Bringing value, quality, color to the table; manufacturers dish out higher-end products and promote open-stock presentations - flatware and dinnerware

Discount Store News, Jan 15, 1996 by Joseph Dobrian

"People are doing more home entertaining, more casual buffets, so they want a range of well-priced fashion goods," Stein said.

Dan Newman, vp of sales and marketing, consumer products, Sun Coast Industries, has been encouraging retailers to showcase their products more in the way some discounters have now started to do in holiday merchandise. "Ribbon the colors. That's very important. You have to catch the customer's eye with the product," he said.

Newman and Stein agreed that open stock is the best way to pique the customer's interest in dinnerware, although a strong open-stock program is a tough thing for most discounters to pull off.

"Open stock lets the consumer purchase based on needs, family size, etc., and it develops a continuity. Our customers can go into a store and purchase items on a given day and see the planogram devoted to this product. She'll recognize that the retailer is devoted to that business, and she'll come back for further individual pieces," Newman said.

"Open stock is great, but it's tough to get over the display and system problems," another supplier added. "Merchandisers want manufacturers to put the product in a photo box so the product will sell itself, but these products are impulse items."

Stanley Roberts president Edward Pomeranz remarked that showing the product is the way to sell flatware, too. But he acknowledged that for the discounter, conservative buying and displaying is probably the surer route.

"Discounters are in a great position to offer flatware to a huge audience, but because of that, innovation is tougher," he said. "For larger discounters, who set planograms for a full year, it's hard to take gambles, so we try to offer tried and true, low-risk products.

"In discount stores, the more contemporary the design, the less it sells. The more footage you offer in flatware, the more you can do to get kicked out of the space, but pattern-wise it's hard to offer different designs. We prefer to use the space for different compositions, different-size sets, giving the be value for each price rang .

Value has translated into private label programs for retailers such as Target, which has charted enormous success with its Furio line.

In addition, licensed dinnerware for children continues to do well for most retailers, but the subcategory requires close management.

"These licensed products are high-margin and high-turn," said Irv Zakheim, president and ceo of Zak Designs. "The downside is a short life span for many characters, and that's where we come in. We can help the retailer monitor, day to day, what to do, what to get into and out of, because that's the tricky part."

Among the new dinnerware and flatware items to be launched at the Housewares Show include:

* Corning: Several products and patterns to its Corelle line of dinnerware are being introduced. Two new patterns, In the Garden and Farm Fresh, join the Living ware line. The former is a blue-on-white pattern depicting various gardening-related designs. The latter is hunter green on beige with an apples-and-grapes design. Open-stock pieces are now available in the Impressions line, and new pieces will be added to the low-priced Fun-Packs sets, including a Mexican-oriented platter with condiment bowls and a white pasta set that includes bowls, a cheese shaker and a scoop.