview issue was published. Twitter was launched that year, and Facebook users were predominantly high-school/college students.

George W. Bush was president, and “Grey’s Anatomy” was the big television hit.

When Patio & Hearth Products Report was unveiled in 2006, the U.S. economy was strong, along with the entire home-improvement industry. It was the perfect time to introduce a new products-based trade magazine that addressed outdoor-living and hearth products.

After the magazine had been in business for just two years, the recession struck, causing domestic- and imported-furniture manufacturing shipments to drop an unprecedented 30.2% (a decline not seen since the Great Depression). As we watched many small specialty retailers and companies go out of business, we knew that we would also face challenges in making our fledgling magazine thrive during turbulent times. Like the retailers who kept their stores open and the manufacturers who kept their businesses afloat, though, we did not let the recession prevent us from producing a first-class publication that would resonate with readers and advertisers.

Many of the manufacturers we worked with during the recession not only survived, but became stronger and more profitable. The same was true of the small to midsized specialty stores that competed fiercely against big-box stores and mass retailers. We are grateful for all the retailers and companies that have kept our industry vibrant—in times of both austerity and prosperity.

When Tony Ramos, our publisher, invited me to be the editor (more than 10 years ago), I was somewhat leery. We both had strong backgrounds in health-care publishing, but knew little about the casual-furniture, hearth, and grill industries, even though we had bought patio sets, fireplaces, and barbecues for our homes. I was a little hesitant to switch to something outside my comfort zone. After launching Patio & Hearth Products Report, however, I found myself enjoying this field. Our magazine’s focus on stylish outdoor designs, cozy fireplaces, and gourmet-style grills is certainly more appealing than technical content involving insurance policies and medical procedures.

A huge reward is working with a stellar group of industry professionals committed to offering high-quality products that enhance the way we live, relax, and entertain in our homes. I can’t imagine working with people who are more optimistic, helpful, and hard-working.

I want to express my deep gratitude for the creative and

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Carol Daus cdauswrite@socal.rr.com

industrious staff of Patio & Hearth Products Report. We have been blessed, from the start, with an editorial team that always goes the extra mile to deliver a beautiful publication bursting with informative articles and product photos.

Cassandra Estes, the best art director in the business, has been with us from the launch, designing and producing eyecatching issues that receive accolades throughout the industry. Kris Kyes, associate editor, ensures that our content is free of errors, is easy to read, and conforms to style guidelines.

Greg Thompson, our social-media editor, keeps us connected digitally, on a daily basis, to readers and manufacturers. I also want to tip my hat to our team of talented writers, whose articles are always fresh, well researched, and well written: Sharon Sanders, Kim Rodgers, Cheryl Dangel Bartolini, Greg Thompson, and Cherise Forno.

In 10 years, we have experienced no staff turnover. This is a testament to the strength of our operation and to the leadership of Tony Ramos, whose enthusiasm and dedication have contributed greatly to the high quality of our magazine, as well as to the advancement of our industries.

It’s been a satisfying decade for me. As I witnessed the birth and growth of Patio & Hearth Products Report, I also watched my three children grow from teenagers into college graduates and working adults, welcomed a son-in-law into the family, helped my mother and in-laws find new homes as they aged, celebrated personal milestones with family and friends, grieved for the loss of loved ones, traveled to destinations near and far, and watched my two Labrador retrievers progress from puppyhood to old age.

A lot has happened in 10 years. That’s true for Patio & Hearth Products Report, for me, and for life in general.

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GUEST EDITORIAL

By Jeff Fromm PUBLISHER

Millennials Matter

EDITOR Carol Daus

M

illennial is a term used to describe people born between 1977 and 2000, but the millennial generation is defined by much more than just birth years.

These young adults have a desire to change the world and are forcing brands to rethink traditional engagement and marketing models.

The millennial influence has not gone unnoticed.

According to our research at FutureCast (Kansas City, Missouri), millennials control $1.3 trillion of direct spending power and account for 21% of discretionary purchases.

With that much spending power, the millennial generation is having an impact on the way brands do business. In fact, we have identified six key mindsets that influence millennial spending behavior.

The Millennial Mindset® is founded on six pillars: the social circle (conversational and participative); the self (emotional connection); innovation (reinvention); and whether the company/product is trusted (putting consumer needs first), purposeful (adding good), and accessible (simplifying life). An understanding of how to implement these pillars into a brand’s communication strategy is the key to winning over millennial consumers.

Millennials seek peer affirmation through their social circles. The social circle has proved to be one of the most influential mindsets for millennial consumers. It is important to note that the social circle is much more than just social media and is rooted in the concept of peer affirmation.

The social circle includes the groups of advisors modern consumers have built for themselves. The more people who advocate for a brand or product, the larger the social circle.

This has a direct impact on future profits. Consider platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram, where millennials seek the approval of their peers and rely on feedback to make their own purchasing decisions.

A company that has taken the idea of the social circle to a new level is Lowe’s®. The company created a Pinterest page that now has 3.4 million followers. Pinterest is the ultimate platform for peer affirmation, as its users are able to share content that their friends see on their feeds.

Lowe’s creates Pinterest boards that showcase its products in a way that appeals to consumers. The boards include a variety of content, such as recipes or DIY projects, in which the Lowe’s products are not the focus, but the supportive tools.

When users share this content, their peers in their social circles see it, making them more likely to purchase the products as a result.

Millennial consumers are using digital platforms for nearly everything. More than any generation before them, millennials rely on technology when making purchasing decisions.

Our research shows that 51% of millennials use a smartphone or tablet to research products and services for shopping purposes. This is where digital content becomes key in marketing to millennials.

Making a product accessible in both physical and digital channels is a great way to get millennials’ attention. SherwinWilliams® is an example. The brand recently launched the

Tony Ramos tramos@peninsula-media.com

cdauswrite@socal.rr.com

ART DIRECTOR Cassandra Estes cassestes1968@gmail.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kris Kyes

STAFF WRITERS Cheryl Dangel Bartolini Cherise Forno Kimberly Rodgers Sharon Sanders Jeff Fromm

Greg Thompson

Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap® Visualizer app, which brought its paint into the homes of consumers in an entirely new way. Users take photos of objects in their homes and the app matches the color with a Sherwin-Williams paint.

It also enables users to take photos of rooms and try paint colors on the photos, giving them a glimpse of what their rooms could look like after painting. Through this system, Sherwin-Williams has perfected the concept of accessibility (another important pillar of the Millennial Mindset).

If a company supports a cause they care about, millennials are willing to spend more. Millennials want to give back, and a many of them are more willing to buy a product when it allows them to do so. Our research found that 37% of millennials were willing to purchase a product or service to support a cause they believe in, even if it meant spending a little bit more.

Giving back fits into the purposeful pillar of the Millennial Mindset. This means that millennials are looking to brands to help them add good to theworld. By focusing on having an impact on the world (while also selling a product or service), a company can win big with Millennial Mindset consumers.

A company known for its success in philanthropic efforts is Patagonia®. From the beginning, it has pledged 1% of its sales to environmental preservation and restoration. The brand also gives back through various other coalitions and alliances, and it even uses recycled materials to create its outdoor performance wear. Patagonia has won over millennials through its dedication to adding good to its community and continues to pursue efforts to make the consumer’s dollar matter.

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Greg Thompson CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jeffrey Kehl BUSINESS MANAGER Susan Razetto CEO & PRESIDENT Tony Ramos

CORPORATE OFFICE Peninsula Media 21250 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 700 Torrance, CA 90503 (310) 792-7448 Fax (310) 792-7449 www.patioandhearthproductsreport.com

Tony Ramos Peninsula Media 21250 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 700 Torrance, CA 90503 (310) 792-7448 (310) 792-7449/Fax (310) 968-3962/Cell tramos@peninsula-media.com

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Jeff Fromm is president of FutureCast (Kansas City, Missouri), a marketing consultancy specializing in millennial trends and owned by independent ad agency Barkley. Fromm is also a contributing writer for Forbes and coauthor of “Marketing to Millennials” (Amacom, 2013) and “Millennials With Kids” (Amacom, 2015).

Kari Port, a millennial writer at FutureCast, contributed to this article.

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OUTDOOR KITCHENS S TYLISH , D URABLE & E ASY TO A SSEMBLE . P RE -D ESIGNED OR D ESIGN Y OUR O WN .

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NEWS BY

KRI

SK YES

Industry

Castelle to Collaborate With Renowned Interior Designer Barclay Butera Castelle has signed a licensing agreement for collaboration with interior designer and author Barclay Butera. Through the partnership, the award-winning manufacturer will produce and market a line of outdoor-furnishing designs created

by Butera. The partnership also will include joint events highlighting outdoor living for the design and home-furnishings industries.

Steve Lowsky, CEO of Castelle, says, “We are very excited about partnering with Barclay Butera and his entire creative team on new products and promotions. Over the years, we have been approached regarding numerous design or brand partnering opportunities.

With Barclay, we saw a true fit. In addition to his design expertise, it was his focus on high-end customers and products that we saw as a natural fit for our luxury-furnishings brand.”

Barclay Butera by Castelle is planned to include the manufacturer’s custom cast-aluminum construction in conjunction with original Butera designs. The results of the collaboration are slated to debut at the April 2017 High Point Market, the July 2017 ICFA Preview Show™, and the September 2017 Casual Market Chicago.

From designing luxury residences and exclusive hospitality venues to

Rolls-Royce automobiles, Butera brings his signature West Coast vibe and glamorous (yet livable) design sensibility to life for the outdoor segment with this collaboration.

Since 1994, he has been the creative force behind his eponymous design company and showroom in Newport Beach, California.

His success there prompted Butera to establish showrooms in West Hollywood and in Park City, Utah. Butera is the author of five coffee-table books; “Barclay Butera Modern Living” (Gibbs Smith, 2016) includes numerous outdoorliving designs.

“I wanted to design a modern way to bring together an indoor-to-

Apollo Award Finalists Named

Rory Rehmert Promoted to President of Summer Winds Division of Castelle Castelle has promoted Rory Rehmert to the position of president of its Summer Winds Division. Rehmert will oversee the entire Summer Winds brand, including product development, manufacturRory Rehmert ing, positioning, sales, and promotion.

Steve Lowsky, CEO of Castelle, says, “Exciting things are planned for our Summer Winds brand, and there was a need to place a dedicated individual at the helm. Rory, who continues to be a valued member of our corporate-management team, was the obvious choice for taking on the opportunity to be chief steward of the upcoming product advancements, sales coordination, and brand enhancement planned.”

Rehmert is a casual-furnishings veteran, with over 36 years of sales/marketing-management experience. He has held multiple leadership positions in the casual industry, including chairing the board of directors for the International Casual Furnishings Association.

“The Summer Winds brand has been a successful component of Castelle’s overall stable of quality outdoor-living products serving a designated market,” Rehmert says. “I look forward to expanding the focus of the brand and continuing to work with our professional sales team in growing its position across the casual industry.”

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The International Casual Furnishings Association (ICFA) has announced the finalists for the 2016 Apollo Awards. The program recognizes retail excellence in the sales and marketing of outdoor furnishings.

Finalists must demonstrate outstanding accomplishments and a commitment to customer service.

ICFA members will vote via online ballot for a winner in each of two categories later this summer. Finalists will be honored and winners will be announced at the ICFA Awards Gala on September 22, at The Field Museum, during Casual Market Chicago.

Finalists in the 2016 competition in the single-store category are Kolo Collection (Atlanta, Georgia); Outdoor Elegance (LaVerne, California); Patios Plus (Rancho Mirage, California); Sunnyland Furniture (Dallas, Texas); and Village Green Home and Garden (Rockford, Illinois). In the multistore category, they are ABSCO

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

Barclay Butera

outdoor design aesthetic successfully,” Butera says. “Castelle allows me to combine my two favorite things: high design and luxurious outdoor living. My line of outdoor furnishings with Castelle will be both elegant and approachable.”

Fireplace & Patio (Birmingham, Alabama); Daylight Home, Lighting & Patio (San Luis Obispo, California); Elegant Outdoor Living (Bonita Springs, Florida); Great Gatherings (Annapolis, Maryland, and Gainesville, Virginia); and Outside in Style (Austin, Texas).

Glen Raven and Sunbury Textile Mills Cohost Textiledesign Competition For the second time in three years, Glen Raven Custom Fabrics and Sunbury Textile Mills have joined forces in the search for the next generation of talent in textile design.

Hosting a competition with the textile-design program at Philadelphia University, the two companies asked students to imagine the future of Sunbrella® fabrics, answering this question: What’s next?

Tracy Greene, style/design manager at Glen Raven, says, “What’s great about this partnership with Sunbury and the university is that

we are exposed to a group of students who have completely different perspectives. It’s interesting to see a new take on our materials where students are allowed to weave and finish textiles, creating art, rather than designing for a specific commercial market.

We are here to help educate the students, but really, they are educating and inspiring us.”

The competition, launched in 2014, quickly proved to be a way for Glen Raven to interact with prospective employees. Emily Weiss, who took second place in the inaugural textile-design competition, became an intern with Glen Raven and was hired for the design team.

“It’s such a cool experience, being on the other side of the table this time,” Weiss says. “I know from my experience how much work goes into this project, and it has most certainly paid off for me. I’m so glad to be part of the Sunbrella design team, and couldn’t have imagined back then where I’d be now. My best advice to students would be to step out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there.” In this year’s competition, graduate student Samantha Fletcher was awarded first place, in a unanimous decision, for her innovative, limit-pushing approach, which featured melted PVC yarn.

Fletcher, whose design (reminiscent of lace) was based on the concept of collective memories, says, “My process is to play with the materials, push the limits of the yarn, and change it in a unique way. It’s gratifying to win first place in this competition because this is the type of work I love doing.”

Judges from the industry included Greene; Andy Kahnke, director of trade and retail sales for Dedon Inc.;

Liora Manne, designer and owner of Lamontage/Liora Manne; Kathy Remsa, senior designer at Sunbury; and Patricia Hoffman, manager for corporate and e-commerce web initiatives for Thibaut. The students’ designs were judged on color, pattern, appropriate scale, creative materials, appropriate hand, technical execution, appropriate end use, originality, and innovation.

The Shift collection

New Sunbrella Shift Collection Unveiled Designed to be mixed and matched, the new Sunbrella® Shift collection

by Glen Raven Custom Fabrics debuts with classic designs interpreted in a contemporary fashion. The collection comprises six patterns that cleverly layer texture, color, and pattern, fusing traditional pattern with modern styling.

Greg Voorhis, design director for Glen Raven, says, “One of the strongest trends in the market today is the use of opposing forces. You see old contrasted with new, light with dark, shiny with matte, and natural with man-made. We considered all of these opposing forces in creating this collection, and as a whole, it can be seen how we shift through these various elements, from each pattern and

Castelle’s Territory Manager Brad Elliott Retires; Carmen Squadrito Assumes Elliott’s Position After 43 years in the home-furnishings industry and 12 years as a manufacturers’ representative for Castelle and other outdoor-living lines, Brad Elliott will retire this summer.

As the owner of Elliott Sales (Rock Hill, South Carolina), Elliott currently manages outdoorproduct sales in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Steve Lowsky, CEO of Castelle, says, “We are thankful for Brad’s years of dedicatBrad Elliott ed service to Castelle, as well as to the industry. Brad has done an outstanding job representing our products and assisting the retail partners within his region over the years. He has always been a true professional and will be missed.”

Elliott’s relationship with Castelle began in 2004, when he added the luxury cast-aluminum manufacturer to his lineup of outdoorfurnishings companies. Since 2002, he has represented outdoor furnishing and accessories lines including Gloster and Whitecraft.

Carmen Squadrito Elliott served on the Summer and Casual Furniture Manufacturers Association board from 1995 through 2001.

Carmen Squadrito has been appointed to replace Elliott and will represent additional furniture and outdoor-accessory companies in the same region. “We are excited to welcome Carmen to our Castelle team of professionals,” Lowsky says. Prior to joining Castelle, Squadrito was with Summer Classics, spending eight years in its Retail Division and eight years as territory manager for North and South Carolina. For the last three years of his tenure, his territory garnered the top sales designation.

colorway to the next.”

Spotlight, a solid, is available in 12 colors, ranging from basic neutrals to vibrant hues. Made using PVC yarn, the fabric has a subtle metallic sheen, but is still soft to the touch. Spotlight is available in ash, azure, citron, dune, emerald, flame, galaxy, indigo, lagoon, pebble, rose, and wisteria.

Loft is a chenille available in 12 colors, from classic neutrals to deep jewel tones. This textile showcases the soft hand of today’s high-performance fabrics. Loft is available in char, crimson, dune, flax, grape, gray, indigo, pebble, turquoise, white, and wisteria.

Escapade is a multicolored stripe

Agio Names Todd Wingrove Vice President of Sales

Todd Wingrove

Todd Wingrove was named vice president of sales, Specialty Division, for Agio, USA. Wingrove is responsible for increasing sales with patio-specialty and indoor customers, as well as for the newly launched domestic-warehousing program.

He’s excited to join the Agio team, as Agio is “the industry leader that I’ve been a fan of for years,” Wingrove says. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of maintaining our strong relationship with specialty retailers and continuing our growth among traditionalfurniture retailers and in other emerging retail categories.”

Announcing the hiring, Mike Gaylord, Agio, USA’s vice president of sales, says, “Throughout the search process for a new executive, one name kept rising to the top. Todd was my number-one choice and came highly recommended. I am thrilled to have him as a part of the team.“ Bob Gaylord, president of Agio, USA, says, “Todd’s impressive background in sales for both indoor and outdoor categories makes him such a good fit for our company. That experience, especially as we grow our domestic-warehouse business, will be crucial for our brand as we move forward in today’s evolving sales environment.”

Wingrove is a 30-year veteran of the furniture business and has wide experience in product sales, sales management, and manufacturers’ representation for significant brands across the United States. Most recently, Wingrove was vice president of sales for Homecrest Outdoor Living; prior to that, he established the sales force for a new Specialty Division for SunVilla.

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Industry

Summer Classics Donates to Ovariancancer Research Summer Classics remembers former employee Susan Lambeth for her smile, for her whatever-it-takes attitude, and for putting her customers first. Lambeth was a dedicated member of the sales team for 17 years Susan Lambeth in North and South Carolina.

In 2009, she lost her battle with ovarian cancer after courageously fighting for three years.

Harold Hudson, president of Summer Classics Private Label Division, says, “She is remembered not only as Halo chaises a valuable sales rep, but also as a loving wife, mother, and advocate” for ovarian-cancer patients. Hudson worked closely with Lambeth throughout her tenure with the company.

In honor of Lambeth—and in support of millions of women who have fought the same fight—Summer Classics released the Halo collection shortly after her death. The ribbon used for ovarian-cancer awareness inspired the collection’s handwoven resin-wicker design.

Thanks to Halo’s success, Summer Classics has been able to donate substantially to ovarian-cancer research.

Lambeth was not alone in her battle. According to the pathology department at Johns Hopkins University, ovarian cancer is diagnosed in 1 of 57 women. While the disease is highly treatable in its early stages, it is often difficult to diagnose due to a lack of reliable screening tests. To save lives, further research is needed to distinguish ovarian-cancer symptoms from those of other diseases.

Bew White, CEO of Summer Classics, says, “We hope that the Halo collection encourages our customers to become actively invested in this issue. When so many women in our communities, workplaces, and families are affected, apathy is not an option.” Donations can be made to UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (www.unclineberg er.org/waystohelp), where Lambeth received treatment, or to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (www.ocrf.org/donatenow).

with a textured background and bright multicolored accents. This subtle stripe is ideal for pairing with bolder patterns in this collection.

Escapade is available in electro, fusion, twilight, and vivid.

A classic plaid with a modern makeover, Connect features sophisticated neutral hues and complementary bright colors. This playful fabric has the appearance of stripes on the reverse. Connect is available in cosmic, dune, fusion, and twilight.

Integrated is a two-color geometric that mixes neutral matte colors with a subtle metallic accent. This fabric features PVC yarns, for a juxtaposition of muted and shiny sur-

faces. Integrated is available in dune, indigo, pewter, and steel.

As a contemporary twist on the traditional palm-leaf pattern, Radiant uses the sheen of a metallic with soft, subtle color. This largescale pattern is perfectly suited to decorative pillows and accent upholstery. Radiant is available in dune, kiwi, lagoon, sangria, silver, and slate.

Fabrics in the Shift collection meet Association for Contract Textiles standards for use in high-traffic so they are suitable for indoor and outdoor residential and hospitality applications. The Shift collection is currently available to the trade and will be available at retail this fall.

Woodbridge Fireplace Expands at New Location

selves” and, he adds, can easily envision how fireplaces can become the focal points of their living spaces, both indoors and outdoors.

In May, Woodbridge Fireplace Inc. moved to its new 31,000–squarefoot facility in Mississauga, Ontario.

The new location includes a 5,000–square-foot showroom.

Tony James, president, says, “We needed to bring our manufacturing, design studio, and showroom all in together, under one roof. We now have our offices, warehouse, and showroom all in the same facility.

We not only have the extra space we needed for expansion, but also have the convenience and efficiency of having our team all in one spot. The expanded showroom allows us to display many more models of fireplaces for our local customers to browse through: They can see the quality of our products for them-

ICFA Industry Roundtables Offer Education and Networking The International Casual Furnishings Association (ICFA) will host its fourth annual industry roundtables from noon to 6 p.m. on September 19, the day before Casual Market Chicago begins. The event will include discussions of marketing to younger consumers through social media, understanding key performance indicators, marketing/selling on the internet, consumerfinancing opportunities, special events and promotions, handling transportation and logistics, and

C.R. Plastic Products Celebrates Grand Opening of New Facility C.R. Plastic Products has moved its manufacturing and corporate head office to a 300,000–square-foot facility in Stratford, Ontario, tripling in size. In addition to continuing to add new product lines and making design improvements on current products, the company has also expanded into the international marketplace over the past few years. With this additional space and growing workforce, the opportunities for the C.R. Plastic Products’ new headquarters in Stratford, Ontario company’s future growth are exponential.

C.R. Plastic Products has planned an industrywide grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for August 22. The mayor of Stratford will be a featured guest. There will also be detailed factory tours, giving invitees an exclusive look at how recycled materials are used to create beautiful, environmentally sustainable outdoor furniture. The 39-acre grounds, with a pond and trees, will be used to showcase many of the company’s outdoor products and will provide comfortable seating during the celebration. The indoor showroom will introduce products and fabrics for 2017.

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recruiting great sales associates.

Each attendee will participate in three one-hour sessions. The roundtables will be held at the Merchandise Mart. Lunch will be available at noon, and the program will begin at 1 p.m. Following the afternoon program, Klaussner Outdoor will host a reception from 6 to 7 p.m. in its showroom (suite 16-100). Registration for the event (at www.icfanet.org) is $25 for ICFA members and $50 for nonmembers; door prizes will be awarded. Sponsors of the event include Sunbrella® and Treasure Garden.

Merv Conn and Joe Watson Honored for Lifetime Achievement

Merv Conn

Joe Watson

The International Casual Furnishings Association (ICFA) will honor the late Merv Conn, vice president of Mallin Casual Furniture, and Joe Watson, owner of Watson’s Fireplace & Patio (Lutherville, Maryland), with the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016.

Conn, who died in 2013, joined Mallin in 1963 as shipping manager and worked his way up to general manager. In 1991, when the company was purchased by Minson Corp.,

Summer Classics Private Label Division Assumes a Larger Role The Summer Classics Private Label The Louvre sectional Division is now managing all of the company’s private-label cushion business.

The division has been manufacturing private-label furniture for the past 12 years.

Harold Hudson, Summer Classics Private Label Division’s president, explains, “We are moving this business segment to the private-label company to serve our customers who are interested in quality frames and cushions branded with their names and also for the retailer who offers replacement cushions to end consumers.“ The Summer Classics Private Label Division is a multichannel manufacturer that makes private-label furniture and outdoor cushions for resellers in North America, as well as for its own brands: Summer Classics, White Label, Parker James, and Gabby.

Conn was named vice president of sales and marketing.

Under his leadership, Mallin was re-established as a leader in the industry for comfort and style.

Conn was active in the casual-furniture industry for nearly two decades, joining the Summer and Casual Furniture Manufacturers Association (SCFMA) board in 1997. He was elected an officer in 2002, served as president from 2004 through 2006, and was chair from 2006 through 2008. He was the last chair of SCFMA before it became ICFA. Conn was an expert negotiator, with a keen eye for styles that would become top sellers. Brenda Pereyda, his longtime Mallin colleague, says, “With his dedication, vision, hard work, and creative thoughts, he

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helped not only Mallin grow, but the industry in general.”

Watson sold Fuller® Brush products door to door in high school, but his penchant for sales continued, resulting in his acquisition of a garden shop in Towson, Maryland, in 1955, after serving in the Air Force. In just over a decade, the garden shop became a business earning $6 million to $7 million. Watson’s brothers joined him, and they moved the garden center to nearby Lutherville in 1961, where burgeoning residential development led to nearly instant success. In 1986, Watson took the patio and fireplace departments, along with some adjoining real estate, and opened Watson’s Fireplace & Patio.

NEWS

Industry

HPBA Takes Steps to Conserve Energy in Newly Manufactured Gas Appliances To help consumers conserve energy, the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA) and its members have begun a three-year initiative to phase out the use of continuous pilot lights (standing pilots) in newly manufactured vented gas fireplaces, stoves, and inserts.

Continuous pilot lights have provided an automatic, reliable mechanism for stopping the flow of gas when no flame is present, but consumers have always had to remember to extinguish pilot lights manually when they weren’t needed—until now.

Technologies on the market now eliminate this step for consumers, offering increased ease of operation while eliminating unnecessary energy consumption when appliances are not in frequent use. Ryan Carroll, HPBA director of government affairs, says, “The HPBA is always looking for ways to ensure that our industry’s standards are evolving with consumers’ needs. That’s why we are working to ensure that the certification standards for vented gas fireplaces, inserts, and stoves are revised for the further support of energy conservation.”

On June 2, the HPBA submitted a proposal to CSA Group, the entity setting the technical standards worldwide for gas fireplace products.

The proposal seeks to amend the certification standards to disallow continuous pilots on newly manufactured products after the effective date of the amended standard.

The HPBA is an active member

of CSA Group. Its participation has led to other standard updates benefiting consumers, including amendments requiring certain gas fireplaces manufactured after December 31, 2014, to have protective barriers installed to help reduce the risk of burns from hot glass.

Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitchens Aligns With Kerrie Kelly Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitchens has joined forces with Kerrie Kelly, creative director and principal of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab. Kelly will act as a brand ambassador Kerrie Kelly for Danver, as well as for Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens.

Stemming from the alliance, Danver and Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens are working closely with Kelly to create designer-curated collections for inspiration. Six collections have been released so far: Resort Chic, Spanish Revival, Sporty Seaside, Coastal Cottage, Lake Lodge, and Ranch Wrangler.

“I was initially drawn to Danver’s and Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens’ innovation, durability, and range of finishes,” Kelly says. “Being able to incorporate all the luxuries and design elements of an indoor kitchen outdoors is important when wanting to expand a home’s usable square footage. The livable lifestyle that is created when using Danver’s product line allows all to enjoy multiple areas of the home.”

Each collection has a distinct theme, which provides the ability to match any type of design scheme, from traditional to contemporary.

“My inspiration comes from my California casual style, paired with my love for travel,” Kelly explains.

Taking cues from design she sees in architecture, art, fashion, and culture, Kelly’s curated line with Danver and Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens reflects her unique take on

NICHOLAS WRAY

Watson was active in leading the Casual Furniture Retailers Association (CFRA) prior to its merger with ICFA in 2008. He can’t imagine his business success, he says, without the brainstorming and networking that he enjoyed with his CFRA colleagues.

Conn and Watson will be honored at the ICFA Awards Gala at The Field Museum on September 22, during Casual Market Chicago.

Tickets are available at www.icfanet.org.

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West Coast style and the season’s hottest trends.

Pelican Reef Expands Showroom at Las Vegas Market Pelican Reef Inc. has expanded its Las Vegas, Nevada, showroom to accommodate and introduce a new line of outdoor-furniture groupings. The C-1276 showroom at World Market Center Las Vegas now measures 8,300 square feet and features such new collections as Panama Jack® Graphite (outdoor) and Kauai (sunroom).

Panama Jack will be unveiling a new quick-ship line of 9-foot aluminum patio umbrellas in today’s popular colors.

Mayleen Chadwick, vice president of sales, says, “Our new show-

room space will allow us to increase our sales in key areas that align with our current and future growth plans. The bigger space will allow us to display more new products to support the growth we are experiencing, while giving us a dedicated showroom to host great social gatherings for customers during Las Vegas Markets.”

Twin-Star International Launches New Internet-commerce Line Twin-Star International, designer and manufacturer of electric fireplaces and home furnishings, has launched a new online-commerce line of stylish home furnishings to help its retail and online-retail partners take advantage continued on page 100

Hearth & Home Technologies Rewards Top-selling Customers With Trip Hearth & Home Technologies celebrated another successful year with its annual rewards trip. This spring, the 67 top-selling customers (selected based on sales growth and performance) and their guests traveled to the Riviera B.J. Hogge of Hearth and Home Maya coastline of Mexico for a Distributors of Utah week of fun. In addition to enjoying the allinclusive Hard Rock resort, customers rode ATVs through the jungle, explored underground cave systems, rode zip lines Hearth & Home Technologies staff and trip winners in Mexico above the treetops, and sailed on catamarans. The event ended with a traditional Mayan fire dance and fireworks.

Tim Thomas, a first-time winner, is a builder-sales representative from Fireside Hearth & Home (Manassas, Virginia). He says, “Everyone is working very hard all year—doing the small things to separate us from the competition. When your company rewards you like this, it gives you the mojo to fight even harder.” Hearth & Home Technologies will continue its rewards program in 2016 and recently announced Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as its 2017 destination.

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

BETTER THAN ANY STEAKHOUSE. A COARSER SALT RUB COULD MAKE IT JUICIER, THOUGH. Introducing Hestan Outdoor, for those who have an obsession with perfection. We tinkered, tested and tweaked until we came up with the most powerful and reliable grill available. 25,000 BTU burners deliver the perfect sear. Ceramic radiant briquettes minimize flare-ups. We laser cut our grates in-house for heavy-duty reliability. And the built-in rotisserie really works (really well).

And since we’re perfectionists, we build each and every grill from scratch at Hestan Headquarters in Anaheim, California. We wouldn’t entrust our recipe to anyone else. hestanoutdoor.com

Circle Reader Service No. 17

SPOTLIGHT

Happy

Hues

GeoBella from Phifer

Today’s hot-selling fabrics feature bright color combinations and eye-catching patterns.

BY GREG THOMPSON

Furniture manufacturers have long relied on Phifer Inc. (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) to provide cutting-edge fabrics, which are often used in slings and cushion sets. Hugo Benitez, Phifer’s national market manager, Designed Fabrics, is able to give manufacturers what they want by keeping a close eye on trends, but he believes that merely responding to fashion is not enough; sometimes, pushing the industry with new ideas is a key part of innovation.

“We’ve created trends with our colors, and we are continually trying to show those colors in different ways,” Benitez says. “It has taken some time for retailers and manufacturers to commit to this much color.”

In 2016, Phifer plans “more color than ever before,” he adds, as the venerable company

learns how to use hues in different ways. “All of the neutrals are still very important,” Benitez explains. “Our sales are up dramatically this year, however, and we think it’s because we’ve added so much color to our line.”

Different color combinations are finding their way into weaves to create novel looks.

According to Benitez, designers are working with new novelty yarns that add surface interest and texture. “When you feel them, there is not a whole lot of texture—but in appearance, they have a great deal of texture,” he says.

Lori Jo Shea, design director for Richloom Fabrics Group (New York, New York), has capitalized on the bright-andbeautiful trend with vibrant colors (such as the company’s many new colors in the Solarium

The Sunbrella Shift collection

Silver line), geometrics, icon motifs, and textured base cloths. “Novelty looks are some of our best sellers,” she says. “They are whimsical and fashion-forward.”

Bold and whimsical styles are mostly seen outdoors, but Chuck Zaberto, vice president of the Solarium Fabrics Division, Richloom Fabrics Group, points out that so-called outdoor fabric can find a home indoors. He says, “Outdoor fabric is not just for the outdoors. It is a performance fabric that has specific attributes that make it viable for all aspects of home furnishings. Generally speaking, we see continued growth, especially with pillows, impulse buys, beautiful colors, and novelty themes.”

CHICKEN OR EGG The decision to push style forward (instead of waiting for trends to emerge) can be maddening for fabric manufacturers. Capital expenditures are high, and no company wants to waste valuable time and money.

Blending the traditional with a measure of innovation is one way to please customers while pushing the envelope. Shift, a new collection from Sunbrella® (Glen Raven, North Carolina), aims for this blend of contemporary fashion and traditional patterns. Allen Gant III, casual-market manager for Sunbrella, explains that Shift is made to be mixed and matched in clever combinations by layering texture, color,

Solarium’s Rave breeze, Baycove ocean, Veranda sunbeam, Remi lagoon, and Denali Caribbean

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and pattern—ultimately, creating a style that “embraces the future while honoring the past,” he says.

The collection features six components.

They are Spotlight, a solid available in 12 colors; Loft, a chenille available in 12 colors; Escapade, a multicolored stripe with a textured background and bright accents; Connect, a classic plaid with a modern makeover; Integrated, a two-color geometric mixing matte neutrals with a subtle metallic accent; and Radiant, a contemporary twist on the traditional palm-leaf pattern.

Embracing the future while honoring the past is a common goal for many fabric makers in 2016. Paolo Patruna, Parà’s marketing manager for Tempotest USA (Carrollton, Texas), is going for this popular look with the company’s newest offering, the Club collection. “Club is an extremely stylish and modern collection,” Patruna says, “but with very classic designs and bright, vibrant colors that are a fit for both outside and inside the home.”

Tempotest has added double-width fabrics for outdoor curtains, a new growth segment that is gaining in popularity. Jeff Jimison, national sales manager for Tempotest, says, “All the fabrics in the collection are a minimum of 120 inches wide, and they range from a very light and breezy sheer to a midweight fabric called Etamine to a more traditional 8-ounce fabric that comes in a wide palette of colors and up-the-roll stripes.”

Jimison adds, “These are also perfect for inside the home, where incoming sunlight can quickly fade indoor curtains. This width allows for panels 10 feet wide—cutting down on sewing and on having to use multiple narrow panels. This makes them ideal for large canopies

and pergolas.”

Sarah Keelen, director of design at

Bella-Dura® Residential

(Garfield, New Jersey), agrees that the indoor/outdoor trend is here to stay; she says, “What could Sunbrella’s easily pass as indoor Shift fabrics fabrics are still being used in outdoor settings.” With more important and have featured patterns and texand more people tures to address this lifestyle.” wanting their outThe collection also features door spaces to look something new from Bellaand feel as comDura: chenille. “We’ve been fortable as their working to develop soft perliving rooms, formance chenille from our fiber Bella-Dura’s for a long time,” Keelen says. designers are “Many customers have requested addressing the this from us, and we are thrilled trend with novfinally to be able to deliver it—at a The elty yarns such very competitive price.”

Reflections collection as soft bouclés, She continues, “Beyond this, the from Outdura chenilles, and style team at Bella-Dura also brings chunky cottons—all staple indoor fabrics.

Bella-Dura has made more than 70 additions to its ever-growing By the Yard program (33 additions are available, with more to come). “Additions to the By the Yard program—comprising 12 patterns and 70 SKUs—are a selection of the most popular patterns and constructions,” Keelen says.

“While we continue to include transitional looks (such as frets), we are seeing the contemporary/modern category becoming more By the Yard series 2 from Bella-Dura

The Molto Bene collection from Tempotest

Ultrafabrics’ Brisa original indoor/ outdoor fabric

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PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

SPOTLIGHT properly and to be willing to search for new ideas in what MJ Ramos, Bella-Dura’s merchandising consultant, calls the collective consciousness. That consciousness is available to designers, consumers, and manufacturers—all of whom are seeing the same things on television, in fashion, and in art, and are almost subconsciously registering the trends that they are seeing.

Keelen says, “As a design studio, we feel it’s our responsibility to take all the information that’s out there, register and sort it, and then present it to our customers in a curated collection. We continue to see positive response to our products each season, and as long as you have something new to offer, people will take notice.”

Another way to increase a fabric’s chance of success is to release a large selection and

Tempotest Home® white canvas

new designs to life, using added tools to create textures, detailed looks, mélange bouclé, and fresh colors (such as cerise, turquoise, and seafoam green), along with warmer neutrals.” As a way to make collections stand out on the showroom floor, Keelen believes, decorative fabrics are a simple solution. Accessorizing with “bold patterns and colors,” she says, is a sure way to attract new customers— Bella-Dura’s with minimal investment.

By the Yard series 6 The keys are to show the items

include attractive options. David Meeks, director of casual furniture for Outdura® (Hudson, North Carolina), is doing just that with Outdura’s Ovation II cut-yardage collection of 166 fabrics, featuring plain-weave solids, textured dobbies, stripes, and coordinating jacquards.

“We are excited to offer all 166 patterns with our Weathertex Plus finish powered by Crypton®,” Meeks says. “The Weathertex Plus finish allows moisture to roll off: Stains clean up easily and nothing soaks through to the cushion. Outdura is the only supplier of 100% solution-dyed acrylic to offer the Crypton finish.”

One of Outdura’s best-selling patterns is Rumor, a bouclé. “Our Rumor pattern has been widely accepted by the industry as one of the best textural patterns created for the outdoor environment,” Meeks adds.

“Rumor has the feel and look of an indoor fabric, but is obviously designed to withstand the outdoor environment.”

Novelty yarns (such as bouclés and chenilles) are also doing well at Tempotest, where designers continue to see increasing interest in geometrics, as well as interest in blue and red. “I tell manufacturers and retailers alike that consumers want more choices in color and pattern, but also in brands,” Jimison says.

“Consumers like to have things that are unique to

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Circle Reader Service No. 21

SPOTLIGHT

The Shift collection from Sunbrella

them and not commonplace. Our combination of top-quality Italian-designed and -woven fabrics stands out from the crowd.”

Many fabric experts agree that today’s market requires more colors and textures than ever before. In solids alone, Tempotest is offering more than 150 variations to give the market more of what it wants.

At least among members of the general public, that can occasionally add up to too much. “I think consumers can be confused by the large array of outdoor fabrics available at retail,” Jimison says. “A fabric can be labeled as an outdoor fabric, but performance between various outdoor fabrics can still vary greatly.

That’s why we use the best fiber for outdoor use— solution-dyed acrylic—and then add reassurances (such as our warranty and use of Teflon®) to set us apart from mass-market fabrics.”

The good news is that when consumers see something that they like, they are willing to put down real money for it. Jimison says, “Homeowners are investing again, and one of the top areas for home improvement is the outdoor space. Consumers seem to be willing to pay for fabrics that offer top outdoor performance, but have the look and feel of fabOutdura’s Symmetry collection rics that would usually be found in the home. We see this trend continuing—really, with no end in sight.”

A.R. Swan, marketing manager for

Ultrafabrics® LLC (Tarrytown, New York), agrees that customers looking for the next great outdoor fabric will be willing to spend a little more, but only if they are getting something different. “We truly believe that polyurethane fabrics are the next generation of performance fabrics for the residential outdoor market,” Swan says. “Our flagship fashion styles, Brisa® original outdoor and Brisa distressed outdoor, have been refreshed with new colors. They are renowned for their soft feel and exclusive breathable technology, along with myriad outdoor-performance and protection attributes.”

Brisa works well with metal, woven, and wooden frame styles. Swan praises Ultrafabrics’ new collection, Ultraleather® Cora outdoor, for its “bold attitude and our highest levels of performance and protection yet, also including antimicrobial and antibacterial resistance. Eye-catching colors, along with a subtly textured matte aesthetic, are showstoppers,” he says, particularly as upholstery.

Swan explains that solution-dyed yarns have essentially saturated the market, making many buyers even more receptive to the company’s PVC-free polyurethane fabric, which includes four collections and 40 SKUs. Response to the polyurethane fabric as a viable alternative has grown, and Swan anticipates

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SPOTLIGHT icals and does not off-gas volatile organic compounds, as supported by our Greenguard certification. We have recently been referred to as vegan leather as well.”

Manufacturers and retailers occasionally fear that polyurethanes might become sticky or uncomfortable in hot conditions. Swan has heard these concern, but he is quick to assure buyers that the fabric’s engineering process “promotes thermal comfort, allowing for a neutral body temperature to be maintained for a comfortable seating experience. In addition, our fabrics shield users from temperature changes—always remaining cool and comfortable, even in direct sun or when temperatures rise,” he says.

Solarium Silver’s AyNova conch, AyAthena cayenne, and AyGalore zinnia

BOLD, NOT OLD Designers at Phifer are promoting the benefits of Phifertex Plus, a simple and sophisticated modern look with even more colors. “We incorporate pearlescent yarns and more colors to create more

Phifer’s GeoBella

that growth will continue—as will the company’s array of designer colors and interesting textures. The textures, Swan reports, “are friendly coordinates to myriad furniture finishes and textiles as well.”

He describes the fabric, created as a safeguard against active use and harsh exposure, as a “full circle of protection attributes, which include water repellency, solar endurance, colorfastness, and defense against mildew. Our exclusive Takumi technology mastered performance engineering directly into all four layers of our fabric’s creation, and it is synonymous with luxury, durability, and ease of care,” he says.

Millennials have responded particularly well to Ultrafabrics’ PVC-free polyurethane fabric—a phenomenon that Swan attributes to a search for high-performance, earth-friendly alternatives to textiles, leather, and vinyl. “This group does its research and understands the attributes of a PVC-free polyurethane fabric,” he says. “In addition to being skin friendly and allergen free, it does not contain harmful chem-

Cora indoor/outdoor fabric from Ultrafabrics

modern looks,” Benitez explains. “We work a lot with pearlescent yarns. They are difficult to make, but we work with them more than anybody in the world, probably. This gives the yarn shimmer and color. It is unique, when applied to different colors.”

Cane Wicker fabrics have been a staple at Phifer for two decades, and these continue to be strong in the sling market. New weaves are also being tried, to create a look that differentiates them from standard wicker. This willing-

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ness to extract the bold from the old has led Phifer to create a new fabric, Charm. “It is new within wicker,” he says. “It almost creates a plaid effect, with soft colors. It’s a cool and unique-looking fabric.”

Seeking that cool look is a global phenomenon, making people willing to change fabrics even when their original fabrics are intact. Gant says, “Consumers aren’t replacing their furnishings because the Sunbrella fabric has worn out; they’re just looking for something new—a change of style. That’s why we are constantly putting new products into the marketplace: to fulfill the need for new, globally applicable design—and the lines between U.S. and European styling are becoming blurry.”

Meeks has seen trends come and go, but he reports that the performance aspects of fabrics are occasionally underappreciated. He insists that not all fabrics perform the same way in outdoor environments. “The number-one choice for fully exposed outdoor cushions is 100% solution-dyed acrylic,” Meeks says. “All other materials fall short.”

Much like Meeks, Jimison stresses the performance features of fabric, which he agrees should not be overlooked. “Customers are excited about our use of branded Teflon for our water- and stain-resistant finish,” he says.

“Customers know Teflon and know that it provides for easy cleanup of spills and resists staining. Our fabrics are also bleach cleanable, and we offer an industry-best six-year warranty against sun fading.”

With so much variety available to customers, Tempotest is attempting make things easier with its Tailor Made service for small orders.

Patruna explains, “To meet the design and color flexibility required by the market, Parà is able to create a 100% solution-dyed acrylic born from customers’ own ideas and proposals—in hundreds of variations, textures, and colors.”

The world of fabric is so vast that creativity is naturally spurred by pop culture, the collective consciousness, dwellings, and even cars. Jimison says, “Our designers look for trends in fashion, the automotive segment, architecture, and home furnishings to develop new colors and styles that they see as emerging. They also get input from our sales team’s members, who report on what they are seeing in the market. Consumers validate the trends through their purchases; then, our designers further refine their styling based on what is selling—so it’s really a never-ending cycle.”

While cycles in sales are less never-ending, Jimison is particularly bullish about the shortand long-term future of furniture/fabric innovation. He says, “We are very optimistic.”

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Marketing Manuevers PACIFIC PATIO

Target Marketing Different demographic groups make up this retailer’s customer base.

In July 2015, Pacific Patio Furniture opened a second location in Santa Monica

BY KIMBERLY RODGERS BLEU HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Ruth Adler

In March 2013, Pacific Patio Furniture opened in Agoura Hills, California, with great fanfare and goodwill from the local community. Ruth Adler, head of marketing, says, “We were very successful, from the start, because we filled a huge void in the community for people who wanted to buy patio furniture.”

The new retail store moved into the vacant space left by Carls Patio (Boca Raton, Florida) when it closed all its California stores (which were operating under the Berks Patio name) in 2012. Pacific Patio moved into the 17,000–square-foot empty shell and started fresh.

Throughout the United States, thousands of retailers—big and small—closed their doors as a result of the great recession of 2009 and the challenging economic climate that followed. In addition to the personal and professional business losses that these retailers experienced,

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consumers also felt the vacuum left by the closed stores. Adler comments, “It wasn’t just Berks Patio that shut down; several patio stores closed in the area. There was basically only one store left when we came in, so we were very much needed. It was good timing.”

The right timing isn’t the only reason for Pacific Patio’s success. Adler says, “We provide a huge variety of styles—in wicker, teak, wrought iron, and aluminum—all from highquality brands.” That product diversity includes deep seating, modular, and dining furniture; fire and heating; and umbrellas and accessories. Products come from a host of top-name casual brands, including Woodard, NorthCape, OW Lee, Summer Classics, Lloyd Flanders, Mallin, and Patio Renaissance.

Pacific Patio also meets the needs of the upscale, sophisticated Southern California consumer. Adler says, “We do a lot of customization for those buyers who really want their items to be special (and done the way they really want them done).” On-site visits can be made to help design and plan a buyer’s outdoor space. Fast local delivery and setup are provided.

Adler adds, “The store is a happy, friendly environment. We all enjoy what we are doing, so it’s a fun place to come visit. Our entire staff is very knowledgeable and helpful.”

A SECOND LOCATION Pacific Patio was so successful at its Agoura Hills location that the company decided to expand, in July 2015, to Santa Monica—once again, in a former Berks Patio space. Adler says, “Berks Patio was very successful

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Marketing Manuevers PACIFIC PATIO

Contemporary styles suited to city living are popular in Santa Monica

in Santa Monica, and the store was sitting vacant. We were doing so well in our first location that we thought we would do the same in Santa Monica.”

The new location, which has 15,000 square feet of space, has been well received by the community. Adler explains, “It’s a completely different market in Santa Monica, which surprised us.” As a suburb of Los Angeles, Agoura Hills has large backyards, attracting buyers who want to create a relaxed, Tucson style in their outdoor spaces. The location also draws shoppers from Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties, with similar tastes and expansive outdoor spaces.

Santa Monica—an urban environment with denser housing—is a true contrast in styles.

Adler comments, “It is really city living. There are more young people who live there who are in the technology and entertainment industries, and they look for contemporary and funky styles in their furniture. The outdoor-living spaces are a lot tighter, so they need smaller furniture. The differences between the two stores are interesting. We work hard on catering to both markets.”

While all the products that Pacific Patio carries are available at both locations, there are some collections that do particularly well at each store. Barlow Tyrie, with its teak and stainlesssteel product lines, is popular in Santa Monica.

Kingsley-Bate is also a hot seller there.

In Agoura Hills, Castelle and OW Lee, both offering time-honored elegant and traditional designs, sell well. Firepits do fantastically well at both locations, with contemporary styles being more popular in Santa Monica.

MARKETING TO MILLENNIALS Marketing efforts are tailored to the customer demographics of each location. The baby-boom and generation-X groups primarily compose the customer population for the Agoura Hills store.

While members of both generations are tech savvy, they still read newspapers. Therefore, Adler advertises in the Los Angeles Times (and has seen results). “We need to be there and get a lot of business from that,” she says.

The company currently does not participate in television or radio advertising. “It’s very expensive, and there is only a certain budget to work with,” Adler says. “In marketing, you really have to think about what is the biggest bang for the buck.”

Regarding the store’s Santa Monica location, Adler says, “Our customers there are millennials who are very savvy with technology, so we need to have a strong digital presence for that market. Millennials are online and get their information from technology: Digital information works for them.”

To that end, the store’s website (www.pacpa tio.com) is currently being updated to increase Pacific Patio’s digital capabilities, including expanding social-media participation and online commerce. Adler says, “We won’t be selling across the country, but we plan to target our customer base to increase traffic to our stores and to give locals a chance to buy from our website as well.”

Pacific Patio is currently active on Facebook and has plans to enter other social networks.

Adler works with a digital-marketing consultant to help her navigate and optimize her onlinemarketing efforts, including bidding on Google

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AdWords. She says, “We are not educated enough in digital marketing, so our consultant helps us with that.” The company went through a few consultants before finally finding the right one. “There are a lot of intangibles and gray areas, and it is often hard to get a handle on what they bill you for,” Adler explains.

The digital specialist also writes the company’s blog and Facebook posts, incorporating Google AdWords to optimize Pacific Patio’s online presence when people search for patio furniture. “He is able to connect all our online activities together to optimize our effectiveness. He keeps track of everything we do digitally to make sure we are operating efficiently and that our online advertising is actually working,” Adler says. “Once our new website is up and running, our digital-marketing campaign will all come together and we will be charging full force.”

The Southern California casual market is highly competitive. Adler believes, however, that each retailer is different, and her overall marketing goal is to communicate the unique qualities of Pacific Patio to prospective buyers—especially regarding the Santa Monica store. She says, “We want to say, ‘Come see us: We have a location that is a shorter drive away than our competitors.

We carry a variety of furniture styles, with competitive pricing—and we have fast local delivery.’”

Adler also is working on some other creative marketing concepts involving sponsorship. She says, “In this day and age, advertising is getting trickier. You just have to think ahead and move forward creatively.”

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Hearth Retailer SOUTHERN HEARTH & PATIO

Ties That Bind

Southern Hearth & Patio upholds a high-end image

BY SHARON SANDERS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOMMY DEAN

A Tennessee fireplace retailer is known for building lifetime relationships with customers.

Clay Dennis and Biscuit

Southern Hearth & Patio (Chattanooga, Tennessee) has the heart and soul of a true specialty retailer. Clay Dennis, owner and president, says, “My grandparents would have bought a fireplace from a shop like ours. They were from a generation when business was all about relationships. Everyone in town knew the butcher by name; there was one guy to call for painting and one guy to call for plumbing. That is what drives Southern Hearth & Patio.”

This intuitive hearth operation has an equally savvy business sense.

Its thoughtful strategies (which keep its customers coming back for more) and its focus on what makes its business profitable are making the store more relevant every year.

Dennis and his business partner, Tom Lancaster, opened the store together in 2000. Six years later, Dennis and his wife, Charlotte, bought out Lancaster—with big plans for the burgeoning business. By the end of 2006, the store had been relocated in a bigger showroom just a few miles down the road.

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The original location was in a strip mall with several national retailers, and it was so busy that it was even hard to find parking at certain times of the year. The foot traffic was constant, which sounds beneficial—but it didn’t always lead to sales. “There were lots of window shoppers who were more interested in buying from other mall stores,” Dennis remembers.

The new location has less traffic, but it is a shopping destination.

Dennis explains, “People who come to our store are serious buyers who specifically drive to our store. It’s about the quality of the traffic, not the quantity.”

The store even has a parking spot designated for military veterans, as

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Hearth Retailer SOUTHERN HEARTH & PATIO

a way to thank them for their service. “It also helps us identify who they are, so we can say thanks and offer them discounts,” Dennis says.

CREATING A NICHE Since the move, the store has enjoyed a boost in sales. It has secured a niche for itself that can’t be touched by the big-box stores or by local hearth retailers. “I like to think that we don’t have competition,” Dennis says, adding that there are two things that his store needs to do to set itself apart from others.

“We can’t compete on price (because it’s impossible), and we need to sell products that people can’t get anywhere else,” Dennis says. The store carries only high-end fireplaces and grills— including products from Mendota, Valor, Town & Country, Monessen, and Fire Magic—that aren’t even on the radar of someone shopping at the stores of mass merchants.

“People are proud to tell their friends that they bought their fireplace from Southern Hearth & Patio,” Dennis adds. “They would rather buy the least expensive fireplace from us than the most expensive from a big-box store.”

Over the years, Dennis gradually started working with vendors that have singular distribution channels, and he sticks to buying products that are territorially exclusive. “As a result, our margins are much higher, and they are protected (to a point) because people can’t buy our merchandise anywhere else locally,” he explains.

He adds that when price is taken out of the equation, it levels the playing field. “Now, every sale comes down to who is the best salesperson and what retailer people really trust to set a fire in their homes, so to speak,” he says.

SMART GROWTH As the business has grown in size and popularity, Dennis reports, he hasn’t done any traditional advertising for several years because there hasn’t been a need. “A retailer has to find the ways that provide the best return on investment. If you aren’t getting at least 8% back on your money, I think you’re better off just leaving it in the market. It’s like paying an employee who isn’t bringing in any revenue,” Dennis says.

The store has been successful at keeping its name visible in the community with its fleet of wrapped service/delivery vehicles. Dennis says, “Our trucks are moving billboards. A single billboard can run anywhere from $800 to $2,000 per month, but for $3,000, I can letter up a truck with fire and drive it around for four years.” The eye-catching vehicles have become the store’s trademark.

“The fact that all of our vehicles are wrapped exactly the same way makes people

The staff of Southern Hearth & Patio

think they are seeing the same one all around town; in fact, it’s five different trucks. It’s fun to see people’s reactions when they find out there is more than one,” he says.

Since the store’s inception, its staff has grown from three employees to 17. “As a mom-and-pop operation, it gets more difficult the bigger we get.

We try to put things in place to keep service levels high and customer relationships strong,” Dennis explains. Just last year, he put a management team in place (for the first time), so all employees don’t report directly to him anymore.

This gives Dennis more time to focus on running the business, rather than handling employees’ issues. He has also put a dedicated staff person in place to handle the busier tasks, including a scheduler (for service calls), a person to handle warranties, and someone to do purchasing.

Dennis also places great value on developing his employees, and he regularly brings in outside consultants to do training. He says, “With a company our size, we have to be professional in everything we do.” He recently brought in Donna Van Natten, who ran a seminar to help employees identify and develop their personal strengths. He also brought in a trainer to help employees learn to read customers’ body language. “It’s worth the investment,” he adds.

One of the biggest changes came last year, after Dennis had a health scare. “I came to the realization that I needed to slow down,” he says. He was working long hours, seven days a week, without lunch breaks. He really didn’t have a life outside work. The same held true for much of the staff.

“They couldn’t go to weddings, parties, or even their kids’ softball games on Saturdays without taking time off,” Dennis says. “We just kept saying yes to every customer.” He and his wife made the decision to close the store on Saturdays

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for several months, although they recently instituted limited Saturday hours (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.).

Instead of using the entire staff, he has just two or three salespeople work for those three hours. The change has made a world of difference, on many fronts. “My staff members have a balance of life now. They don’t call in sick as much anymore, and morale has improved,” he says.

He adds that when you close for 15% of your work week, you have to be willing to give up 15% of your sales—but it has been worth it.

“When one factors in the decrease in overtime pay and sick time, it comes in at under 15%, so we’ve actually made more money,” he explains.

THE FUTURE For the immediate future, Southern Hearth & Patio will focus on stabilization. “We plan to continue growing, but I am no longer on a path to take over the world,” Dennis says, adding that he is at the point where he and his employees make good money and can handle the workload. “We don’t want to get so busy that we don’t enjoy our customers anymore. A momand-pop business is about talking with customers, getting to know their families, and selling them products that you know they will love,” he adds.

Southern Hearth & Patio also plans to continue being an active part of its community. It is a strong supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities and is heavily involved in Scouting, Rotary International, and The Miracle League. Dennis says, “The community is what supports our business, so it is our privilege to support it with our time and money in return. When you support local organizations, people don’t see you as a business, but as a friend and neighbor instead.”

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Outdoor Grilling PALMETTO OUTDOOR KITCHENS

Creative Marketing

Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens is a one-stop shop for backyard chefs

A promotional mix that includes community events and in-store cooking classes rings up sales for a young business.

BY CHERYL DANGEL BARTOLINI D.A. PHOTOGRAPHY

After just four years in business, Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens (Mount Pleasant, South Carolina) has already made a name for itself. Ken Good and Scott Hunter, who co-own the store— which is just 5 miles from downtown Charleston—attribute their success to creative marketing strategies, including cooking classes; television, radio, and magazine ads; and direct-mail campaigns.

A key ingredient in that mix, Good says, is making the store’s product lines and services visible at home shows. “The local home shows are a valuable part of the community, here in the Lowcountry, and so is outdoor living,” he reports.

He adds, “Therefore, we take part in making our products and services for outdoor kitchens known to the general public and to other

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Scott Hunter (left) and Ken Good

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Outdoor Grilling PALMETTO OUTDOOR KITCHENS

licensed builders in attendance. During the home shows, we not only display a few of our top-selling grills, but also offer cooking demonstrations.”

Cooking demonstrations are big draws at Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens and are typically hosted twice a month.

“We have a celebrity chef who performs the class, and a different topic is selected for each class,” Good explains. “The chef provides demonstrations of ways to prep, cook, or barbecue delicious meats and to prepare tasty vegetables, briskets, pizza, and more. We can hold up to 25 people in each class. We try to accommodate all by having classes on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. or on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.”

As a result, the store is attracting customers from outside the Charleston community. “We attribute much of that growth to our many satisfied customers. Word of mouth has helped make Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens synonymous with outdoor living. We also attribute our success to the number of marketing strategies we have implemented,” Good says.

Fire Magic is a successful line for Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens

SMALL, BUT MIGHTY By some standards, the store is small. It has just 1,700 square feet of space in Mount Pleasant’s Queensborough shopping center, where it is staffed by six full-time employees. All staff members know their roles. Good says, “Some staff members are responsible for sales and design, while some are responsible for deliveries and installations, as well as repairs and maintenance.

Together, we provide the entire process aimed toward achieving and maintaining that ideal outdoor-living space.”

Despite the store’s small size, Good says, “We can do it all.” To that end, the store offers a complete outdoor lifestyle. Whether customers want an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor fireplace, a firepit, or a hardscape structure (such as a covered porch or pergola), Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens is there to serve.

The store carries several lines of grills and accessories, including products from Fire Magic and American Outdoor Grill (RH Peterson), Twin Eagles/Delta Heat, Alfresco and its Artisan brand, TEC, and Big Green Egg. The outdoor-cabinet lines carried include Werever, Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitchens/Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens, Challenger Designs, and NatureKast. The store also sells a custom aluminum-framed island.

“Much of our customer base is interested in the ability to complete the entire meal while enjoying the outdoors,” Good says. “We offer that to our customers with features such as grills, power burners, side burners, beverage centers, and blenders, as well as prep and storage areas. Products such as sinks, refrigerators, and ice makers bring the indoors outdoors.”

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Outdoor Grilling PALMETTO OUTDOOR KITCHENS

The owners of Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens conduct careful research in choosing products to carry

Its growth now has the store bursting at the seams. To allow some breathing room, Good reports, the business recently leased a 3,000–square-foot warehouse to receive more freight for its customers. Approximately 1,500 square feet of that space will be used to make an outdoor showroom for pavers, outdoor fireplaces, and firepits.

CAREFUL PRODUCT SELECTION Because there’s no space to waste on ho-hum products, Good states, a lot of research goes into the products that he chooses to place on his showroom floor. Visiting trade shows—especially the International Builders’ Show, the Kitchen & Bath

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Industry Show, and HPBExpo—is vital to choosing products best suited to the Lowcountry market.

“Once we have determined to carry a particular product, we meet on an ongoing basis with the manufacturer’s representative to remain up to date on the product line,” Good explains. “We also meet with other businesses like our own for additional input.”

Good continues, “While all of our products are of high quality, we offer different price ranges in order to meet the needs of consumers. Our grills are basically categorized as good, better, and best. Our good products are for the occasional griller. The better grills are for those who grill fairly often, while our best grills are for the most serious of cooks.”

Oddly enough, neither Good nor Hunter came to the business with a cooking background (or retail experience). “Both of us come from the construction and real-estate industries, which sets our company apart from just retail grill stores,” Good says. “When we were thinking of opening our company, we realized there was a niche in the market for a company that could be a one-stop shop.

Our goal is to take homeowners’ outdoor-living spaces and make them their dream private backyard retreats.”

Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens will see a job through, from beginning to end. Good explains that the first step is finding a design that will best fit the outdoor space. Next, the company will assist homeowners in securing approval from their local architectural-review boards. Installation is the final step.

Good says, “As licensed builders, we have the ability to pull together all the necessary permits for construction. This way, homeowners have to deal with just one company. We have found that homeowners would rather deal with a brick-andmortar company that has the capabilities to do the entire job. In addition, Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens offers services that include monthly grill cleanings, grill repairs, and grill maintenance.”

Going forward, Good reports, the team at Palmetto Outdoor Kitchens sees a positive outlook.

He says, “With more and more people returning to outdoor living, the outdoor-kitchen trend is only going to increase. These private backyard retreats are equipped to entertain family and friends in comfort and style, regardless of the season.”

He adds, “Soon, midrange to high-end homes will include outdoor kitchens. It’s not just a grill anymore. Homeowners continue to see their outdoor-living spaces as extensions of the home.

Increasingly, outdoor kitchens are becoming larger, with more high-tech components added. An open-fire feature (such as a firepit, an outdoor fireplace, or a fire table) and a television for that outdoor space are just a few of the items for which we are seeing more requests.”

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Showroom Showcase

LABADIE’S

Make It Fun Labadie’s Patio Furniture and Accessories succeeds without off-season sales.

BY CHERYL DANGEL BARTOLINI PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW POTTER

You could say that Labadie’s Patio Furniture and Accessories makes hay while the sun shines. Its two stores in Trenton, Michigan, sell nothing but outdoor furniture and all the accessories that go with dressing up backyards in the warm months. In the fall, it doesn’t clear the floor to sell holiday decorations or fireplaces. In fact, it does not have an off-season product line at all. When temperatures drop, Labadie’s closes, and its staff takes a well-deserved rest.

Wes Mator, owner, says, “In the off-season, we refurbish the location and stay busy with repair work and painting. We have limited hours in November, and we close from mid-December until midFebruary. I take my vacation, and I come back recharged.”

One might wonder how Labadie’s can succeed without sales to keep the store afloat in the off-season, but Mator doesn’t see it that way. He says, “I came from the old school: Do what you do best, and if you do it the right way, you don’t have to have an off-season business.”

Mator should know. He wasn’t accustomed to having anything like an off-season. He used to own four 35,000–square-foot grocery stores in Southeastern Michigan. When Kroger came to town, he couldn’t compete. He got out of the business, immersing himself in charitable activities and joining the local Rotary Club.

At a meeting, Norm Labadie, who had owned two patio-furniture

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stores for 25 years and wanted to retire, approached Mator and asked if he would be interested in buying the business.

“I didn’t know anything about patio furniture, but Norm told me, ‘You know retail, and you know customers. That’s what counts,’” Mator recalls.

That was 20 years ago. “It’s funny. I was involved with a charity to pay it forward—and through the charity, I met Norm, and that paid it back,” Mator says. He decided to keep Labadie’s as the business name. “I didn’t need to see my name in lights,” he adds.

Under Mator, the stores have now been open for 45 years and have climbed to new heights of success. “I came from the food business, and it was much harder. This is a very easy, fun business, and if you don’t believe it, get into supermarkets,” Mator says. “A successful supermarket works on less than 3% net profit.”

Top far left: Labadie’s colorful vignettes inspire customers Bottom far left: Outdoor accessories, tableware, lighting, pillows, and replacement cushions are essential parts of the product mix Top: From left, Jim, Neil, and Wes Mator Bottom: Labadie’s operates two Michigan stores

The staff helps choose what makes it to the floor. “A whole gang of us will go to Chicago, Illinois, in the fall, and we get everyone’s opinion,” Mator says. “We are all different shapes and sizes. We sit in all the chairs and give them the bucket test to see if they are comfortable and if we like the way they look.

That is how we decide what to buy.”

A TEAM APPROACH Today, Mator operates one location as an upscale furniture store, with 20,000 square feet of indoor showroom space and 5,000 square feet outdoors.

The second location is an outlet store, with about 7,000 square feet of selling space devoted to good-quality (but not the finest) products, along with some closeouts and overruns.

“The outlet used to showcase 100% wicker and rattan, but that type of furniture faded here,” Mator says. That’s when he decided to maintain one store for value-priced products and one upscale store.

Between the two stores, there are 15 employ-

ees, many of them family members (including Mator’s brother, Jim; his son, Neil; his daughter, Audrey Rastelli; and his sister, Donna Yarlboro).

Mator explains, “My brother helped me out at the supermarket, but as my children got older and my sister wanted to be involved to get out of the house, it evolved. I’m really fortunate to have my family members with us.”

The upscale store carries “finest-quality furniture from the finest manufacturers: That is the premise,” Mator says. There, you’ll see products from Tropitone, OW Lee, Hanamint, Winston, Patio Renaissance, and Gensun Casual Living, alongside those of 10 other manufacturers.

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COMFY SALES Among Labadie’s biggest sellers are offset umbrellas, firepits, and cushioned products; the fact that the last are selling quite well is the biggest shock to Mator. He says, “If people had told us we’d be selling them as we are, I’d have said they were crazy. We’re not in Arizona or Florida. Here in Michigan, we get a lot of rainy days, and you’d think cushions would hold water for a week—but with the new materials, waterproofing, and furniture covers that are available, that isn’t the case. People are looking for more comfortable pieces.”

Mator adds, “I believe all the articles that say we’re bringing the inside outdoors. Having outdoor seating and dining is a good way to add to your living space without an addition.” He points to his sales of 4- to 5-inch cushions for deep seating

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

LABADIE’S

Showroom Showcase

pieces, comfort furniture, swivel rockers, and sectionals.

Alongside these products are various outdoor accessories, tableware, strung lighting, lamps, high-end planters, and pillows. “Right now, there are 794 pillows in here,” Mator says. “We sell several hundred pillows every year.” In short, 100% of his floor space is devoted to everything for the outdoors.

Individual vignettes, set up throughout the store, feature seating and firepits. They are decorated with everything from planters and vases to tableware and placemats. Mator does most of the staging himself, with the help of his brother and sister.

“I look at high-end decorating magazines and paint magazines for color palettes,” Mator says, explaining how he taught himself the art of staging. “You can get a pretty good idea by looking at some of those journals. I look at a lot of the pictures. Now, we’re getting into a lot of grays and blues,” he adds.

DEALING WITH VARIABLES It has been a steep learning curve for Mator, who was fortunate to be able to ease into the art of staging when he initially bought the stores.

“When I started, you had two types of tables; 75% were glass and 20% were wrought-iron

mesh. Those were your options, along with a few tile pop-in tables. There weren’t all the alternative tabletops you have now. It was much simpler to decide what to buy and to stage the floor then. Today, it has gotten much more complex,” he says.

Tabletop options aren’t all that has changed, Mator says; buying and staging have also become more complex because of all the different heights of seating offered. “There is seating in dining height, chat height, counter height, and bar height. That didn’t exist 20 years ago,” Mator says.

He continues, “Then, it was much easier to put the showroom together. In my shop today, three-fourths of the merchandise I have didn’t exist 10 years ago. The industry has evolved, and you had to keep up with the trends—and the business is still changing. People who stick their heads in the sand will get run over: I think it’s time to say ‘game over’ if they don’t want to entertain new ideas and merchandising. The food business was static, but this is an evolution, and it continues to change for the better (even if it’s a little more difficult).”

Staging the floor isn’t Mator’s biggest challenge: That is actually getting people into his upscale location. “We’re off the beaten path. We have customers who come almost 100 miles to

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get here, so getting them in here is the biggest challenge. We’re a destination,” he says, adding that the outlet store is on a main road.

Located near Lake Erie and between Detroit, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, the business uses lots of billboards, and Mator feels comfortable with his relatively strong presence on the internet. Despite all hurdles, Labadie’s does so well that it closes in the off-season—and survives.

“The secret, in this business, is this: You have to have fun, and it has to show. People want to be around people who are having fun. We all have friends who are robust and enthusiastic, and you want to surround yourself with those people. We have fun; we joke around,” Mator says.

“We’re selling patio furniture,” he explains.

“We’re not surgeons. We can have fun.

Sometimes, people in this business forget that.

We have fun, we serve our customers, and they see that. Our sales staff is not on commission.

An individual salesperson is not under the gun to get a commission check, and it shows. I’ve got some of the best.”

Mator hints that he might have big plans. He says, “I’m toying with the idea of getting another location. At 62, I’m not sure I want to do that, but I’ve always been an entrepreneur. If the right building and right location would come up, I’d definitely entertain the idea.”

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The Design Leader Brown Jordan’s timeless collections and commitment to craftsmanship set a high bar for the industry.

BY SHARON SANDERS

Brown Jordan

AS I SEE IT

Steve Elton

architects and designers to pull together their outdoor looks. It’s a whole shift. If you look at outdoor living now, it’s not unusual to see a $50,000 outdoor kitchen. People need furniture that will complement the high-end outdoor spaces they are creating.

Deia seating

There is casual furniture—and then, there is Brown Jordan (St. Augustine, Florida).

Always one step ahead in the industry, this innovative manufacturer lives up to its reputation—and exceeds it. Patio & Hearth Products Report recently caught up with Steve Elton, chief brand curator, to dive into everything Brown Jordan, including its collaboration with renowned interior-design genius Michael S. Smith (responsible for the 2010 makeover of the Oval Office).

How has Brown Jordan made a name for itself in the outdoor-furniture industry?

Elton: In 1945, when patio furniture was in its infancy, founder Robert Brown started an unassuming patio-furniture company that would eventually spark a revolution. In 1947, Brown partnered with respected designer Walter Lamb to create the Walter Lamb Brass collection, using brass and bronze piping and rope cording salvaged from the naval ships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The inventiveness of the collection made people stand up and take notice of Brown Jordan in a new way. It went from a quiet company to a monster company in just 16 months.

It started designing for Bloomingdale’s and became a different kind of company.

Today, it is looked up to by many as the industry’s innovative design leader. It is regarded as an out-of-the-box thinker and a risk taker

with an unapologetic passion for quality. This is how our brand was built, and I’m proud to say that we still think this way.

What does a patio manufacturer need to do (or be) in order to thrive in the specialty arena?

Elton: A manufacturer needs to know and understand its dealers and their customers. It also needs to provide a quality product at an understandable price. Dealers also look to Brown Jordan to be the expert in design. We have a responsibility to give them a product that is unique and different. We have a responsibility to push the design envelope—and push it hard.

That’s who we are and what we do: It’s in our DNA. There are things in the manufacturing process that Brown Jordan does that no one else does. It’s all done to get our furniture to look and feel a certain way.

How are consumers using outdoor furniture differently today than they did in the past?

Elton: I grew up in a time when my parents had a picnic table, two Adirondack chairs, and an umbrella. During the 1970s and 1980s, it was a dining table with four chairs, an umbrella, and a chaise. Now, one’s backyard is an extension of the home. It’s an outdoor room with no walls, and the ceiling is the sky.

Many people are not doing their backyards themselves anymore; they are hiring landscape

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Which new Brown Jordan collections are most exciting?

Elton: At the ICFA Preview Show™ in July, we introduced some new pieces to a classic Brown Jordan collection from the 1980s, called Venetian, which we are really excited about; the Ritz Paris wanted to purchase Venetian for its hotel renovation and asked us to add a sectional and some updated tables, so that’s what we have done. It has resonated with our other customers as well.

We have also released two new collections by one of our favorite designers, John Caldwell.

His Pasadena cushion collection pays homage to Midcentury design and the birthplace of Brown Jordan. It features a smooth, flat aluminum extrusion that has gentle curves.

The Crossings collection elevates the look of woven furniture with its sectional design. It features our unique and exclusive Sunbrella® strapping, and it has limitless customization and SKU flexibility.

What is the nature of the Michael S. Smith collaboration?

Elton: Our most notable product news this year is our collaboration with prolific designer Michael S. Smith, who is often referred to as one of the world’s best interior designers. He was chosen by the Obamas to serve as the White House decorator, and his original designs are respected around the world.

After a four-year journey, this design genius has created three distinct collections that have pushed all the design limits, even in Brown Jordan’s terms. Each collection features all the precise detail one expects from Brown Jordan.

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

Since 1975

QUICK SHIP PROGRAM 2017 All Quick Ship Collections Ship in 3 working days from Haleyville, Alabama 2017 Program Expanded to 13 Collections Totaling 85 SKU’s 'HDOHU %HQHÀWV No Inventory or Warehouse Expense Maximizes Turns on Winston Floor Placements

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Chicago Merchandise Mart - Winston Showroom Suite #1515

Haleyville, AL

www.winstonfurniture.com

205.486.9211

Since 1975

Brown Jordan

AS I SEE IT

The first is Harwood, which is an updated design in the classic Georgian Chippendale style.

It perfectly enhances any garden terrace, tennis pavilion, or trellis pathway.

The second is Deia, which is inspired by small, magical villages perched on the northern ridge of Majorca. It is classic (yet stylish), and it features detailed, handhammered finials. This warm and inviting Neoclassical design truly invokes memories of a sweet life.

The third collection, Arbore, achieves the perfect balance of traditional style and comfort.

It is inspired by the faux-bois technique of relief carvings mastered by French, Irish, and Swedish artisans since the 17th century. A natural in a traditional garden setting, this updated collection gracefully gives a nod to the past while favoring the comforts of the present. Architectural Digest plans to run a feature article that is a behind-thescenes look at this fascinating design journey.

proposition that shows people why it’s important to spend a little bit more.

Just as when you go into a department store (such as Bergdorf Goodman) that carries clothing lines that vary in price, each brand is helping Bergdorf Goodman be successful because each brand brings value. Brown Jordan brings unique design that is on trend—yet innovative, at the same time. We also bring quality construction and a product that performs.

Why should a specialty retailer partner with Brown Jordan?

Elton: There is so much competition out there that specialty dealers need a partner that helps them compete. Specialty retailers need to offer consumers choice, and Brown Jordan has a distinct place in that equation. We know that we will never be the least expensive product on the floor (and don’t want to be), but we offer a value

What emerging trends do you see in outdoor furniture?

Elton: While dining remains a big category for us, I see a definite trend toward more lounge seating. People want to be more comfortable and don’t mind eating in a lounging atmosphere, versus using a more formal table and chairs.

I also see sofas, chairs, and movement pieces gaining popularity as they follow suit with the

The Harwood lounge chair and ottoman

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whole lounge trend. The outdoor-fire category (firepits, fireplaces, and fire tables) has grown tremendously over the past few years, and I see that continuing to gain more prominence in outdoor-living areas.

What opportunities and challenges does the future hold for the outdoor-furniture industry?

Elton: The outdoor category, without a doubt, is the highest-growth category in the whole furniture industry right now, and I think it will continue to grow. I do a lot of keynote speaking, and one of the things that I say constantly to specialty retailers is that their biggest competition, whether they want to face it or not, is from the internet and consumers’ mailboxes. People are getting flooded daily with marketing catalogs that contain beautiful pictures and compelling designs from some of the biggest brands in retail.

The challenge that specialty shops have is to make the in-store shopping experience unique, educational, and inspirational. They need to give consumers a compelling reason to buy from them, when it comes to service, selection, design, and quality.

As a manufacturer, it’s our responsibility, in turn, to give them all they need for their customers. Brown Jordan has everything to offer, so we plan to go on the ride with them.

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The Bellini collection

Preserving a Legacy OW Lee values the bonds that have lasted through generations.

OW Lee

MY TURN

The Luna collection

OW Lee Company (Ontario, California) has been renowned for decades, throughout the casual industry, for designing and manufacturing some of the highest-quality outdoor furniture and firepits available. It is the company’s relationships, however, that might be the most important component of its continuing success since its founding (almost 70 years ago).

OW Lee has developed and nurtured many connections that form the company’s cornerstone of doing business: from family ties spanning generations to a work environment in which employees feel valued for their contributions to the goodwill that the company has developed with its scores of dealers and suppliers. Terri Lee Rogers, president, says, “The relationships OW Lee has built, over the years, have been achieved through the values that still exist in our industry.”

Today, the third and fourth generations of the Lee family work hard to continue and preserve the legacy created by the company’s founder, Oddist W. Lee, a welder. In 1947, he

began manufacturing wrought-iron gates for many of the grand estates in Pasadena, and eventually, he started making wrought-iron furniture to sell to patio stores.

He incorporated the business as OW Lee Company in 1954. Oddist’s son, Bob, began working in the business at age 14 and joined full-time (after graduating from high school) in the 1950s. For the next three decades, under the direction of Bob and his wife, Beverly, OW Lee grew to be the highly respected manufacturer of outdoor products that it is today.

When Bob retired in the 1990s, the third generation took the helm: his son, Brian Lee; his daughter, Terri Lee Rogers; and his son-inlaw, Chris Goff. With Terri’s two children, Leisa McCollister and Paul Rogers, now actively involved in company management, the fourth generation is working in a leadership role.

Rogers says, “Leisa is in charge of marketing and has been instrumental in costing our products.

Paul is in charge of product development, as well as the presentation of our products at photo shoots and trade shows. He is also involved in

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BY KIMBERLY RODGERS

sourcing suppliers for new products.”

About 70% of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before the second generation takes over, according to a 2012 Harvard Business Review study. OW Lee, however, is an example of a family business that not only has survived through the generations, but continues to thrive, as it provides innovative, high-caliber products to the casual industry. The company has avoided the pitfalls that many family-run businesses experience by implementing some concrete measures.

“My kids are the oldest in the fourth generation, and we have a lot more kids coming down the pike. Some may show an interest in joining the company, and we have a path set forth for them to achieve that goal,” Rogers says. “We have some hard-and-fast rules—which include working outside the company prior to joining OW Lee full-time.”

OW Lee has received considerable industry recognition through the years. These awards are an honor not taken lightly by the family, Rogers says. In September 2015, OW Lee received the Manufacturer of the Year Award at the International Casual Furnishings Association’s Apollo Awards—the company’s fourth such honor in a row (and its fifth in six years).

Rogers says, “Our family and our employees are all very proud of this achievement. We make sure each department understands the contribution it made to receiving this award.” Rogers received the 2014 Spirit of the Entrepreneur Award, given to top entrepreneurial business leaders in Southern California’s Inland Empire; she won in the manufacturing category.

OW Lee’s vast collection of products includes furniture lines in wrought iron and wrought aluminum, as well as firepits and fire tables. According to a 2016 survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects, firepits and fireplaces are the hottest trend today among homeowners who want to upgrade their backyards. OW Lee was one of the first manufacturers to enter this now-booming market segment.

“We have been in the category for about 13 years, starting with one SKU,” Rogers says.

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“I remember retailers being pretty skeptical about the concept, but the popularity of the outdoor firepit has exploded over the past few years.” Currently, there are more than 50 SKUs in OW Lee’s Casual Fireside collection, and the company will continue to add new products to it every year. The Casual Fireside collection has consistently represented approximately 25% of the company’s sales for

the past five years. The biggest sellers in the category are the 42and 52-inch round chat-height Santorini firepits.

For the 2016 season, OW Lee introduced three furniture collections (Luna, Sol, and Bellini), along with a series of reclaimedwoodlike porcelain-tile tops for firepits and tables. “Of the furniture introductions, Luna gained the most traction; however, due to

style differences in various parts of the country, we have seen Sol do well in the mountain states, and Bellini is popular in Northern California,” Rogers says.

For the 2017 season, OW Lee will be introducing four furniture collections. “We have had a call for cleaner lines and a smaller scale,” Rogers notes. Three of the new lines will have contemporary styling, and one will be in

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PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

OW Lee’s traditional wroughtiron design. She adds, “It is hard to find the high-quality, handcrafted ironwork anymore, yet we want to continue to honor the hallmark of our company.”

There will also be some new firepit designs, hearths, and tabletops.

Of all OW Lee’s collections, Monterra furniture is the numberone seller, followed by the Casual Fireside collection. The Classico, San Cristobal, and Luna furniture lines in wrought iron round out the company’s list of top sellers.

Rogers was pleasantly surprised to see a sales uptick for the Gios collection. Crafted in aluminum, Gios is OW Lee’s only contemporary group. All OW Lee products are manufactured with only the highest-quality materials, including carbon steel, galvanized steel, and 6061 aluminum alloy—all used for superior strength and for rust/corrosion resistance.

Rogers has worked at OW Lee since the beginning of the outdoor-room trend, when it was a new concept to consumers. Now, she sees the outdoor room as a staple in new-home building and a must-have feature of remodeling.

She says, “As many products as possible that simulate the indoors—and can withstand outdoor elements—will be incorporated into outdoor-living spaces.

Kitchens, firepits, fireplaces, outdoor electronics, lighting, and heating will all be items that will be mainstays of outdoor living.”

As the casual industry expands, OW Lee will continue to provide the highest-quality products to furnish any type of outdoor space.

Along the way, it will also carry on a rich family legacy started decades ago.

“Family, hard work, and integrity have been passed down from generation to generation in all facets of our industry. I think everyone appreciates what it takes to achieve that through the years.

It’s not easy, but there is one thing we always put first, and that is family. We have made it through three generations, and we are excited about what the fourth will bring. Fresh ideas are crucial in keeping the company moving forward,” Rogers says.

COLOR that TRANSFORMS

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Product Innovation Woodbridge

A Focus on Form

The Algonquin outdoor fireplace

An outdoor log set

Winning designs by Woodbridge Fireplace have led to the company’s sharp growth. BY SHARON SANDERS Woodbridge Fireplace Inc. is in growth mode. In June, the manufacturer doubled its footprint when it moved into a new 31,000–square-foot state-of-the-art facility in Mississauga, Ontario. The 13–year-old company is a leading innovator that understands what separates a good fireplace from an exceptional fireplace. Tony James, founder and president, says, “It’s in the details.”

James has been designing fireplaces for more than 30 years. His creations (300 and counting) have been used and seen everywhere—from the White House to television shows, apartment complexes, and custom homes. After years of working for large corporations, James went out on his own, in 2003, to start Woodbridge.

“I wanted to design fireplaces the way I wanted to design them,” James explains, adding that he had to take direction from groups of people when he worked for corporations. “The details would get lost. I knew I could create better products on my own,” he says.

As an innovative thinker, James has managed to take his years of experience and to translate them expertly into a company with a solid reputation in the industry. Every Woodbridge product is created with design,

quality, and serviceability in mind. “I have seen many fireplaces that look cool, but are flops— because they don’t stand up to the test in other crucial areas,” James notes.

One signature of all Woodbridge products is that they are designed to be installed and serviced easily. James says, “There is nothing more frustrating for a service technician than to have to tear apart a fireplace to do a minor repair.”

In many instances, technicians won’t handle certain fireplaces because they are hard to service, so retailers end up having to look for products that are more installer friendly. James says, “I’ve seen many fireplaces that had service issues, and I was the guy who had to sort through the issues and come up with solutions.

The products that we make are bulletproof because I’ve lived and breathed them.”

The quality of Woodbridge products is another source of pride for the company. All of its products are made entirely in its full-service manufacturing plant in Canada, which is equipped with all the latest technology. The company uses lasers and turret punches to create its parts, which are then formed, welded, and carefully painted on-site.

All the materials used in Woodbridge fire-

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places are the finest available. James never cuts corners. Materials are specified individually for each model (depending on its application) to guarantee durability. “There are manufacturers trying to replicate the look of our fireplaces, but they can never replicate the quality,” he says, adding that everything in the manTony ufacturing process is done based on James experience.

James adds, “When it comes to quality, we take it up a notch. For example, we created custom stainlesssteel pilots for our outdoor units.

Technically, we could get away with another kind of pilot with a stainless-steel hood, but after a few years, it would corrode and fall apart. We take pride in every detail.”

The company has also made a name for itself by designing products that fill a niche in the marketplace. James has created many firsts, over the years. “The fact that we have our own manufacturing facility makes it possible to do anything we want,” he explains. For example, in 2015, the company introduced the DV 1400 direct-vent gas fireplace, which is just 10 inches deep.

“Quite often, people want a fireplace, but are limited by the size of the room or the space where they want to install the fireplace,” James says. The shallow 10-inch unit not only fits perfectly in those situations, but looks as though it has twice the depth (when installed) because of its aesthetic characteristics. “The DV1400 has been a big home run for us because there is nothing exactly like it on the market right now,” he adds.

Over the past five years, the company’s emphasis has shifted; now, at least half of its new products are developed for the outdoors.

“People crave a fire in their outdoor rooms for ambience and heat,” James says.

Earlier this year, the company introduced the Algonquin, a massive stainless-steel outdoor

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

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Product Innovation Woodbridge

fireplace that is 4 feet wide and 44 inches high. Inside the firebox, there is a chunky concrete log set with a glass ember bed—and a huge flame.

James says, “The flame is reflected on the stainless steel, so it looks like an inferno.” He explains that bigger is better, when it comes to outdoor fireplaces, because people want to The SS72 fireplace make a statement with fire (beyond a simple firepit).

This year, the company has added both indoor and Woodbridge also has a selection of popular outdoor outdoor gas logs to its product lineup. James sees huge contemporary units. They are 7 feet long structurally, potential in the marketplace, particularly for logs with a 6-foot viewing area. They are available in singlemade for use outdoors. The concrete outdoor gas-log sided and see-through versions (and in other sizes). sets undergo rigorous testing to ensure that they resist All Woodbridge fireplaces, both outdoors and wind, rain, and all the other elements. They come in indoors, bring their owners something unique. “The two standard sizes, with stainless-steel burners. products we make are not available from any other Woodbridge enjoys the luxury of having a retail manufacturer,” James explains, adding that this is showroom, which has been invaluable for product develattractive to the company’s customers, which include opment. “It’s a real-time situation where we’ve designed a custom-home builders and renovators. product, launched it, and are able to be in touch with He continues, “Anybody can buy a 33- or 36-inch how it’s being installed, how it’s functioning, and how fireplace, but those units are coming from the me-too customers are responding to it,” James explains. manufacturers competing for the lowest price. Our As the company heads into its 14th year, it is getting customers are looking for something that the neighbetter at everything it does as it becomes more in tune bor down the street won’t have.” with its customers and the industry. It is becoming

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increasingly obvious that homeowners aren’t satisfied with the lower-priced fireplaces that builders often put in new homes, James says. Today’s design-conscious homeowners want something with style (and the latest technology).

“People come into our retail store all the time to buy upgraded fireplaces because the builders won’t upgrade for them,” James says.

He adds that the designers and architects he works with for custom-home jobs often inspire him to push his own design envelope. “I’m always working to make something that creates a mood or emotion in a room. I admit that it’s hard not to become complacent after designing hundreds of hearth products, so when a fireplace idea makes me feel something in my gut, I know it’s going to be a hit,” he explains.

With the recent relocation of its manufacturing and retail operations, Woodbridge has strategically positioned itself for the future. It is now capable of doubling its size as consumer interest grows for its products. James has big plans. He says, “In the coming years, we will bring even more innovative hearth products to the market, expand our presence across North America, and continue to bring a passion to our business that translates into success for our customers.”

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The Rebirth of Agio Agio, USA reinvents its designs to appeal to today’s consumers.

Maddox rectangular dining

Agio

CORPORATE PROFILE

BY CHERYL DANGEL BARTOLINI

Del Mar woven deep seating

Describing the current state of affairs at Agio, USA (Virginia Beach, Virginia), Mike Gaylord, vice president of sales, says, “We’re in what I’d call a renaissance period. Agio has made a big push toward the more modern looks and more on-trend styles that consumers are looking for; with that, we’ve made the transition into a new look and feel that the industry is asking for, in terms of design.”

He adds, “Our design team has created more deep seating arrangements, along with chat groups.” Gaylord explains that the rebirth is due largely to the influence of millennial consumers. “They are helping push the baby boomers and generation X into this new, uncharted territory with the looks that they want. What you’re seeing is eclectic styling that appeals to millennials—which, in turn, will

drive business for the rest,” he says.

Gaylord continues, “Manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers need to understand and embrace these new consumer trends.

We’re having a renaissance when it comes to revisiting the traditional looks, which still sell, but it’s really important that we stay abreast of these trends.”

Agio is embracing that approach from design and development standpoints. “We’re very positive about it,” Gaylord states.

“We’ve introduced a lot of very talented, intelligent, youthful people into our company.

We’re in year two of our second quarter-century, and that’s showing up in our company with talented young professionals. I think folks will notice that, this season, in our products.”

Agio’s been paying great attention to looks, design, and value, and those traits will all be evident in the new products slated for the 2017 season. “We’re reinvesting in ourselves and making sure we’re sourcing from the right people,” Gaylord explains, adding that retailers who came to the ICFA Preview Show™ saw some of what he’s referring to: wicker.

NEW AT AGIO “There’s no question that wicker is at the top of the wish list from retailers,” Gaylord reports. “Agio will be making a statement in wicker and in woven furniture this season.

That’s what we’ve learned from working so closely with our reps and our customers, over

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the past year or two.”

He promises full collections (with four or five major pieces per collection), along with multiple accessory items that consumers can continue to buy and add, year after year. “If they purchased dining sets last year, perhaps they want to add firepit chat sets, wine carts, or bar sets this year,” he says. “I think it’s fair to say we’re going to be making a statement in wicker, again, for the specialty dealers.” In addition, Agio will introduce three new offerings to extend its most popular collections.

Among its many strengths, Agio counts its savvy in knowing which new products to launch. “Agio will continue to devote a great deal of time and energy to its trend-development teams,” Gaylord reports. “Our staff and trend coordinators spend countless hours (and attend hundreds of shows and exhibitions of all types, around the world) identifying trends, styles, and colors. That’s something Agio has been known for, and you’ll see that reflected in our collections for next season. The retailers will really be able to reap the benefits.”

For example, Agio has unveiled Westhill, a sling set with woven side panels. A second collection (Parkdale) is in aluminum, and a third (Lakehouse) is in mixed materials. All three collections exhibit fun new looks. Gaylord says, “These sets have beautiful coloration, great fabrics, and fantastic finishes. We were really excited to debut them at the ICFA Preview Show.”

Each collection was displayed with a trend wall that showed retailers the inspirations and influences that went into developing it. The collections were shown with

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

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Agio

CORPORATE PROFILE

accessory pillows, fabrics, rugs, and colors that go with them.

The recent changes made within Agio can be found everywhere, especially in research and development. Gaylord says, “Agio has enhanced developments in FRP, glass-reinforced concrete, and magnesium oxide, and it is building new products with these materials. We’re also creating different types of finishes: many faux-stone and

wood-look finishes that really look authentic.”

There will be lots of new colors, too. Gaylord says, “Colors are another big thing for us (as well as the industry): bolder colors—not only in accessory pillows, but certainly in body cloth, too.” He cites Agio’s award-winning blue-wicker Del Mar collection from last year as an example.

He says, “Look for new and surprising things with color to help brighten the showroom floor.

There’s a vibrancy and big push toward color, and much of that can be attributed to the millennial influence.”

Agio is also changing how it does business with retailers hoping to place smaller orders. “Most have heard about our new domestic-warehousing program. We feel that it will be a huge opportunity for the future of our business,” Gaylord says, reporting that Agio has already received positive feedback on the new program.

The domestic-warehouse program will allow retailers who want to purchase less than a container load to enjoy the benefits of Agio. Retailers who don’t import can still be part of the business and take part in the import process by ordering through Agio’s domestic-fulfillment program.

“This will enable Agio to serve every type of retailer,” Gaylord adds.

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GET ONLINE Agio has certainly taken to heart the feedback that it has received from retailers—and, in return, Gaylord has some advice that he hopes will help retailers boost sales: He urges retailers to get online. “If they don’t have their businesses online right now, they’re probably making a mistake. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon, they’ll need to be there,” he says. “We’re seeing tripling of (or high double-digit increases in) the amount of patio furniture being sold online.”

He adds, “Consumers would much rather buy online from their local name-brand retailer who has a great assortment. Through fulfillment and third-party logistics, any retailer can build an online program. Pair up with a couple of import manufacturers, such as Agio, and—between the sets on your floor and added sets in your online program—this provides many more options to present to the customer.”

Gaylord continues, “If the set on your floor doesn’t appeal to the consumer, you can provide options from your online program and have them ordered and delivered to your store, or you can have them delivered it right to the customer’s home. The brick-andmortar dealers, we hope, will take advantage of these programs and get their online businesses up and running.

They’ll reach out to manufacturers and ask ‘What’s your online offering?

What’s in your warehouse, that can be delivered in 48 hours, that I can get to my customer?’”

He concludes, “It’s an industry-wide trend, and it’s building almost daily.” In short, Agio is there to help.

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INSIGHT

Dansons

From left: Jeff, Dan, and Jordan Thiessen

Strong and Nimble their waste. “We started it together,” Thiessen says. “We are the oldest family-owned pelletfuel company in the marketplace.” to customer demand has By 2001, the trio began working with pellet stoves and grills. After the economic downturn, contributed to its growth Dansons decided to restructure its business and refine its focus by selling its stove company, PelPro, and high standing in to Hearth & Home Technologies® (Lakeville, Minnesota). “In September 2013, we sold the heating part of our business,” Thiessen says. the marketplace.

The company retained the Dansons name and barbecue business, and it has worked hard to continue manufacturing innovative products for its

BY CHERISE FORNO Louisiana Grills (LG) and Pit Boss Grills brands.

As a result, Thiessen reports, Dansons has seen unprecedented growth. “We’ve been blessed with Dansons Inc. (Edmonton, huge growth in the past few years,” he says.

Alberta), a family-owned manufacIn 2013, the company launched the LG turer of pellet fuel and appliances, has ceramic series of kamado-style grills and accesexperienced expansive growth during the past sories, which have been extremely well received. few years by successfully implementing a twoDansons sells top-quality, complete packages of brand strategy in a burgeoning industry. Jeff ceramic charcoal-burning products; because Thiessen, president of Dansons, says, “This is they include all the features customers are lookthe best year in the pellet-grill business.” ing for, they don’t need to purchase add-on The company began in 1999, with Dan products (as required to use some competitors’ Thiessen (Jeff ’s father); Jeff; and his brother, products). “We bring consumers a much better Jordan, coordinating with sawmills to eliminate value,” Thiessen says.

He adds that using charcoalburning ceramic grills is a huge (and growing) trend—because once consumers try a product in Dansons’ LG ceramic series, they are sold. Ceramic grills retain moisture and heat, and this results in better food flavor.

“Pellet grills and ceramic grills are the two most popular types in barbecuing, right now,” Thiessen says.

The LG 900 grill Although such innovations with an LG are driving sales, he adds, these smoke box products are just a part of the reason that Dansons has seen its

Dansons’ responsiveness

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sales increase by 70% in the first half of 2016.

Another factor in Dansons’ climbing sales is the wide range of products that the company offers; this, Thiessen explains, keeps the sales team and other employees invigorated and motivated to introduce new items to its customers.

Dansons prides itself on building solid partnerships with retailers to ensure that customers receive products that meet their needs. One way that it nourishes these relationships is through a strong two-brand strategy for specialty retailers and big-box stores. “We respect all of our retailers,” Thiessen states.

The LG brand, which is sold primarily by specialty retailers, offers higher-end products.

Pit Boss is a second Dansons brand that caters more to the value-priced market and is available in warehouse stores (such as Costco). “We have the broadest assortment of pellet grills,” Thiessen says.

As a result, Dansons is one of the fastestgrowing companies in the pellet market.

Dansons’ charcoal and pellet products are strong, and the company offers a number of accessories (as well as sauces), within both of its grill brands, that support retailers by providing opportunities for secondary purchases after initial appliance sales. “We have a fully branded program in both brands,” Thiessen adds.

This year, Dansons introduced a new grill in the LG Elite series: the LG 800 Elite, a stainless-steel unit that debuted at HPBExpo in March. Thiessen says, “We have some exciting new products,” and they feature the company’s digital control board to make controlling cooking temperatures easy and reliable.

The LG 800 Elite wood-pellet smoker blends tradition with contemporary design and the latest technology. It offers 838 square inches of cooking space, as well as fan-forced convention heat, a range of cooking temperatures, and a high-temperature powder-coated finish. “It’s continued on page 101

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Allen Home

INSIGHT

infrared heaters, OEM infrared electric fireplace inserts, and infrared log sets.

Caples explains that launching a new brand, ensuring that warehouses, inventory, and delivery routes are all in place and running smoothly, is an incredibly large undertaking. Allen Home is also opening showrooms and is currently designing a new one in Las Vegas, Nevada. “It’s complex,” he says. “So far, it’s been good.”

The company also put a lot of time and research into

A Warm Reception

captions Allen Home heaters and electric fireplaces offer affordable style

The new Allen Home brand of fireplaces, heaters, and more ignites the marketplace.

BY CHERISE FORNO

Allen Group, a leading Chinese manufacturer, brings more than 20 years of experience to the development of its new Allen® Home brand, which is geared toward North American customers in the home-furnishings, heating, and electronics markets. Brian Brigham is vice president of marketing and public relations for Allen Home (headquartered in Seattle, Washington). He says, “Allen Home was launched to cater to North and South America styles, with our main focus on the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We’ve built a North American sales and marketing team and hired North American designers who specialize in the electronics and furniture fields.”

Brigham notes that with customers in 32 countries, including the United States, and Allen Group’s vast experience in Europe and Asia, it only made sense to focus on the Americas. Allen Home will include all of the company’s successful product offerings, such as electronic fireplaces, heaters, furniture, air purifiers, and home/garden decor. New products, such as electric infrared food smokers, will also be launched under the Allen Home brand.

Bill Caples, managing director of Allen Home, says, “Everything in Allen Home is new.” In its first year, Allen Home has debuted products at various trade shows—including HPBExpo, where it showed its selection of

each Allen Home product line. Caples, who has many years of experience selling electric fireplaces all over the world, studied the price levels, styles, and marketing of these products, across the industry, so that Allen Home could offer more than its competitors. “We had to make an insert that was competitively priced, but with more features than anything on the market,” he says. These features include LCD remote controls, a fan-only mode, four flame-brightness settings, three flame speeds, and Allen Home’s ember-bed–only mode.

Allen Home Signature inserts, available in sizes from 18 to 72 inches, are strong performers. Brigham comments that the company’s 28inch insert is particularly popular. Each insert is also available in modern and traditional styles, with curved- or flat-front design options.

“Our fireplaces and heaters have the most infrared elements on the market—meaning that they heat the air more efficiently, in a shorter time, than many,” Brigham says. “We have also completely redesigned our air channels to get the most velocity from our fans, with engineering that just makes sense, when you see it.”

Brigham adds that the fan-only mode has previously been seen only in rolling heaters.

“This allows the consumer to use the product in every season—not just when it’s cold outside,” he says. The ember-bed–only mode pro-

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vides the look of freshly lit logs, with an ambient glow featuring five natural flame colors. “All Allen Home products also feature our custom remote controls, which (on our premium product) come with an LCD temperature and function readout,” Brigham says.

An Allen Home product that has strong potential is the Voyager media mantel, with integrated dual 3D speaker bars. Caples reports that the 75-inch unit comes with a sound bar that the company designed and built, as well as a 28-inch insert. “We think it provides a better sound than anything else that is on the market, with more features,” Caples says. “I’m sure it’s going to be popular.”

Another product that has already been well received is the Manchester wall mantel, complete with a 42-inch electric fireplace insert.

In addition to providing cutting-edge designs and features, Allen Home continues Allen Group’s tradition of delivering high-quality, handsculpted, and handfinished products to customers. “Our research centers in Shanghai and Guangdong, China, work seamlessly with our three manufacturing complexes, consisting of multiple factories on each campus that specialize in the production of resin polystone, high-quality ceramics, electronics, and wood products,” Brigham says.

Caples adds that this component is extremely important for the North American market. “It’s not just a matter of design; it’s quality,” he says.

“The North American consumer expects quality.”

Brigham explains that Allen Group stands apart in the industry because of its manufacturing capabilities and quality control. “We own and operate all of our facilities, not having to rely on multiple third-party suppliers to approve our quality—meaning a better complete product and fewer headaches for our customers,” he says. “Because we manufacture and assemble each part of our products, there is less likelihood of defects, allowing our customers to sell to their consumers with confidence.”

Looking to the future, Allen Home is building its product lines and improving the features that it offers its customers. “We need more styles, and we need more price points,” Caples says. This expansion is not only in the heating sector, but in all areas (including furniture and decor). Brigham says, “We’ve spent our ramp-up year focusing on making the best inserts that we could, as they are at the heart of every mantel and media mantel.

We are working mainly on growing our categories, styles, and finishes this year, and that extends from fireplaces down into heaters.”

Allen Home will continue manufacturing high-quality innovations in all of its product lines and marketing its offerings throughout North America. Brigham says, “We would like to become the go-to brand for customers and consumers, which means more retail placements.”

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SHOP TALK

Creating Experiential Retail Holding in-store special events and transforming customers into ambassadors will boost sales.

BY RYAN BLOOM

Five experiential-retail experts in the patio, hearth, and barbecue/grill industries recently shared their thoughts on hosting in-store events.

Harvesting emails is very important. We ask all new customers for their email addresses, so we are able to alert them to in-store events. Almost everyone is eager to hear about what’s coming up soon. We do our best to make our events a show: as an example, cooking a pig over an open wood fire on a spit. What an attention getter; everyone wants a picture with the pig. That’s what draws people to the next event, and many of these people tell their friends, bringing more customers to our store.

—Joe Pino, GrillBillies Barbecue LLC (Raleigh, North Carolina)

Ryan Bloom

Today’s consumer is more informed than ever. Before entering a retail store or showroom, many consumers have done some form of research on the brands and products they are considering.

To get practical information on the type of experience they want to buy into, many have watched YouTube videos or followed social-media accounts.

Experiential retail has been used to advantage by many of the world’s top brands, including Apple, WilliamsSonoma, and Tesla. They invest resources in actively engaging their customers with their products and brands. They know that the more their customers use and love their products, the more loyalty and word-ofmouth client acquisitions can be expected.

This philosophy is what evolves people from customers (making a one-time purchase) to ambassadors.

Ambassadors typically tell people about

IN-STORE EVENTS

their experiences, are less price sensitive, and want to feel as though they are part of the retailer’s VIP club or in-crowd. At Urban Bonfire (Montreal, Quebec), we’ve found the use of interactive events to be the most time- and cost-effective strategy in creating ambassadors for grill/barbecue retailers.

Events allow retailers to engage their existing and future clients with all five senses. People get to see, touch, smell, hear, and taste the grill experience. This

Marketing and advertising play key roles. You don’t want simply to host an event for the customers who happen to come in to shop that day. It’s important to use the appropriate media outlets (within your budget) for publicizing your event: print ads/newspaper, social-media platforms, email blasts, press releases, postcard/invitation mailings, in-store signage, and register handouts. In addition, reach out to the community: If holding an event geared toward children, contact and send out flyers to local schools, day-care centers, nursery schools, and so forth.

Monitoring event posts on social media is also important. Be mindful of the number of views and/or shares your events are receiving. As awesome as social media can be for getting the word out, that word can spread to too many people—possibly, more people than your event space can handle.

Don’t be hesitant to remove your post if the response is overwhelming, and be sure to look more closely at any shares your post may have received. People or groups might have shared your post with their followers—which might outnumber yours, potentially overexposing your event. As much as you appreciate their assistance in promoting your event, ask them to remove the shared post, based on the limitations of your event.

—Adriene Vesci, Bucks Country Gardens (Doylestown, Pennsylvania) I keep enrollment to about 16 people for hands-on classes (so everyone can get involved). I want to make sure each class is on a date and at a time when I will get a good number of people to sign up; I always like to make the recipes simple, too, so people can duplicate them at home.

I have also realized that with my Big Green Egg class, people really just want to know how to use it. They don’t care about the recipe—just about how to smoke, grill, and sear. I love all our events, because they always drive people back to the store.

—Dan Marguerite, Backyard Barbecue Store (Wilmette, Illinois)

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Either go big or go home. Consumer expectations are greater now than ever. Some may counter that expectations have not changed, but rather, people feel a certain degree of entitlement and want to be wowed.

Regardless of your point of view, the key is to embrace the opportunity to connect with your customer. Trigger as many of the senses as possible. At the end of the day, it comes down to putting a smile on people’s faces. The rest will take care of itself.

—Cameron Mitchell, Barbecue Country (Edmonton, Alberta) One of the most important things to consider when hosting a special in-store event is to decide what you want to accomplish with this event. Is the purpose of the event to introduce the store to new customers, introduce new products to your existing customers, increase sales of a particular category of product, or provide clearance of existing products?

The purpose of the event will determine how you do your marketing and who will be the focus group of the marketing. It will also determine store setup, product pricing, and even staffing.

—Faye Schimke, Housewarmings (Lexington, Kentucky)

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Patio Renaissance introduces

THE LOFT COLLECTION

Loft is a contemporary design with a hint of old world rustic. Loft is handcrafted of all Aluminum frames with a distressed wood grain texture that is available in three complimentary finish options, Reclaimed Barn Wood, Salvaged Lumber and Railroad Tie. Loft has generously proportioned seat buckets and offers ultimate comfort with extra thick reticulated seat cushions. The collection includes a modular sectional, lounge chair, swivel lounge, fire pit dining set and high dining.

See us at Casual Market Chicago in September, Showroom 1520 9118 7th Street • Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

3600 Westinghouse Blvd., Suite A • Charlotte, NC 28273

Toll Free: 1-866-690-5673

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True Fire Kenton Roeder

BY GREG THOMPSON

It’s no exaggeration to say that Kenton B. Roeder often gazes into hot Mendota

LAST WORD

Mendota’s inserts and log sets feature some of the most realistic flames in the industry. embers with what amounts to a burning curiosity. As vice president of Mendota Hearth Products (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Roeder works with a design team to mimic the look of burning wood and to put out, he says, “one of the best flame packages” on the market.

Using heavy-duty construction materials, Mendota has been manufacturing its striking indoor hearth inserts since 1980 and commercial gas appliances since 1901. In that time, the company has responded to the market’s demands for high efficiency with plenty of options. Roeder, a 17-year Mendota veteran, says, “Our products last longer and look better, and we spend a lot of time on the flame package. We’re highly efficient, with the capability of turning down the Btu level when you do not want all the heat—but still want a nice-looking flame. That is unique to the market.”

Maintaining that nicelooking flame literally means staring at fires, eventually taking out the real wood, and replicating those logs for use in a gas fireplace. As seen in the company’s Décor line and elsewhere, custom painting and carving follow to make each log realistic.

Roeder explains, “We literally take wood that’s on fire out of a burning fire, cool it off, take it down to our lab, and design molds to make sure we have the most realistic logs on the market. We will design the burner to guide the flame through the log set to make sure we get an optimal, large, deep flame that everybody likes.”

Even when the fire is not on, that signature look is important. “There’s a lot of time where

The FV41 Décor fireplace with river-rock media, an aged-leather wide Grace front, and a panoramic black-porcelain reflective liner

The ML47 linear gas fireplace with Norway spruce logs and a panoramic mocha-porcelain reflective liner

the fire remains off, especially in the warmer seasons,” Roeder says. “We also want our log package to look the best it can when there is no flame. Once the flame is on, we pay attention to where the flames go through the log set. There’s a specific setup to make sure it looks the best.”

According to Roeder, Inswool ceramic fiber helps the fire glow like a wood-burning fire that has been burning for two or three hours. A Mendota product can achieve that radiant glow in about 10 minutes, whether it’s set to produce a high flame or a low one.

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RELAUNCHING THE MODERN LINE When customers state that they are not fans of modern design, Roeder sees an opportunity for dealers to tweak their expectations. With this in mind, Mendota is introducing log sets back into a contemporary-looking fireplace that has less heat and more simplicity.

It’s a different kind of burner that saves the customer money, “but we might still have a black-porcelain, copper-colored, or mocha liner in the fireplace,” Roeder says. “Instead of having the broken glass, pebbles, river rocks, or driftwood—which we do offer and sell a lot of—we will put a traditional-style log set back into the modern line.”

The modern offerings mix with thousands of options to match a variety of decor preferences, with different fronts, finishes, liners, log sets, and media. “There’s a joke in the industry that R&D means rip off and duplicate, but all companies share ideas,” Roeder says. “We’re not patenting our finishes, so our dealers know that other companies may copy our ahead-of-thecurve products.”

Learning to live with imitators has been a fact of life for a while, but it’s only recently that Mendota (along with much of the gasfireplace industry) has had to learn the lobbying ropes. Regulations for hot glass are in place, and proposed regulations could put an end to standing pilots.

For manufacturers offering intermittent- and standing-pilot options, getting rid of standing pilots would be a “huge deal for a lot of us,” Roeder explains. “The government doesn’t realize that in colder climates, you really do need to have a pilot running to get a better startup,” he says. “When somebody turns the fireplace on, you need to have that warm flue heated up, so

the fireplace will burn properly and not take as long to get going—and there will be less condensation on the glass when you turn on the fireplace.”

Roeder continues, “There are ways that we can change our own valve systems to meet these standards, but the government is definitely putting its thumb on our industry more than we feel it should. It’s something that we have to deal with; we do feel efficiency is a good thing. We call it burning green, meaning that if you’re going to burn gas, why not burn it more efficiently?”

NOT YOUR OWN BUDGET Dealers hoping to attract customers in the coveted midrange-to-upper-end income demographic sometimes hesitate to display the best products, but Roeder has long told salespeople, “Don’t sell with your own pocketbook.” A product might seem a little too expensive for you, but it might be exactly what the customer is seeking.

Mendota proudly manufactures high-end products, and they are among the more expensive items on the market. Showing the most expensive options—front and center—is a good way to capture that crucial first impression. “It’s easier to sell down than sell up,” Roeder says. “That’s why we always try to help our dealers display the nicest products, with the most variations, to set us apart.

Explain to customers why we are different, why we lead the way, and why we are a little more expensive.”

Helping retailers via Mendota’s online dealer portal is becoming increasingly popular, as it is a repository for information, videos, sales techniques, and documents. A revamp of the public website (www.mendotahearth.com) is also underway, with a feature that allows dealers and customers to customize the hearths that they want.

Roeder explains, “They can go to our Design Your Fireplace section and pick a copper front on whatever unit they might like, with their favorite log set.” They can take that and turn it into an estimate—and soon, into an actual online order through a local dealer. This makes the sales process, from start to finish, much more efficient, with fewer chances for the mistakes that might be made in writing down orders.

Additional dealer support includes

email about upcoming offerings or sales techniques; new point-of-sale items, which are released frequently; quick response to dealers’ requests for marketing materials; an industry-leading website geared to grab customers’ attention (and lead customers to the Find a Dealer page); and a new, improved website to help educate customers before

they visit a store. Mendota routinely spreads the word about these benefits at industry trade shows, such as HPBExpo and the International Builders’ Show.

Mendota has not missed an HPBExpo in two decades, and it firmly supports the trade-show circuit.

All of this adds up to a dealer- and customer-focused ethos that Mendota

has cultivated in its long tenure as a third-generation, family-owned company—where, Roeder reports, “You can still get on the phone and talk to the owners. That culture is why we’ve had great staff retention for so long.

We value our dealers, take pride in our products, and never take our success for granted.”

Register Now For ICFA Industry Roundtables Monday, September 19, 12:00-6:00 p.m. – Merchandise Mart

Join industry friends and colleagues for an informative afternoon of important topics: • • • • • • •

Marketing to Younger Consumers Through Social Media Understanding Key Performance Indicators Marketing/Selling on the Internet Consumer Financing Opportunities Special Events and Promotions Handling Transportation and Logistics Recruiting GREAT Sales Associates.

Each attendee will participate in three one-hour sessions. The Industry Roundtables will be held at the Merchandise Mart. Lunch will be available at noon, and the program will begin at 1 p.m.

Following the afternoon program, Klaussner Outdoor will host a reception from 6 to 7 p.m. in their showroom, Suite 16-100.

Registration for the event is $25 for ICFA members and $50 for non-members. Registration is available online at www.icfanet.org.

Participants will be eligible to win a variety of door prizes, including merchandise and gift certificates.

Special thanks to lead sponsors: Circle Reader Service No. 67

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ICFA PREVIEW SHOW ROUNDUP

Movers and Shakers

BY CAROL DAUS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB BAKER

The exhibition halls of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Illinois, were buzzing with activity on July 12 through 14 as top manufacturers in the casual-furniture industry participated in this year’s ICFA Preview Show™.

Attendance was up from previous years as specialty retailers inspected exciting new outdoor-living designs.

The collections showcased at this event will also be exhibited during Casual Market Chicago (slated for September 20 through 23, 2016).

By providing stylish products and superior customer service, the individuals pictured here are credited by many specialty retailers for helping them run profitable stores. Patio & Hearth Products Report thanks these industry leaders for all their efforts in making the ICFA Preview Show and Casual Market Chicago successful, year after year.

Kingsley-Bate Clay Kingsley (left) and Brian Blakeney Agio Todd Wingrove (left) and Mike Gaylord

Patio Renaissance From left: Albert Lord, Andrea Dibello, and Mark Gorr

Jensen Leisure Furniture Janet Wansor and Hlodver Olafsson

NorthCape Libby Langdon

Brown Jordan Stephen Elton

OW Lee Terri (left) and Leisa Rogers

Gensun Casual Living From left: Sherry Cai, Jan Trinkley, and Lisa Zhou

Erwin and Sons Jake Erwin, Lynn Shoop, and Erik Dych

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Mallin Casual Furniture Brenda Pereyda and Ken Minson

Poly-Wood Megan Pierson (left) and Anji Metzler

Lloyd Flanders From left: Warren Juliano, Dudley Flanders, Lou Rosebrock, and Jessie Flanders

Patio & Hearth Products Report Tony Ramos International Casual Furnishings Association Jackie Hirschhaut

Winston Furniture John Whitlock

Castelle Steve Lowsky

Summer Classics Bew White

Telescope Casual From left: Bill Vanderminden, Kait Rathbun, Kathy Juckett, and Henry Vanderminden IV

Pelican Reef and Skyline Design Allen Calzadilla and Marie Ferreira

Ratana From left: standing, Lawrence Wong, Winne Ng, and Steven Ngai; seated, Godfrey and David Leung

Alfresco Home Joseph Cilio

Tropitone Frank Verna

Sunset West Wes Stewart

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Treasure Garden Margaret Chang (left) and Candy Chase

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Sunvilla Matt Weiss

WHAT’S NEW

6 Hot Products to Sell Now Lloyd Flanders Bold design with handsome teak styling, cushioned Lloyd Loom® backs, and deep comfort seating: Wildwood’s personality is perfectly reflected in its innovative design. The teak is custom stained to a versatile heather gray. Loom panels are available in 20 finishes.

Contact: www.lloydflanders.com or (800) 526-9894.

Hearth & Home Technologies Solstice, the newest vent-free gas fireplace insert from the leader in vent-free technology, features a clean, transitional style with multiple finishing options (including traditional logs and sleek fireglass media), making it suitable for any space. Its ventless, zero-clearance design makes installation easy and affordable. Contact: www.monessenhearth.com or (800) 669-4328.

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Sunvilla Historical elements mixed with contemporary flair give the new Aragon collection the perfect transitional balance. All-aluminum Aragon features a unique oval back and a decorative button on the

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Woodbridge Fireplace

Hestan Outdoor Hestan Outdoor is a new line of premium residential grills offering powerful, professional-grade components and distinctive features and benefits completely unique to the market.

Hestan Outdoor grills are available in built-in and freestanding models and feature a unique, sleek stainless-steel design available in 12 exclusive finish colors.Complementary outdoor prod ucts, such as under-counter refrigeration and outdoor accessories, are also available. Contact: www.hestanoutdoor.com or (888) 905-7463.

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arms—in a distinctive new royal pewter finish, with two available Sunbrella® fabric cushion choices. With dining, deep seating, and sling options available, Aragon is the perfect way to refresh your outdoor area. Contact: www.sunvilla.com or (888) 690-9800.

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The Woodbridge Fireplace Laguna see-through direct-vent gas fireplace, with its 48-inch viewing area, allows for an outstanding transition between rooms. Whether you cover the fireplace face or use it as a part of the presentation, the fireplace (at 37,000 Btu per hour, with a standard 140-cfm blower and safety screens) will provide warmth and enhance the aesthetics of your living area. Contact: www.wood bridgedealer.com or (800) 636-FIRE (-3473).

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Winston Furniture Winston’s quick-ship program, new for 2016, featured the Key West padded-sling collection. The program will expand to other collections—all shipping from Haleyville, Alabama (in three working days, guaranteed), FOB—for the 2017 season. This collection uses an attractive acrylic fabric covering the face side, with a coordinating PVC sling fabric adding support to the back. It’s also available in padded bar-height dining.

Contact: www.winstonfurniture.com or (205) 486-9211.

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product profiles Maxx Sling Armchair Last year, Telescope Casual introduced its Maxx Contour chaise. New for 2017, the company has expanded Maxx into a beautiful and smart new collection that will be equally at home in a busy residential back patio or in a commercial installation—stacking, of course, for storage efficiency. Contact: (800) 451-0938 or www.telescopecasual.com.

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Saxon Collection The Saxon collection features the calming colors of cascade, hemlock, Incline parchment, and Beaufort white.

The fabric is used in furniture and marine applications, and it also works well as a decorative screen. The combination of various yarn sizes and textures creates a warm and inviting look, suitable for the home or marina. Using colored-core, twisted, and pearlescent yarns (along with microdenier solids and bicolors), the Saxon collection offers a fabric as functional as it is unique. Contact: (800) 633-7550 or www.twitchellcorp.com.

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Bel Air/Bullet Vintage Cart Grills

Malibu Series Firepit Table The scenic beauty of the new Malibu firepit table from California Outdoor Concepts begins with its rich, woven all-aluminum base. Topped with cast aluminum in round chat height or with a slatted-top option on the long and lean rectangular coffee-table firepit, Malibu will have you redefining design with endless style options. The 55,000-Btu burner with a coordinating burner cover is ready to light. The choice of Reflections Fireplace Glass™ in 15 colors or the addition of gas logs gives you the ultimate customization. California Outdoor Concepts knows that it’s better at the coast. Contact: (877) 274-6773 or www.californiaoutdoorconcepts.com.

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Bull has introduced a new line of vintage-style cart grills (under its Bullet brand name) that look like they are straight out of the 1950s. These grills come in three eye-popping colors.

Features include four stainless-steel tube burners and a side burner. This 60,000-Btu grill uses piezo igniters and stainless-steel grates. The style and look of these grills will command attention in the field of grills on any retail floor. Contact: (800) 521-2855 or www.bullbbq.com.

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Pawleys Island Softweave Hammock The overlapping pillowy ribbons of this handsome and innovative quilted-fabric hammock are ready complements to any outdoor setting. The spreader bars are solid Southern white oak, hand-dipped multiple times in marine-grade spar varnish. The ropes attaching the hanging hardware to the hammock bed are made from weather-tough, cottony-feeling soft-spun polyester, and hanging hardware is zinc-plated steel. The matching pillow is sold separately. The hammock is available in four colors. Contact: (800) 334-1078 or www.thehammocksource.com.

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Crossings Designed by John Caldwell, Crossings elevates the look of woven furniture with this sectional design using Brown Jordan’s unique and exclusive Sunbrella® strapping. With limitless customization and SKU flexibility, Crossings is a stand-alone collection with innovation and great design.

Contact: (800) 743-4252 or www.brownjordan.com.

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product profiles Swivel Stools

Provence

Gensun Casual Living’s swivel stools were a big hit at the ICFA Preview Show™. These balcony-height stools are great for maximizing seating, adding more seating, and tucking under the table when not in use. Stools are available in 19 finish colors.

Contact: (866) 964-4468 or www.gensuncasual.com.

The Provence collection blends timeless design with current trends in color.

The coal base color of the frame is accented by a pewter dry-brushed finish that speaks to the current gray-tone trend without being overdone. With its true woven wrought-iron back, the Provence collection is as comfortable as it is subtly sophisticated. Contact: (760) 599-1021 or www.sunsetwestusa.com.

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Country Flame Little Rascal American Energy Systems’ Country Flame Little Rascal wood-pellet stove has completed the new EPA New Source Performance Standards certification and is ready for 2020 and beyond. This high-quality self-ignition powerhouse packs a real heating punch, with up to 40,000 Btu, smooth lines, and state-of-the-art electronics. The redesigned firepot system will handle the challenging fuels of the future. Contact: (800) 495-3196 or www.americanenergysystems.com.

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Louisiana Grills: Three New Sauces Louisiana Grills is pleased to welcome the new additions to its sauce lineup. Kansas City Style sauce has a sweet and rich taste, with a thick consistency that is perfect for beef, but great with anything. Memphis Style sauce is the spiciest of the new blends and works wonders on ribs and pulled-pork sandwiches. Georgia is the melting pot of barbecue variations, and this wild Georgia Style sauce is no different. Blended with a mustard base, this tangy creation will give your chicken an unexpected, flavorful kick. Contact: (877) 303-3134 or www.louisiana-grills.com.

Mix and Match to Add Visual Interest Constructed from up to 100% recycled HDPE plastic and tested in 10 years of Arizona’s UV spectrum, C.R. Plastic Products’ outdoor furniture boasts 16 colors that will stay beautiful for generations. Mix and match from the 16 colors to add visual interest and enhance any outdoor space. Shown here are 02 white and 18 slate gray. Contact: (800) 490-1283 or www.crpproducts.com.

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Pawleys Island Counter-height Chair This HDPE maintenance-free Durawood chair provides the perfect vantage point for misty mornings or dog-day afternoons. Enjoy the view from a lofty 25.5-inch–high seat, and recline gently on a backrest inspired by the world famous Pawleys Island sunrise. Add another, along with the counter-height table, for an excellent bistro setting. There are 16 color options, with marine-grade 316 stainless-steel fittings. Contact: (800) 334-1078 or www.thehammocksource.com.

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Westwood The Westwood collection by Erwin and Sons is a contemporary flat-weave design available in seating, sectional, dining, and bar pieces. The 20-piece group includes a roomy cuddle chair, a cuddle ottoman, an ottoman coffee table, and an adjustable chaise. Leisureluxe™ Supreme Comfort cushions are available in more than 350 performance fabrics. Contact: (770) 579-0414 or www.erwinandsons.com.

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Monaco

Pioneers of Professional Outdoor Kitchens Indulge in the art of outdoor grilling with two new handcrafted DCS Grill models, with infrared-burner technology and a griddle plate, so you can cook with the same confidence outdoors as you do indoors. DCS lets you sear where you want to sear, putting you in control of the entire grilling surface, giving you the versatility to cook what you want. Contact: (888) 936-7872 or www.dcsappliances.com.

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Relax in the comfort of your home with the effortlessly modern Monaco collection. The varying motifs, ranging from graphic stripes to geometric patterns, are sure to fit seamlessly in both your outdoor spaces and indoor rooms.

These multipurpose area rugs are constructed in a unique, structured flat weave, boasting a smooth surface that is perfect for outdoor or indoor use. Woven using 100% fiber-enhanced Courtron polypropylene, each subtle pattern offers a highly durable pile, with little upkeep required. Designed specifically to withstand outdoor elements, Monaco is UV stabilized to ensure that each area rug retains its color (despite sun exposure and other weather conditions), as well as being mold and mildew resistant. Contact: (800) 223-6186 or www.couristan.com.

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Heat-resistant Silicone Barbecue Mitt

Cast-iron Smoking Grate/Plancha

This superflexible waterproof barbecue mitt from Big Green Egg is made with an FDA–approved, BPA-free, patterned-silicone surface for a strong grip. The robust outer mitt features a soft, comfortable cotton-and-polyester cuff and lining. The mitt withstands extreme heat—up to 450 degrees (232 degrees Celsius)—for maximum protection and comfort. Contact: (770) 938-9394 or www.biggreenegg.com.

This unique grilling tool offers several different cooking experiences in one, all with the power and flavor of cast iron. The solid cast-iron base can be used alone as a plancha to sear meats or as one part of a grilling-and-smoking platform.

The set also includes a stainless-steel humidifier to keep meats moist using your choice of liquid. Contact: (800) 521-0505, sales@companion-group.com, or www.companion-group.com.

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Richmond Dining Group

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For 2017, Jensen Leisure Furniture presents the Richmond dining group. One of six dining options in the new Richmond furniture collection, this Richmond 60-inch round table features three legs. This design makes it easy to fit six Richmond side or dining chairs—or three of the new Richmond curved benches—at the table. Contact: (800) 403-0403 or www.jensenleisurefurniture.com.

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Tresco Collection Pops of colors in sorbet, Persian green, Crest denim, spa, and ginger make up the colorful Tresco collection. The durability and design of this fabric make it an excellent choice for furniture and marine applications. The Tresco collection combines bright, fun colors with a hint of pearlescent yarn for sparkle, whether by the pool or on the water. Contact: (800) 633-7550 or www.twitchellcorp.com.

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Universal Control Panel Customize your climate with heat-control options from Infratech. Coming in fall 2016, the Infratech universal control panel is compatible with any LED light switch, allowing you to control your Infratech outdoor electric-heating systems simply and efficiently, with any switch you choose. Contact: (800) 421-9455 or www.infratech-usa.com.

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product profiles Bull Barbecue Rubs With the popularity of competitive cooking and food sport increasing, Bull Outdoor has developed two new barbecue/grill seasonings: Sweet Heat BBQ rub and Bull Steak & Burger rub. Designed by chef Wade Fortin (two-time World Burger Champion), the new competition rubs are a blend of selected herbs and spices proven to be winners on the competitive-cooking circuit. Freshly ground black pepper, kosher salt, garlic, and smoked paprika are the backbone of Steak & Burger rub, and according to Fortin, these were the key ingredients in winning back-to-back World Burger Championships. Sweet Heat BBQ rub has the perfect balance between spicy chili peppers and sweet brown sugar—and although specifically designed for pork, it is a great addition to any grilled chicken, fish, or vegetable. Both seasonings are gluten free and contain no MSG. Packed in 10.75-ounce containers, they are available at official Bull Outdoor retailers or online at www.amazon.com. Contact: (800) 521-2855 or www.bullbbq.com.

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Somerby Seating

by Peak Season

Pioneers of Professional Outdoor Kitchens Turn up the heat, and go from zero to sear with DCS Grills’ new built-in temperature gauge. To maximize natural convection, this gauge allows you to monitor the temperatures and know exactly how hot the grill is—without raising the specially designed hood. Be the ultimate meal maker with the ability to control DCS Grills’ massive 121,500 Btu-per-hour total power, which lets you choose the precise heat you need—from a low-and-slow 300 degrees up to an intense 1,100 degrees—to create the ultimate cooking experience. Contact: (888) 936-7872 or www.dcsappliances.com.

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When decorating their outdoorliving spaces, homeowners seek comfort, function, and convenience, above all else—and the Somerby seating collection fits those needs perfectly. New accessories and embellishments are available in the Inspired Visions collection from Peak Season. Visit the company at Casual Market Chicago, booth 7-5061. Contact: (866) 606-6330 or www.peakseasoninc.net.

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American Hearth Direct-vent System

Mallin has introduced the Rochelle woven cushion collection. Dive into summer with a new group that is cool, clean, and contemporary in design. As the best of both worlds, it features a mix-and-match extruded frame with a PVC woven back panel. Sink into the cushion that surrounds you with comfort. The collection is available in deep seating and dining, as well as with an extruded back. Contact: (800) 251-6537 or www.mallinfurniture.com.

The all-new American Hearth 40-inch direct-vent system reimagines the gas fireplace—its aesthetics, its technology, and its environmental impact. The enormous ceramic-glass front frames the beautifully crafted 14-piece log set blazing atop a full-floor ember bed. Rich yellow flames roll over and around the logs and embers, mimicking the burn of a natural wood fire. Inside the fireplace, Empire’s TruFlame technology uses an integrated catalyst system to scrub the exhaust, removing potential pollutants from the flue output and making this the most eco-friendly vented gas fireplace on the market.

An adjustable air shutter and dampers (accessible from the front) provide a means for the installer to fine-tune the flames to the length of the vent run during the initial installation, eliminating callbacks. Contact: (800) 851-3153 or www.americanhearth.com.

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Rochelle Woven Cushion

Monessen Symphony Convenient and efficient, the Symphony slimline vent-free gas fireplace offers a clean face and an expansive viewing area that’s suitable for almost any space. Easily customizable to match any decor, Symphony offers decorative and transitional faces, as well as the choice of traditional logs or fireglass media—allowing homeowners to bring simple beauty into their favorite spaces. Contact: (800) 669-4328 or www.monessenhearth.com.

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Drake Collection A huge hit at the ICFA Preview Show™, the Drake collection from Gensun Casual Living offers modular, deep, dining, bar, and balcony seating configurations. The collection also has either woven or fabric side panels that can be customized with three woven colors and more than 500 fabrics.

Contact: (866) 964-4468 or www.gensuncasual.com.

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product profiles Outdoor Escape

St. Bernardus

Paying homage to nature’s purest pleasures, the Outdoor Escape collection is Couristan’s newest addition to the category of weather-resistant area rugs. Offering picturesque renditions of various outdoor scenes, these durable performance area rugs have a novelty appeal that is perfect for complementing themed decor. Featuring a unique handhooked construction, each design in the collection showcases a textured loop pile that adds dimension to the motifs. With patterns such as beach landscapes, lighthouses, and seashells, these outdoor/indoor area rugs create a soothing atmosphere reminiscent of treasured vacation spots and outdoor hobbies. Welcoming the delights of bare feet, they are surprisingly sturdy and are designed to withstand the rigors of the elements. Contact: (800) 223-6186 or www.couristan.com.

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Naples Kingsley-Bate introduces its first aluminum collection: Naples. The group includes an eight-piece sectional that can be arranged in endless configurations; a club chair and ottoman with wicker seating surfaces complete the series. Naples is a mixed-media collection (composed of extruded aluminum and grade A teak) designed by John Caldwell. Contact: (703) 361-7000 or www.kingsley-bate.com.

St. Bernardus is MLW Stone’s latest and most cost-effective natural-stone fireplace facing. Available in three standard sizes, St. Bernardus is a sound and durable honed-limestone fireplace surround that is consistent in color from piece to piece and set to set. Its warm, clean, and neutral color lends itself well to any traditional or contemporary decor. For samples, email orders@mlwalker.com. Contact: (800) 477-7665 or www.mlwstone.com.

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Hyannis Adirondack Bring a little color and fun to outdoor spaces with the Hyannis Adirondack from Malibu Outdoor Living. The company is recognized for making the highest-quality furniture while using the finest eco-friendly materials available. Its poly-board furniture line is manufactured from recycled dairy and detergent bottles. This eliminates the need for harvesting precious wood (such as red cedar, pine, and other species). The Hyannis Adirondack is available in multiple colors and is shown with a 15x19-inch end table in tangerine. Contact: (866) 947-7632 or www.malibu-outdoor.com.

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Louisiana Grills: Cold Smoke Cabinet Upgrade your Louisiana Grill or Country Smoker unit with LG’s dedicated cold smoke cabinet. Perfect for smoking and curing meats, fish, or cheeses prior to cooking, the smoke cabinet functions with the convective flow of smoke from your grill to get that real smoke flavor. The smoke cabinet comes complete with five standard removable racks, providing an impressive 1,396 square inches of supplementary cooking space. Built with quality and durability in mind, the LG cold smoke cabinet is designed to last and may be installed on any Louisiana Grill or Country Smoker model. It may also be used as a warming oven. Contact: (877) 303-3134 or www.louisiana-grills.com.

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product profiles EGGniter

Umbrellas From Pelican Reef

The EGGniter ignites lump charcoal or hardwood in just minutes, without striking a match, by using only superheated air. Simply hold the tip of the EGGniter on the natural lump charcoal. Move the EGGniter slightly backward when coals glow or sparks appear—usually, in about 60 seconds. Then, hold it for approximately 60 seconds to ignite the charcoal. Switch to the fan mode to continue fanning the charcoal. It’s quick, easy, and convenient. Features include 120-volt/1,500-watt power use, with three power settings (off/fan/heat); an automatic switch that resets to the off setting; a custom design, with a heavy-duty aluminum heat shield; a 6-foot power cord; and a one-year warranty. Contact: (770) 938-9394 or www.biggreenegg.com.

Pelican Reef’s new umbrellas are both attractive and functional.

The five different bright colors are a great addition to any outdoor-dining set. Their aluminum frames make them long lasting without rusting, and their tilt mechanisms help block the sun from any direction. Contact: (305) 820-9000 or www.pelicanreef.com.

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Brafta Sectional Set Skyline Design features the Brafta collection, inspired by the colors of seashells, in an exquisite seashell 30-millimeter finish. Its exceptional beauty, style, and comfort make this a standout collection, complete with different dining options, occasional pieces, and full seating. Contact: (877) 595-4634 or www.skylinedesign.com.

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Bazza MGP Armchair Bazza has become a favorite design, with clean, timeless lines that will never go out of style. New for 2017, Telescope Casual has incorporated its attractive and superdurable marine-grade polymer into the seating surfaces to create a rugged bench collection that will last and last.

Contact: (800) 451-0938 or www.telescopecasual.com.

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Windsor

The Windsor collection by Erwin and Sons is a richly appointed group in flat-weave hazelnut. The three-seat sofa, love seat, club chair, and swivel glider chair feature wingback styling. Also shown are the matching ottoman and coordinating marble-top Fairfax coffee and end tables. Leisureluxe™ Supreme Comfort cushions are available in more than 350 performance fabrics. Contact: (770) 579-0414 or www.erwinandsons.com.

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Cool Touch Grill Brush Saber Grills introduces an innovative new grill brush that is designed to last five times longer and to clean better than traditional wire brushes. The Cool Touch™ grill brush has stiff, abrasive nylon bristles that attack baked-on food particles without breaking or causing damage to the cooking grates. Nylon has long been used in commercial cleaning tools that receive heavy-duty use. The polymer is known for its superior flexural strength and its excellent abrasion and wear resistance. The bristles on Saber’s Cool Touch brush won’t shed and are angled to clean between and under the cooking grates. Contact: (888) 947-2237 or www.sabergrills.com.

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Phifertex Outdoor Fabrics

Phifertex® outdoor fabrics serve up quality, comfort, style, and strength. These premium performance fabrics exceed industry standards while offering unimaginable color and design. The new selection of Phifertex fabrics offers a medley of fresh colors and textures to outfit your unique outdoor space. Fabrics are low maintenance, quick drying, moisture wicking, and easy to clean. Microban® antimicrobial product protection helps inhibit the growth of stain-causing bacteria, mold, and mildew. Contact: (800) 221-5497 or www.phifer.com/designedfabrics.

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product profiles Creighton by OW Lee The new Creighton collection is a fully customizable sectional deep seating group that truly embraces modern industrial design.

Inspired by trestle-style ironwork, often used in an industrial capacity, this group offers details of a bygone era with modern styling. Available in left, right, center, and corner sectional pieces, as well as a club chair, a square 30-inch side table, and a matching square 42-inch occasional-height firepit, Creighton is functional in any space.

Contact: (800) 776-9533 or www.owlee.com.

Nautic Café

The new POLYWOOD® Nautic Café collection features stackable chairs (available with or without arms) and a convenient handle in the backrest. Pair two chairs with the traditional 24-inch round dining table to create an adorable dining set with a smaller footprint—perfect for balconies or other tight spaces. Contact: (877) 457-3248 or www.polywoodinc.com.

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Hestan Outdoor Hestan Outdoor is a new line of premium residential grills offering powerful, professional-grade components and distinctive features and benefits completely unique to the market. Hestan also offers complementary outdoor products, such as under-counter refrigeration and outdoor accessories. Manufactured entirely in the United States in the company’s state-of-the-art headquarters (of more than 70,000 square feet) in Anaheim, California, Hestan Outdoor gas grills offer a number of innovative, high-performance features. Hestan Outdoor grills are available in built-in and freestanding models and feature a unique, sleek stainless-steel design available in 12 exclusive finish colors. Contact: (888) 905-7463 or www.hestanoutdoor.com.

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Grace Air and Mode Rectangular Firepit Building on the platform of the unique Homecrest Airo2 collection and the popularity of Grace, Homecrest introduces Grace Air. This new seating series features the appearance and comfort of a deep seating lounge chair—in a foam-free cushionless construction. Luxurious Sensation sling fabric is used for the ultimate in low-maintenance comfort, while also featuring benefits such as exceptional shape retention and surface memory. Available for both residential and contract applications, Air collections are exclusive to Homecrest and are made in the United States. With more than 13 SKUs, this uniquely customizable, high-performance collection coordinates with Grace dining and is shown paired with Homecrest’s new Mode rectangular firepits.

Contact: (877) 599-4803 or www.homecrest.com.

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Boulevard Linear Fireplaces Go to Great Lengths Sometimes a fireplace goes beyond just the flame—and becomes art. With its outsized proportions, its contemporary burner, and its programmable lighting system (concealed beneath an ocean of crushed glass), a Boulevard large linear vent-free fireplace makes a bold statement that’s sure to turn heads in any setting. Choose the Boulevard 60 or Boulevard 72—with true 5- or 6-foot fireplace-opening widths. Both systems are available in LP (38,500 Btu) and natural-gas (40,000 Btu) versions. Accessorize your Boulevard vent-free fireplace with the unique ceramic-glass black reflective liner to create the illusion of unimaginable depth, or opt for the brushed-stainless liner for a bright, contemporary feel. Contact: (800) 851-3153 or www.empirecomfort.com.

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Porcelain-coated Nacho Plate Crisp chips, melt cheese, and warm up toppings for delicious nachos—right on the grill. This porcelain-coated–steel plate is perfect for building and cooking your favorite dish, as well as serving it. It can also sizzle any protein you don’t want to come into direct contact with the grill, making it a versatile grilling accessory. The smooth porcelain coating is stick resistant for easy cleanup, while the perforations allow smoke and heat to reach food more effectively. Contact: (800) 521-0505, sales@companion-group.com, or www.companion-group.com.

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product profiles Malibu Outdoor Living Malibu Outdoor Living is recognized for making the highest-quality furniture while using the finest eco-friendly materials available. Its poly-board furniture line is manufactured from recycled dairy and detergent bottles. This eliminates the need for harvesting precious wood (such as red cedar, pine, and other species). All fasteners are made with 316 marine-grade stainless steel. Tabletop frames are CNC machined, fully welded, and finished with exterior UV-grade powder coating. Shown is the Laguna 36-inch bar table in lime, with the Maywood bar chair, bar side chair, and barstool. Contact: (866) 947-7632 or www.malibu-outdoor.com.

Catalina This modern, low silhouette offers chic elegance with engaging design detail.

All-weather Lloyd Loom® wicker is perfectly accentuated by Brazilian teak.

Arm cushions provide enhanced comfort and added sophistication. Catalina is available in 20 finishes. Contact: (800) 526-9894 or www.lloydflanders.com.

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Marco Bay Alfresco Home expands its extruded/cast-aluminum line with the Marco Bay collection. Marco Bay introduces high comfort and fresh table designs in both dining and deep seating options—all in a new, intriguing finish. It’s clean, simple, and current: Marco Bay. Contact: (610) 705-8808 or www.alfrescohome.com.

Montigo Indoor/Outdoor Ventless The R324STIO indoor/outdoor unit, with its see-though design, requires no venting. The company has just added new scope to its elegance with optional porcelain panels, along with the optional availability of speckled stones with driftwood logs. Dealer inquiries are welcome. Contact: (800) 378-3115, sales@montigo.com, or www.montigo.com.

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Flushmount Kit

Davenport Bar-height Firepit Dining Just the right height for comfort and to take in the view, Davenport bar-height firepit dining is sure to be the next big seller on your customers’ wish lists. The rectangular slat-top table and woven-wicker paneled base house the other hot item: an easy-to-use propane fire feature. With six aluminum chairs with matching weather-resistant cushions, the look is clean, casual, and elegant—and sure to be a hit on your retail floor. Contact: (888) 997-7623 or www.agio-usa.com.

The Infratech flush-mounting option has long been a favorite outdoor-heating option among the architects, interior designers, and engineers working on today’s most sought-after properties. Stylish and versatile, the heaters can be installed with the edges exposed or can be partially covered by a drywall, plaster, stucco, or tongue-and-groove ceiling treatment. Enjoy year-round comfort in your patio, deck, or outdoor room without heaters that take up space or distract you from your view. Contact: (800) 421-9455 or www.infratech-usa.com.

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product profiles Vicenza The ultramodern, Italian-designed Vicenza pellet stove will be warming Canadian and U.S. homes this fall.

Created to be the centerpiece of a home’s decor, Vicenza has a polished-ceramic finish, solid cast-iron components, and ultraquiet operation that allow homeowners to furnish their home with style, efficiency, and comfort. With powerful heating (from 34,000 to 52,000 Btu) and able to heat an entire home comfortably, Vicenza uses smart zone-heating technology to distribute heat evenly through the house.

Unlike conventional pellet stoves, Vicenza is extremely quiet, using variable fan motors and whisper-quiet operation modes. Contact: (866) 820-8686 or www.vicenzahome.com.

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Rochelle Cushion

MagnuM Baby Countryside It is official: American Energy Systems is launching the 2016 series of biomass-burning appliances, and this MagnuM Baby Countryside blows high heating bills away with autoignition, a state-of-the-art electronic control center, multifuel capabilities, and much more. The high-output power-exhaust system will burn the toughest fuels while meeting even the 2020 EPA standards. The model BCAC MagnuM holds approximately 50 pounds of wood pellets and has a large ash pan.

Contact: (800) 495-3196 or www.americanenergysystems.com.

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Mallin introduces the Rochelle cushion collection. Dive into summer with a new group where urban chic meets Mallin comfort. The streamlined profile of a clean-lined extruded back and frame with plush cushions is a cool, contemporary classic. Sink into the cushion that surrounds you with comfort. Rochelle is available in deep seating and dining, as well as with a woven back panel. Contact: (800) 251-6537 or www.mallinfurniture.com.

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Coral Chaise In response to this season’s Coral collection being well received, Jensen Leisure Furniture introduces the Coral chaise for 2017. Designed by Povl Eskildsen, it features a twisted Virofiber gray-and-cream hyacinth weave atop a base of 100% FSC–certified ipê timber. It provides five comfortable positions (including a flat position). Contact: (800) 403-0403 or www.jensenleisurefurniture.com.

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Montigo Ventless Outdoor Montigo’s new outdoor unit, PL42VO, has a patented windproof design with glass doors and a safety screen, requires no venting, and is rated for wood-framed construction. Made with high-quality 304 stainless steel, this unit also features dual blowers, providing a curtain of warm air on a cool evening. Dealer inquiries are welcome. Contact: (800) 378-3115, sales@montigo.com, or www.montigo.com.

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Castelle Roma Cushion Dining

Pub-set Dining Create a casual dining atmosphere with a range of pub-style tables and chairs.

A fun alternative to traditional dining, this collection includes several pub tabletops and bottoms, as well as an array of pub-style chairs. The swivel barstool and swivel pub armchair have no metal screws or hardware. A top seller, this set will be a hit on any showroom floor. Contact: (800) 490-1283 or www.crpproducts.com.

With the Castelle Roma collection’s cushion dining, the finest in outdoor luxury meets dining comfort.

Transitional inspiration is skillfully crafted in this bold (yet soothing) design. Gentle curves in the tri-bar sides and back create a classy and open style. Contact: (855) 612-9800 or www.castelleluxury.com.

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SUNSETWESTUSA.COM

760-599-1021

SALES@SUNSETWESTUSA.COM

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product profiles Azores

Coyote Asado Smoker

Kingsley-Bate’s Azores collection is elegant in its simplicity and versatility.

Designed by John Caldwell, Azores consists of a full sectional, a lounge chair and ottoman, dining chairs, and occasional tables. It’s constructed of all-weather wicker with grade A teak accents. Contact: (703) 361-7000 or www.kingsley-bate.com.

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The Coyote Asado smoker, featuring heat-resistant ceramic construction and a Coyote Signature smoking grate, enables outdoor chefs to smoke, bake, sear, or grill ingredients in one component. It offers 254 square inches of cooking surface and an adjustable venting system to maintain precise cooking temperatures. This model can be used in an optional cart with side shelves or can be seamlessly built into an outdoor-kitchen island. Coyote also offers the Asado accessories bundle of five key accessories for food preparation and product maintenance. Retailing for $199, the bundle includes a beer-can–chicken holder, a pizza stone, a heat deflector, grate grippers, and a cover—the five top-selling accessories for smokers. Contact: (855) 520-1559 or www.coyoteoutdoor.com.

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Ridgewood by NorthCape The Ridgewood collection by Libby Langdon for NorthCape epitomizes the blurring of indoor and outdoor design. Seating pieces are completely upholstered in white woven all-weather material, with cushioning in durable acrylic fabric. The design component that sets the Ridgewood collection apart is the layer of fiber that is wrapped around the inner frame to soften and ease harsh edges, combined with a T cushion that adds a softer feel than a standard straight-up-and-down box cushion. Contact: (708) 563-2890 or www.northcape.com.

Capri Deep Seating The hottest new look in all-weather wicker allows you to claim your title in the next generation of trendsetting retailers. Agio’s Capri deep seating collection includes a love seat, two matching accent chairs, and a coffee table—all crafted with a handwoven, distressed, multicolor wicker on rust-free aluminum frames. The look is modern (yet natural), and Capri will give you and your guests the extra comfort of cushions in matching warm, neutral tones of weather- and fade-resistant Sunbrella® acrylic fabric. Contact: (888) 997-7623 or www.agio-usa.com.

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GeoBella Indoor/Outdoor High-performance Fabrics

Panama Jack Graphite Daybed The Panama Jack Graphite daybed incorporates an open-weave gray fiber that is handwoven over aluminum frames. The daybed owner has the option of removing the top, as well as making a love seat by simply sliding the ottoman into the frame. Contact: (305) 820-9000 or www.pelicanreef.com.

Crafted for use in interior living spaces or exterior play areas, GeoBella® indoor/outdoor high-performance fabrics add just the right amount of punch to any furniture setting. Phifer’s line of recyclable cushion fabrics is available in a sprawling collection of fresh, fun, and classic designs and a spectrum of colors. Coordinated fabric pairings provide a host of options and encourage effortless mixing and matching.

Contact: (800) 221-5497 or www.phifer.com/designedfabrics.

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Visit us at the International Casual Furniture and Accessories Market Booth 7 - 5061 September 20th - September 23rd 2800 CRESTWOOD BLVD IRONDALE, AL 35210

WWW. PEAKSEASONINC.NET

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product profiles Newport

by Peak Season

La Lima

As the outdoor room has become a true extension of the home, the customer’s expectations for style, quality, and functional furniture have reached new levels. The new additions to the Newport collection in the Inspired Visions collection meet the consumer’s new standards with exceptional attention to detail. Visit the company at Casual Market Chicago, booth 7-5061. Contact: (866) 606-6330 or www.peakseasoninc.net.

Alfresco home introduces La Lima as one of its newest deep seating collections. La Lima’s mixed-material structure is generously proportioned, and its exquisite design gives this comfortable collection a fresh look that fits casually into the finest outdoor-living spaces.

Dining pieces are also available.

Contact: (610) 705-8808 or www.alfrescohome.com.

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Lucia

Vector 38 Linear Gas Fireplace

The Lucia luxury aluminum collection from Ratana captures the essence of simple, pure, and elegant characteristics that one will truly embrace for years.

Scrupulously crafted to withstand season after season, Lucia features sleek, perfectly pitched wide slats, married with elegantly tapered legs and a squared armrest, in the finest handbrushed, powder-coated ash-gray finish. Lucia is available in living, dining, sectional, chaise, armchair, lounger, and bar-chair pieces; all seats come with drainable reticulated-foam cushioning. This generously scaled outdoor-seating collection provides ultracomfort, for ideal relaxation and exceptional dining experiences all year round. Contact: (866) 919-1881 or www.ratana.com.

Napoleon’s Vector™ 38 linear gas fireplace offers a multitude of designer options and provides complete luxury, courtesy of its new Divinity™ flame pattern. Available as a one-sided or see-through unit, the Vector 38 can be controlled through your mobile device using the eFIRE app (available as a free download on iTunes and Google Play). The eFIRE app will revolutionize the way you use your fireplace. Contact: (866) 820-8686 or www.napoleonfireplaces.com/products/vector-38-gas-fireplace/.

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Woodbridge Fireplace SS Series Outdoor Gas Fireplaces

With the Castelle Solaris collection’s sling seating, luxury outdoor living is handcrafted with an ultramodern aesthetic, appeal, and durability. The Solaris collection boasts clean lines and pure style across all pieces, including the sling lounge, love seat, recliner, and ottoman, which feature multistage powder-coat finishing. Contact: (855) 612-9800 or www.castelleluxury.com.

The Woodbridge Fireplace SS 36-, 48-, 60-, and 72-inch see-through and single-view outdoor fireplaces allow unlimited design possibilities. Heavy stainless-steel construction and electronic ignition controls provide durability and ease of operation. The substantial heat output and flame presentation extend the outdoor-living season and create an amazing ambience. Contact: (800) 636-FIRE (-3473) or www.woodbridgedealer.com.

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Castelle Solaris Sling Seating

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product profiles Introducing the Loft Collection Loft from Patio Renaissance is a contemporary design with a hint of old-world rustic style. Loft is handcrafted of all-aluminum frames with a distressed wood-grain texture that is available in three complementary finish options: reclaimed barn wood, salvaged lumber, and railroad tie. Loft has generously proportioned seat buckets and offers the ultimate comfort, with extrathick reticulated seat cushions. The collection includes a modular sectional, a lounge chair, a swivel lounge, a firepit dining set, and high dining.

Contact: (866) 698-5673 or www.patiorenaissance.com.

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Pasadena Cushion A nod to Midcentury design and the birthplace of Brown Jordan Company, Pasadena cushion defines understated sophistication with its sleek profile.

The collection frame features a smooth, flat aluminum extrusion that is gently curvilinear. Sweeping lines seen on the arms and back legs highlight the beauty of the chair’s construction. Contact: (800) 743-4252 or www.brownjordan.com.

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Sizzler PRO The Sizzler PRO series from Summerset Professional Grills combines impressive features with quality construction and affordability. Upholding the same sleek design as the classic Sizzler with added exterior LED lights, this grill really sets itself apart. The interior has been revamped with 14,000-Btu cast burners, heat-zone separators, and powerful interior cooking lights that make for a premium grilling experience, from top to bottom. The Sizzler PRO’s price will please your customers. Contact: (800) 966-8126 or www.summersetgrills.com.

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Castelle Vertice Sectional Seating Elegance, comfort, and luxury live large in Castelle’s Vertice collection sectional seating. With a clean and contemporary style, Castelle’s Vertice sectional showcases the finest in linear luxe. All pieces feature performance cushioning, durable multistage powder-coat finishing, and optional artisan-applied antiquing. Contact: (855) 612-9800 or www.castelleluxury.com.

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Catania Cushion Deep Seating Winston Furniture’s Catania deep seating collection is an old-world style with plush, fine tailored cushions. Side bolsters provide soft support for your arms. The frames are created from aluminum extrusions and adorned with cast details. Select from numerous frame finishes and hundreds of fabric choices. The Catania collection is also available in sling and padded-sling styles. Contact: (205) 486-9211 or www.winstonfurniture.com.

Manhattan The new Manhattan collection from Sunset West is a departure from the heavy weaves and thick arms found at all levels of retail today. The comfortable and well-scaled Manhattan is perfect for customers who appreciate both beauty and comfort. The light-gray color is on trend, and it has been well received where the collection has been placed. Contact: (760) 599-1021 or www.sunsetwestusa.com.

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Venti Lounge Chair Summer Classics’ Venti collection is 100% outdoor-approved upholstery made of water-repelling reticulated foam covered in Sunbrella® Cast dove outdoor fabric. This new classic is styled in a low-sitting euro height and is offered in a sofa, an ottoman, a lounge chair, and a sectional sofa. Contact: (888) 868-4267 or www.summerclassics.com.

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SUMMER CLASSICS, INC.

BIGGER. BETTER. BEYOND EXPECTATIONS. • Two new, dedicated casual/outdoor floors • Leading brands that complement Las Vegas Market’s home furnishings offering • Over 180 casual/outdoor brands across Market • Affordable travel and world-class amenities

PELICAN REEF

JULY 31-AUGUST 4, 2016

JULY 31-AUGUST 3, 2016

LAS VEGAS MARKET

THE PAVILIONS AT LAS VEGAS MARKET

#LVMkt

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product profiles Veneto Inspired by the beauty of Italy, the new Veneto collection features a herringbone-pattern rich brown weave over powder-coated aluminum frames—in a stunning rustic-copper finish, with two Sunbrella® fabric cushion choices. The Veneto collection includes a full assortment of dining and deep seating pieces. The seven-piece dining set (shown) includes a firepit dining table with a faux-wood tabletop. Contact: (888) 690-9800 or www.sunvillahome.com.

Boston Boston from Ratana features the transitional design that combines style and comfort, ensuring that guests can indulge in total relaxation and an unparalleled outdoor experience. Meticulously handwoven of thick, braided resin in a smoke-gray finish—wrapped tightly over powder-coated aluminum frames and coupled with deep high-resilience seating—Boston is designed to have organic appeal, yet be durable enough to withstand any harsh weather elements. It’s available in living, dining, and sectional pieces; all seats come with drainable reticulated-foam cushioning. Boston has highly polished, handbrushed finishing on sturdy frames, and its tapered legs add structural integrity to the piece, enhancing its beauty and long-lasting comfort. Contact: (866) 919-1881 or www.ratana.com.

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American Muscle Grill

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The all-new American Muscle grill (AMG) is a heavy-duty, no-nonsense grill that features true dual-fuel capability—which will allow you to smoke, sear, and cook directly or indirectly with charcoal, gas, or both simultaneously. Designed, built, and factory tested in the United States, the AMG is available in 100,000-Btu 36-inch and 160,000-Btu 54-inch models, giving it plenty of power to go around: Combining innovative design with high-quality construction, the AMG has all the features and flexibility required to be the last grill you will ever need. Contact: (800) 966-8126 or www.summersetgrills.com.

Newport Series Firepit Table The Newport series firepit table brings nautical flair front and center in your outdoor oasis.

Sleek, with the look of yacht decking, Newport lets you stay home and still be captain of your own backyard. You decide on the drinks, you raise the flame and heat up the party, and you commandeer the evening—every time you light your Newport firepit. Constructed of aluminum, the Newport series is durable, corrosive resistant, fireproof, and maintenance free. It’s available in your choice of height, top style, and 15 colors of Reflections Fireplace Glass™ or gas logs. Once you’re finished with the sparkle and true relaxation of fire, you can put it to bed with a coordinating aluminum burner cover.

Contact: (877) 274-6773 or www.californiaoutdoorconcepts.com.

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New POLYWOOD Table Styles Tempotest USA Tempotest USA introduces Club, a new collection of Parà’s Tempotest fabrics for both indoor and outdoor furniture, cushions, and pillows. Club is a contemporary twist on classic design elements, highlighting ikats, geometrics, chevrons, and cabana stripes in seven colorways. From neutrals to jewel tones to classic casual colors such as moss green and teal blue, the collection can be both playful and subdued. Like all Tempotest fabrics, Club fabrics are treated with Teflon® Extreme fabric protectant to resist staining and to ensure that spills and stains are easily cleanable. The fabrics are also bleach cleanable. These features, along with the use of 100% solution-dyed acrylic for the ultimate in fade resistance, enable Tempotest fabric to be backed by an industry-leading six-year warranty. Contact: (972) 512-3534 or www.tempotestusa.com.

POLYWOOD® has recently added four new tables to its current lineup. Each table pairs perfectly with best-selling POLYWOOD chairs and is available in Farmhouse trestle, Nautical trestle, and Nautical round styles in both dining and bar heights.

POLYWOOD is excited to continue expanding this new table lineup into 2017. Contact: (877) 457-3248 or www.polywoodinc.com.

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Kenzo Woven by Tropitone Tropitone’s Kenzo woven group integrates a sleek aluminum frame with the TropiKane® Bison weave, for a chic, timeless appearance. The Kenzo woven group includes a sofa, a love seat, a swivel-action lounger, and a lounge chair, each with woven panels on the sides and back. The TropiKane Bison weave is available in two colors: chestnut and weathered gray. Kenzo leads in versatility due to its streamlined frame, hundreds of fabric options, and beautiful weaves that complement any outdoor space. Contact: (949) 951-2010 or www.tropitone.com.

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Saber Grills EZ Outdoor-kitchen Island

Lennox by OW Lee The simple, modern lines of the Lennox collection are inspired by designs of the 1950s and 1960s that made functionality a priority. Most pieces in this group are designed to stack efficiently for easy storage. With a spirit of Midcentury design and updated materials such as galvanized-steel tubing and expanded metal mesh, Lennox embodies the mantra that form follows function.

Contact: (800) 776-9533 or www.owlee.com.

Saber Grills has unveiled a new line of stylish, quick-assembly outdoor-kitchen islands, giving homeowners an easy way to create or upgrade their outdoor-entertaining space. The islands come equipped with Saber premium natural-gas grills and commercial-grade stainless-steel refrigerators, drop-in ice chests, and storage devices. Saber EZ outdoor-kitchen islands are available in two different configurations and two color combinations, each with Saber’s award-winning premium natural-gas grills. Contact: (888) 947-2237 or www.sabergrills.com.

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product profiles

Castelle Gold Coast Deep Seating A bold new transitional design with built-in surprise is found in the Castelle Gold Coast collection. With crisp and structured arm and leg framing, textile side and back panels deliver the unexpected. Smart contrast can accent this collection through the use of dual performance-fabric options. Contact: (855) 612-9800 or www.castelleluxury.com.

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Delray Armchair A new modern classic, the Delray collection, features a comfortable, durable, and dynamic design made of Batyline® duo sling, marine-grade stainless steel, and slow-growth teak joined in mortise-and-tenon construction. Contact: (888) 868-4267 or www.summerclassics.com.

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Carolina by Windward Carolina deep seating is a new introduction from Windward Design Group. It offers a traditional look for the outdoors and provides the high-quality comfort for which Windward is known. Carolina is available in two colors: honey (shown) and cocoa, along with coordinating tables. Contact: (941) 359-0890 or www.windwarddesigngroup.com.

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Luna The Luna umbrella light, which easily clamps to any patio-umbrella pole of up to 2 inches, features 16 individual LED lights and a Bluetooth speaker. The Luna fills any outdoor space with light and entertainment. It can be paired with any Bluetooth device. It’s available in bronze and black and has a one-year warranty. Contact: (888) 821-8868 or www.treasuregarden.com.

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Smartwerks Take control of your inventory with this complete point-of-sale solution. Discover the products that your customers are buying and the ones that they aren’t—at all of your stores. Smartwerks even recommends the items to include on your next purchase order. Start making better buying and selling decisions today. Contact: (888) 882-1530 Ext. 107 or smartwerksusa.com.

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Torino Cushion by Tropitone Designed by John Caldwell, the Torino cushion collection features traditional decorative elements with a modern, graceful frame, creating transitional residential outdoor furniture. The Torino cushion collection consists of a sofa, a love seat, a lounge chair, a swivel-action lounger, and an ottoman. Each ventilated cushion uses Tropitone’s RELAXplus® technology, ensuring that cushions are comfortable and durable. Torino cushion seating is perfect around a firepit, for an intimate chat setting, or to create the ultimate comfortable outdoor room. Contact: (949) 951-2010 or www.tropitone.com.

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Antigua Collection

Shift Collection

by Sunbrella

Patio Renaissance introduces the alluring Antigua collection. With its sophisticated lines and unique weave pattern, Antigua will appeal to the true lover of traditional designs.

This overscaled collection offers ultimate comfort (which is the signature feature of Patio Renaissance), along with a new twisted-weave pattern and the cloves weave color. Antigua offers a wide variety of seating configurations, as well as several dining options that will be accommodated in almost any backyard space for your customer. Contact: (866) 698-5673 or www.patiorenaissance.com.

Designed to be mixed and matched, fabrics in the Shift collection by Sunbrella® feature classic designs, interpreted in a contemporary fashion.

The collection comprises six patterns—Spotlight, Loft, Escapade, Connect, Integrated, and Radiant—that cleverly layer texture, color, and pattern, fusing traditional pattern with modern styling. Fabrics in the Shift collection meet Association for Contract Textiles standards for use in high-traffic areas, so they are suitable not only for residential indoor and outdoor applications, but also for hospitality use. The Shift collection is currently available to the trade and will be available at retail this fall. Contact: (336) 221-2211 or www.sunbrella.com.

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product profiles Tempotest USA Tempotest USA introduces 300e, a new collection of Parà’s Tempotest fabrics for both indoor and outdoor curtains and draperies.

300e comprises fabrics that are all 120 inches wide or wider. The fabrics range from a light and breezy sheer to a midweight fabric (called Etamine) to a more traditional 8-ounce fabric that comes in a wide palette of colors and up-the-roll stripes. These are also perfect for use inside the home, where incoming sunlight can quickly fade indoor curtains and sheers—particularly in sunrooms with lots of windows. The width allows drapery panels to be 10 feet wide, cutting down on sewing and on the need to use multiple narrow panels. This makes them ideal for large canopies and pergolas. Made from 100% solution-dyed acrylic, the fabrics are bleach cleanable and fade, mold, mildew, and stain resistant. Contact: (972) 512-3534 or www.tempotestusa.com.

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Nexus Daybed If you want a fun, standout piece for your outdoor space, look no further than the Nexus daybed by Skyline Design. This grand piece will bring life to all your outdoor receptions. It’s great for entertainment and relaxation under blue skies.

Contact: (877) 595-4634 or www.skylinedesign.com.

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Emory Cushion and Breeze Metal Tables Beautiful, strong, comfortable, and unbelievably functional, the new Emory cushion collection is sure to be a hit. Emory offers a wide variety of seating options—in both low and high seat-back heights—in stationary, gliding, and swivel-rocker motion pieces. Featuring Homecrest’s luxe cushions, Emory offers tremendous comfort and value in well-proportioned pieces that offer seating options for any space. Emory cushion is available in hundreds of gorgeous and durable outdoor fabrics and all Homecrest frame finishes. Emory cushion coordinates with Emory sling and pairs well with all Homecrest tables and fire tables. It is shown with the new Breeze metal table offering in chat height. Contact: (877) 599-4803 or www.homecrest.com.

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Suppliers of affordable natural stone fireplace facings to the industry for over 25 years.

Mooring by NorthCape The Mooring collection

by Libby Langdon for NorthCape features a gray water-hyacinth weave—shown on all open angles, insides, and backs—so it’s just as beautiful to see from behind as from the front. The slim arm keeps a narrow overall width while allowing for a generous inner seat width and lots of comfort. The combination of the light-gray hyacinth texture and the whitewashed-wood finish is fresh and stylish. Contact: (708) 563-2890 or www.northcape.com.

granite

marble

limestone

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Lotus Octagon Umbrella (Black Finish: ULA489)

slate

Est. 1969

3045 KINGSTON COURT NORCROSS, GA 30071 1.800.477.7665 F)770.409.0431 www.mlwstone.com

Treasure Garden will debut, for 2017, the 10-foot Lotus collar-tilt umbrella design. The exclusive, stylish 10-foot Lotus umbrella is unique in that when opened, the canopy has eye-catching design detail—and when closed, it retracts upward, like a Lotus flower. This is the perfect shade solution, allowing opening and closing without hassle, even when dining tables or furnishings are in use. Contact: (888) 821-8868 or www.treasuregarden.com.

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product profiles The Cabana Collection by Sunbrella The Sunbrella Cabana collection is a new grouping of Sunbrella upholstery fabrics, featuring classic stripe patterns Cabana and Shore in a variety of modern, bold, bright colors: classic, regatta, emerald, citron, and flame. Emphasizing design simplicity with a contemporary take, these fabrics can be mixed and matched for playful looks. Fabrics in the Sunbrella Cabana collection are ideal for upholstery, drapery, and decorative pillows. Contact: (336) 221-2211 or www.sunbrella.com.

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Smartwerks

Madrid

With this complete point-of-sale system, you’ll have all the tools necessary to grow your business. Process sales faster and more accurately. Bring in new customers (while retaining the ones you have), and buy the right amount of the right products to maximize your return on inventory: all with Smartwerks. Contact: (888) 882-1530 Ext. 107 or smartwerksusa.com.

The all-new Madrid extruded-aluminum sectional is part of a sophisticated, modern collection that offers a high-end, sleek look while providing the ultimate in outdoor comfort. Madrid includes coordinating side tables that combine aluminum with a marine-grade polymer tabletop, which is available with an umbrella hole—to complete your outdoor setting. Madrid is proudly made in the United States. Contact: (941) 359-0890 or www.windwarddesigngroup.com.

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NEWS

Industry of the substantial sales growth in internet commerce. Twin-Star’s newly developed product line specifically addresses the needs of the online-commerce channel and appeals to consumers of all genera-

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tions—but particularly millennials, the largest buying group in home furnishings.

Twin-Star’s commitment to developing internet commerce demonstrates its understanding of the consumer and will

Bianca Beckermann Joins Castelle As Financial Planner and Analyst Castelle has hired Bianca Beckermann as its financial planner and analyst. Beckermann will provide research and analysis for corporate and territorial sales strategy and growth.

Kevin Riggott, CFO, says, “We are pleased that Bianca is joining our team as a financial anaBianca Beckermann lyst. This is a new position within our company and one for which we see the potential for exciting company and industry exploration. Bianca’s expertise and enthusiasm for analyzing everything from weather trends to market share will be invaluable to us as we continue to move our products and brands forward.”

Prior to joining Castelle, Beckermann was national distribution coordinator for Adriana Hoyos Furnishings (Miami, Florida). Fluent in five languages, Bianca holds an MBA degree from Florida International University and is an active member of the German American Business Chamber.

“I am excited to work with the management and sales teams within Castelle to explore and analyze all phases of our products’ development, marketing, and sales,” Beckermann says. From buying trends to market penetration and from demographics to territorial influencers, many factors affect the overall financial picture, she explains.

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Richard Frinier Named to American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Richard Frinier, award-winning designer and principal/creative director of the Richard Frinier Design Studio, will be inducted into the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame on October 23, 2016, during High Point Market. Inductees are chosen based on their contributions to the growth and development of the home-furnishRichard Frinier ings industry in the United States. The sevenmember selection committee consists of three Hall of Fame Foundation board members and four representatives from various segments of the industry.

Frinier has spent more than 35 years designing award-winning furniture, textiles, lighting, and accessories for residential, contract, and hospitality environments, with a vision of bringing the quality of indoor living outside and the casual spirit of the outdoors inside. He has licensed his exclusive and cobranded designs to lifestyle and legacy brands and manufacturers that include Sunbrella®, Brown Jordan, Century Furniture, and Dedon. Frinier is the recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Casual Furnishings Association.

yield opportunities for new channels and additional sales for the company’s retail trade partners. Marc Sculler, Twin-Star copresident, says, “With the rapid growth of technology, people of all generations are convenience shoppers.

Most are tech savvy, using technology

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT

and the internet to shop for and purchase what they need and want.” The program, he adds, offers styles from contemporary to industrial, with high quality and great value, and makes it easier for retailers to ship products directly to consumers.

Dansons

INSIGHT

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been very well received,” Thiessen says. He reports that since it was released, Dansons has been chasing inventory for the LG Elite 800.

“It’s a good problem to have,” he adds.

The driving force behind the introduction of innovative products (such as the LG 800 Elite) is customer demand. Customer feedback and requests continue to motivate the design team at Dansons to offer a broader range of products in both of its grill brands. The company is always working to provide customers with all the features they want—at fair prices.

“Our goal, as a company, is to provide the bestvalue products in the marketplace,” Thiessen says. “We also want to provide the most innovative products.”

Its smokers are an area where Dansons will continue to experience growth. “Smoke is the hot button right now,” Thiessen says. “You get a very rich flavor with wood.” Dansons’ smokers are extremely effective, he says, and they deliver full-flavored results—while serving as full-function grills, too. The versatile smokers offer temperature control for cooking at both low and high heat levels, for smoking and grilling. In addition, the smokers that Dansons offers customers are larger than many of those provided by its competitors, he explains.

Dansons will continue to focus on expanding its product offerings, improving current products, and consistently delivering high-quality grills and smokers at reasonable prices. “What keeps us relevant is our innovation, not only in design, but in how we market that design,” Thiessen says.

The way that the company is structured, it not only has the ability to listen to customer feedback, but can respond to it effectively—by developing new offerings quickly. “We’re nimble,” Thiessen says. “We can respond much faster than our competitors.”

The company strives to retain control of its operations by having its work done in-house.

Dansons has its own art department, engineering department, and sales team, enabling it to work quickly by avoiding sourcing work outside the company. Dansons has dedicated an entire department to social-media platforms and advertising because it recognizes how integral using social media is to the quality of its marketing and customer service. “We like to keep everything in-house so we can react faster than our competitors,” Thiessen says. “We are blessed with great people.”

To increase its response speed further, Dansons opened a new distribution facility (the company’s third) in Fife, Washington, in 2015,

and it plans to open a fourth facility during the next year. More expansion is planned over the coming five years, as Dansons responds to its rapid growth and maintains its commitment to superior customer support.

While most of the company’s sales are North American, Dansons is successful and growing throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Thiessen sees Europe as a fantastic location for expansion because it tends to follow North American barbecue trends.

An added development for the company is the introduction of gas-fired products (expected within the next year). Thiessen explains that this is a response to customers’ requests for the convenience of gas cooking, as well as to a wonderful opportunity to be innovative in that market.

“It’s a huge part of the marketplace, and we want to address our customers’ needs,” he says.

Dansons wants to offer the best gas-cooking options and will always seek new ideas and better cooking solutions for all of its product lines.

“Whatever we’re in, we want to be industry leaders, not followers,” Thiessen says. “It’s working well.”

He adds that Dansons cares about its reputation and will always stand by its products. “For us, it is a personal business,” Thiessen says. “We don’t turn a deaf ear to any of our customers.”

SHOP TALK continued from page 64

personable and welcoming strategy resonates far more with clients than a showroom full of cold, unused grills could resonate. It allows the presentation of a grill’s features and benefits to take on a practical angle, as clients envision how (and what) they will cook when they take that grill home.

Here are a few examples of interactive events that we use on an ongoing basis: At our weekly Saturday demos we feature a recipe that we cook for—and along with—our clients. This gives us the ability to show off the features and benefits of various grill brands and types (such as kamado, gas, and pellet models). By pairing people’s love of great food with an open forum, we create a simple and casual weekly learning ritual in our store. From ribs and wings to pizza and corn on the cob, we do something different each week.

These demos are low in cost, high in impact, and easy to promote (through social media or our newsletter).

Each client who purchases a grill from us is invited to attend a private group class on barbecue. We include this offer as part of our sales process, and we also attach a monetary value to the invitation. This makes clients see and feel

the value we are adding to their overall experience. We specifically invite a different local chef to teach each class—to answer food-related and technical questions of all types, while also guiding people through how best to use their newly purchased grills.

These classes typically result in amazing consumer engagement, major accessory purchases, and referrals. To attract an even larger audience and increase our visibility, we encourage each class guest to bring a friend and to post on social media.

About once a month, we bring a few grills/smokers and cook at community events.

These include street festivals, charity events, and special events at homeless shelters. We are firm believers that success without giving back is failure, so we donate our time, equipment, food, and resources with pleasure. More and more clients today want to do business with companies that demonstrate strong values and integrity, as well as with companies that support their communities. Media coverage of us often includes this aspect of our business model as a result of our work with numerous local causes.

With the advancement of technology and the

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ease of finding information, lower prices, and online consumer reviews, it is clear that almost anything we offer to clients can be found on a website. It is critical that we, as specialty retailers of grills and accessories, offer our clients things that the internet cannot offer. We must invest our time, resources, and creativity in dynamic events that engage our clients.

We need to think about the lifetime value of the client versus the one-time transaction.

Engaged clients who become passionate about cooking, grilling, and experimenting have incredible economic value to our businesses, as they will share their love and passion with the people around them. We must be the source for world-class equipment, knowledge, and passion.

All can be demonstrated and celebrated by employing simple, fun, and creative events, demos, and classes.

Ryan Bloom is the owner of Urban Bonfire (Montreal, Quebec), a highly successful interactive retail store that specializes in selling grills and outdoor-kitchen products, as well as outdoor-living experiences.

AdvertiserIndex Advertiser

Phone

ProductProfiles Directory Website

Page

Company

Page

Agio, USA ..........................................(888) 997-7623 ................www.agio-usa.com....................................5

Agio, USA ..............................................................................................84, 88

Alfresco Home....................................(610) 705-8808 ................www.alfrescohome.com ..........................42

Alfresco Home ........................................................................................84, 90

American Energy Systems ....................(800) 495-3196 ................www.americanenergysystems.com ..........38

American Energy Systems ........................................................................74, 86

Big Green Egg ....................................(770) 938-9394 ................www.biggreenegg.com ..........................36

Big Green Egg ........................................................................................75, 80

Brown Jordan......................................(800) 743-4252 ................www.brownjordan.com ............................7

Brown Jordan ..........................................................................................72, 92

Bull Outdoor Products ........................(800) 521-2855 ................www.bullbbq.com ..................................37 C.R. Plastic Products ............................(800) 490-1283 ................www.crpproducts.com ............................57 California Outdoor Concepts................(877) 274-6773 ................www.californiaoutdoorconcepts.com ........71 Castelle..............................................(855) 612-9800 ................www.castelleluxury.com ........................2–3 The Companion Group ........................(800) 521-0505 ................www.companion-group.com....................63 Couristan ..........................................(800) 223-6186 ................www.couristan.com ................................73 Dansons ............................................(877) 303-3134 ................www.louisiana-grills.com ........................46

Bull Outdoor Products..............................................................................72, 76 C.R. Plastic Products ................................................................................74, 86 California Outdoor Concepts ....................................................................72, 94 Castelle ......................................................................................86, 90, 92, 96 The Companion Group ............................................................................75, 82 Couristan................................................................................................75, 78

DCS by Fisher & Paykel ........................(888) 936-7872 ................www.dcsappliances.com ........................35

Coyote Outdoor Living ..................................................................................88

Empire Comfort Systems......................(800) 851-3153..................www.empirecomfort.com ........................31

Dansons ................................................................................................74, 78

Erwin and Sons ..................................(770) 579-0414 ................www.erwinandsons.com..........................59

DCS by Fisher & Paykel ............................................................................75, 76

Gensun Casual Living ..........................(866) 964-4468 ................www.gensuncasual.com ............................9

Empire Comfort Systems ..........................................................................76, 82

The Hammock Source..........................(800) 334-1078 ................www.thehammocksource.com ................27

Erwin and Sons........................................................................................74, 80

Hearth & Home Technologies ..............(800) 669-4328 ................www.myhht.com ..................................104

Gensun Casual Living ..............................................................................74, 76

Hestan Outdoor..................................(888) 905-7463 ................www.hestanoutdoor.com ........................17

The Hammock Source ..............................................................................72, 74

Homecrest ........................................(877) 599-4803 ................www.homecrest.com ..............................96

Hearth & Home Technologies ..................................................................70, 76

Informa Exhibitions..............................(888) 869-6522 ................www.poolspapatio.com ..........................99

Hestan Outdoor ......................................................................................70, 82

Infratech ............................................(800) 421-9455 ................www.infratech-usa.com ..........................50

Homecrest..............................................................................................82, 98

International Casual Furnishings Association ......................(336) 881-1016 ..................www.icfanet.org ....................................67

Infratech ................................................................................................75, 84

Jensen Leisure Furniture ......................(800) 403-0403 ................www.jensenleisurefurniture.com ..............22

Jensen Leisure Furniture............................................................................75, 86

Kingsley-Bate......................................(703) 361-7000 ................www.kingsleybate.com ..........................58

Kingsley-Bate ..........................................................................................78, 88

Las Vegas Market/IMC ........................(702) 599-3046 ................www.lasvegasmarket.com ......................93

Lloyd Flanders ........................................................................................70, 84

Lloyd Flanders ....................................(800) 526-9894 ................www.lloydflanders.com ......................12–13

Malibu Outdoor Living ............................................................................78, 84

Malibu Outdoor Living ........................(866) 947-7632 ................www.malibu-outdoor.com........................91

Mallin Casual ..........................................................................................76, 86

Mallin Casual ......................................(800) 251-6537 ................www.mallinfurniture.com ........................43

MLW Stone ..................................................................................................78

MLW Stone ........................................(800) 477-7665 ................www.mlwstone.com................................98 Montigo ............................................(800) 378-3115..................www.montigo.com..................................77 Napoleon Products ............................(705) 721-1212 ..................www.vicenzahome.com ..........................33 NorthCape ........................................(708) 563-2890 ................www.northcape.com ..............................29 OW Lee..............................................(800) 776-9533 ................www.owlee.com ....................................49 Patio Renaissance................................(866) 698-5673 ................www.patiorenaissance.com......................65 Peak Season ......................................(866) 606-6330 ................www.peakseasoninc.net ..........................89

Montigo ................................................................................................84, 86 Napoleon Products ..................................................................................86, 90 NorthCape ............................................................................................88, 98 OW Lee ..................................................................................................82, 95 Patio Renaissance ....................................................................................92, 97 Peak Season............................................................................................76, 90

Pelican Reef ........................................(305) 820-9000 ................www.pelicanreef.com..............................95

Pelican Reef ............................................................................................80, 88

Phifer ................................................(800) 221-5497 ................www.phifer.com......................................21

Phifer ....................................................................................................80, 88

Poly-Wood ........................................(877) 457-3284 ................www.polywoodinc.com ..........................51

Poly-Wood ............................................................................................82, 94

Ratana................................................(866) 919-1881 ..................www.ratana.com ....................................81

Ratana....................................................................................................90, 94

Saber Grills ........................................(888) 947-2237 ................www.sabergrills.com ..............................83

Saber Grills ............................................................................................80, 95

Skyline Design ....................................(877) 595-4634 ................www.skylinedesign.com ..........................97

Skyline Design ........................................................................................80, 98

Summer Classics ................................(888) 868-4267 ................www.summerclassics.com........................79

Summer Classics......................................................................................92, 96

Summerset Professional Grills ..............(800) 966-8126 ................www.summersetgrills.com ......................39

Summerset Professional Grills ..................................................................92, 94

Sunbrella............................................(336) 221-2211 ..................www.sunbrella.com ................................23

Sunbrella ..............................................................................................97, 100

Sunbrella Rain ....................................(336) 221-2211 ..................www.sunbrella.com/rain ........................25 Sunset West ......................................(760) 599-1021..................www.sunsetwestusa.com ........................87 Sunvilla ..............................................(888) 690-9800 ................www.sunvilla.com ..................................85 Telescope Casual ................................(800) 451-0938 ................www.telescopecasual.com ....................103 Tempotest USA ..................................(972) 512-3534 ................www.tempotestusa.com ..........................15 Treasure Garden ................................(888) 821-8868 ................www.treasuregarden.com........................47 Tropitone ..........................................(949) 951-2010..................www.tropitone.com ................................61

Sunset West ............................................................................................74, 92 Sunvilla ..................................................................................................70, 94 Telescope Casual ....................................................................................72, 80 Tempotest USA ......................................................................................94, 98 Treasure Garden......................................................................................96, 98 Tropitone ..............................................................................................95, 97

Twitchell ............................................(800) 633-7550 ................www.twitchellcorp.com ..........................20

Twitchell ................................................................................................72, 75

TylerNet ............................................(800) 237-5913 Ext. 100 ......www.tylernet.com ..................................54

TylerNet................................................................................................96, 100

Windward Design Group ....................(941) 359-0890 ................www.windwarddesigngroup.com ............55

Windward Design Group ........................................................................96, 100

Winston Furniture................................(205) 486-9211..................www.winstonfurniture.com ......................45

Winston Furniture ....................................................................................70, 92

Woodbridge Fireplace ........................(800) 636-3473 ................www.woodbridgedealer.com ..................53

Woodbridge Fireplace ............................................................................70, 90

PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT (ISSN 1939-6929) IS PUBLISHED BIMONTHLY BY PENINSULA MEDIA, 21250 HAWTHORNE BLVD., SUITE 700, TORRANCE, CA 90503. US POSTAGE PAID AT LEBANON JUNCTION, KY 40150. JULY/AUGUST 2016, VOL. 11, NO. 4 © 2016 PENINSULA MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO PENINSULA MEDIA, 21250 HAWTHORNE BLVD., SUITE 700, TORRANCE, CA 90503-5514, PATIOANDHEARTH@HALLDATA.COM, PHONE: (847) 763-9261. WHILE THE PUBLISHERS HAVE MADE EVERY EFFORT TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY OF THE MATERIALS PRESENTED IN PATIO & HEARTH PRODUCTS REPORT, THEY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CORRECTNESS OF THE INFORMATION AND/OR OPINIONS EXPRESSED.

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Circle Reader Service No. 237

The Artisan Vent Free Gas Fireplace

FOLLOW THE LEADER Monessen has been the leader in vent free hearth products for decades.

No one does vent free better than we do.

Join us. Contact your dealer business partner today to learn more about Monessen’s industry-leading products.

LOVE AT FIRST LIGHT Circle Reader Service No. 238

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