Colors brighten furniture mix: new designs and resin colors boost category sales - outdoor furniture

Discount Store News, Sept 5, 1994 by Richard Halverson

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- Color has become the hallmark of the resin segment of outdoor furniture, with as much as 40% of sales going in the ever popular hunter green and new colors, such as cactus (sage green), desert tones of beige and burgundy (or plum).

That's a significant percentage for a category that once was all white.

Resin now commands an estimated 35% to 37% of the outdoor furniture segment, an increase of about four percentage points over 1993. The increase came largely at the expense of aluminum products.

In an upscale move, manufacturers are rushing to introduce new styles of rockers, Adirondak chairs and adjustable high back chairs, with price points in the $40 to $70 arena and even glass top tables in the $150 range. The reasons: the price of raw resin has increased by about one-third, while the price of a promotional monobloc chair has plunged to as low as $4.99, providing little, if any profit.

Replacement pads for monobloc chairs retail for about $4, or almost as much as the chairs themselves.

Because of the raw material increases, however, retail prices are expected to increase 7% to 10% for the '95 season, estimates Bruce Masden, vp marketing and sales for U.S. Leisure.

Independent estimates of resin furniture sales volume are unavailable since no marketing organization tracks sales and the Outdoor Furniture Manufacturers Association doesn't track manufacturers shipments of outdoor furniture.

But U.S. Leisure estimates that dollar volume at wholesale totaled $975 million for all categories of outdoor furniture, with resin accounting for 35%. At retail, a ballpark figure is $455 million in sales, Masden estimated.

Vendors give Target and Venture high marks for establishing a patio shop ambiance for outdoor furniture.

Meijer offers perhaps the broadest selection of resin, with ample space in its 200,000-sq.-ft. supercenters to carry both deep and broad selections from a wide variety of manufacturers.

At the other extreme, Wal-Mart offers a narrow selection from two or three vendors.

Kmart stands out because it is one of the few discounters that still imports directly from Taiwan.

Canada and Italy have supplanted Taiwan as low cost suppliers of import product.

One prominent trend in merchandising, as seen at Jamesway, is multiple exposure of promotional chairs: stacked out at entrances, in the seasonal area and by checkouts as well.

Hills Stores emphasizes resin by setting up a patio area of about 28 ft. by 48 ft., complete with drinkware and table top accessories, to show how the furniture would look in an outdoor setting. Diagonal paths run through the seasonal area, said Chris Huban, resin buyer. Trellises mark each path entrance, and some managers decorate them with silk ivy, as well as decorating the seasonal area with silk plants and trees. The discounter is emphasizing seasonal and de-emphasizing Lawn & Garden, he added.

Hills is introducing more color to better emphasize the patio area. Colors include teal, ruby, marine blue, navy and burgundy. Behind the patio area, Hills displays a wall of replacement cushions from Stapo, Brooklyn, N.Y. Unit sales increased slightly this year but dollars were flat, Huban said.

"Dollars came way down after the '93 Hardware Show," he said, but prices are fluctuating upwards because of the raw materials price increase.

Syroco, the largest resin vendor, will offer 12 colors in resin geared toward regional tastes, said chairman Leonard Florence. The south prefers hotter colors, while speckled finishes, such as granite, are more popular in conservative New England, he said.

For 1995, colors will account for about 50% of its production, with white the other 50%, Florence said.

Resin will capture a few more percentage points of the outdoor market in 1995, he predicted. Syroco recently acquired Omni, giving it aluminum capability, as well.

The industry is getting a new player, Doskocil, a producer of injection molded goods such as pet carriers and dog houses. Doskocil has been producing resin furniture for an Italian company for two years and now will produce for the U.S. market under the brand name Courtyard Design. Its line, all in white, will consist of two styles of tables, an endtable, high back chairs and folding chairs.

Rubbermaid, in its upscale approach, is adapting indoor furniture styles to resin furniture for covered decks, four-season sun rooms and patios.

Recognizing that color is driving more business, Rubbermaid introduced, at the Hardware Show, table tops in adobe granite, a southwestern brick and sand color. Other colors included plum, sage, sand and hunter green.

At Lawnware, granite and other lighter colors such as taupe and gray are the most popular, along with hunter green. In styling, Lawnware introduced a bentwood style rocking chair with a traditional wood look. The expected retail will be $59.95.

U.S. Leisure introduced five new colors at the Hardware Show: graphite, jade, cactus (sage green), ivory and royal blue.