Progressive Furniture taps new accent source

Progressive Furniture is certainly expanding its accent furniture line with a variety of product from India, a new source country for the line.

At the June 5-9 High Stage Market, the business is showing 50 to 60 Indian-produced accent furnishings, roughly half which were shown at Premarket in late April.

Retailing right from $299 to about $799, the items include anything from tiny accent tables and chests to pieces that can double when nightstands, with both shelf and drawer storage. There also are items which can fall within the occasional segment such as cocktail and end tables and sofa tables.

The line has been displayed at Progressive’s showroom in space 218 of 220 Elm.

New sourcing options
Up up to now, almost all of the accent line has been sourced from spots like China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico. While this existing roughly 170-part assortment is comparable regarding SKUs, the retails commence around $199 and best out around $599.

What the India source merchandise adds is a variety of pieces made out of solid acacia and solid mango, two species that are indigenous compared to that country.

The selection originated in partnership with several factories that company President Dan Kendrick visited in February 2020, before the pandemic curtailed travel between the U.S. and Asia.

In those days, he visited some 38 factories in four different towns, which represented a broad mix of capabilities and price things, from the reduced to the high end.

“It was really informative,” he said of the trip. “I picked three factories that possessed a different offering of merchandise. That was in February of this past year. We spent the summer heading back and forth with the factories, and we ordered about 90 SKUs.”

He said, specifically, the factories found in India are particularly adept with metal - both casting and welding - along with their work with of wood, both native grown species and reclaimed elm and fir from classic buildings, for example.

Furthermore, the Indian factories also use different mixed media elements such as copper, granite, marble and other styles of stone.

He said the Indian-made product also offers hand-carved elements similar to what China offered 10 to 15 years back.

Kendrick noted that, due to a number of factories have been doing business with the European market for quite some time, the sizes of some items are smaller or reduced profile than what Americans may be used to. But Kendrick observed that Progressive will continue working with the factories to excellent tune the product mix as they develop more merchandise in the future.

The response at Premarket, he noted, was positive, with some sellers writing orders at the show. And as the business has ordered deep, buyers will also be in a position to replenish inventory from its warehouse in Claremont, N.C.

“We've gotten sell- through on it previously,” Kendrick said. “The revenue reps found us and said that they had a lot of great conversations about it.

“We rolled the dice about a few of it, but with demand just how it is at this time, having inventory was a good decision.