Table textiles take earthier tones - Tabletop - HomeMarket Trends Supplement

Discount Store News, April 1, 1991

Table Textiles Take Earthier Tones

Summer brights and holiday earth tones dominate the color palette kitchen and table textile manufacturers will be showing at Market Week during this month.

Momentum among retailers to trade up to what were traditionally department store products and pricing is building, vendors said. They expect full-line discount department stores and discount specialty store operators to represent an even larger portion of their business this year.

Park B. Smith Jr., national sales manager with the New York-based company that bears his father's name, said discounters have been trading up to his firm's merchandise for several years, but believes the rate has stepped up recently due to the chains' ability to better track sku's.

"They've [discounters] become disciplined with their systems. Unlike most department stores, discounters are able to respond to demand through Quick Response and EDI . . . You go to a mall and tell me who is better in stock," he said.

Smith said the retailers are "finding they do have this upscale audience." Park B. Smith's sales with discounters and warehouse clubs have risen to about half of the firm's total business. Less than two years ago, discounter share was closer to 35% of total volume.

The Park B. Smith company enjoyed 40% growth last year and anticipates sales growth of 25% or better this year.

New introductions at this market will include 10 holiday designs, a collection of kitchen brights, a line of warm pastels called Bistro, and two kitchen items: a trivet called the Bowler, and a long-sleeved potholder called The Grabber.

Many table linen makers are anticipating an upturn in business this year.

Craig Benepe, gmm, Leacock Linens, told HMT he believes consumer confidence is on the rise; a 45% gain in business already this year gives credence to this perspective.

The colors and patterns Benepe finds strongest include florals and, to a lesser extent, fruit patterns. Bright "cheerful" colors are growing, too. While blue is still important, red is becoming more popular.

The second palette of colors include plums, heather, pink, navy and turquoise. Peaches and earth tones are also starting to return, especially those with a red undertone.

Black and white "very strongly downtrended last fall," Benepe noted, but found that a dark hunter green is taking the place of black. "It's a much more forgiving color. It works with both traditional and country interiors."

Leacock's new patterns include Arbor, a leaves and grapes motif combining plums, rusts, golds, greyed-greens and reddish browns. Cottage Rose, a floral, borrows some of the plums and greens but is brightened with yellow and turquoise.

The market will also be the first for Leacock's new At Home division, headed by Diane Fisher, design director at Leacock. The division is dedicated to coordinated placemats, napkins and coordinated kitchen textiles.

For Barth & Dreyfuss, novelty, Victorian and country are the best sellers in their kitchen textile business, but sales of holiday designs are also surging. Bert Dissin, eastern regional sales manager, said the firm will be debuting novelty items with a Christmas theme.

"Christmas designs are getting to be big business, and this will be our most extensive line ever," Dissin said.

Best Brands expects to boost its holiday business - which is already 30% of total sales volume - with the addition of a holiday line designed by Julie Ingleman. Best Brands signed the licensing agreement with Ingleman Designs last November. Colors and patterns that Best Brands expects to do well include brighter pastels, rich jewel tones, florals, stripes, geometrics and paisleys.

Also new from Best Brands is The Cottillion Collection. The line consists of mix and match napkins and placemats with blue, lavender and pink colors, and large floral, small floral and stripe patterns. Suggested retail prices for the collection are $4 to $5 for placemats and $3 for napkins.

The firm will continue to show its Cannon Premier Collection line of tablecloths, placemats and kitchen textiles.

Like many suppliers, Best Brands had a great year in 1990 - 40% sales gain - and anticipates 20% growth this year, said Cari Bennett, merchandise coordinator.

PHOTO : Fruit designs and earth tones like Leacock's holiday pattern, will be important at this market.

PHOTO : A Julie Ingleman family of holiday designs will join Best Brand's successful Cannon license this spring.