Material and labor shortages in the wake of the pandemic have created challenges across the industry and the world at large. In 2022, shipping containers are expensive, raw materials may be difficult to obtain, and companies are finding it difficult to find/keep craftsmen. Although the upholstery sector is no exception to these challenges, manufacturers have seen continued – and in some cases increased – demand for the product. Against all odds, they have weathered these hardships in successful ways, providing consumers with the products they need as timely as possible.
While shipping from abroad has seen its ups and downs, manufacturers say domestic upholstery has been similarly affected. In some cases, rendering can be a little faster when switching to local sources. In other cases, the parts and materials needed to complete local assembly are still sourced from abroad.
“It’s a mix,” says Ann Smith, senior managing director and head of domestic furnishings at Hooker Furniture. Bradington Young and Sam Moore – both divisions of Hooker Furniture – are manufactured in the United States
“Many of our covers are imported so you’re going to have the same problems as our imported lines trying to get these here,” she says. “Some of Sam Moore’s exposed wood frames are also imported, but Bradington Young builds all of his own. We have some local sources for that, which is helpful.”
Components that are almost exclusively imported from Asia present an exceptional challenge at the moment, including covers for furniture and mechanisms such as swivel bases, springs and straps.
“Anything made of metal is tough,” Smith says. “There’s way more to get involved here. We’ve tried to dual-source many of these parts, but even with local sourcing, you have the same issues. Labor issues, transportation issues, and cost for sure.”
The prices of materials such as foam and wood have also risen around the world. For Hooker – and most of the others – managing unprecedented inflation has driven up product prices. However, customers are still constantly placing orders for upholstered goods.
“The last price increase went into effect in January, and we were well prepared for a drop in incoming orders,” Smith says. “But we are still seeing strong demand.”
The markets have also changed over the past couple of years. According to Jim Telleysh, Senior Vice President of Spectra Home, before the pandemic, there may have been more foot traffic, but some market attendees were only interested in “window shopping.” Today, the game has changed.
“No one is wasting their money coming to these markets just to get rid of tires and see what’s new; they buy,” Tillich says. “They’re here for a purpose. We are selling more furniture today during the highest periods of inflation we have seen. When we go to the market, we have a much more successful turnout and much less follow-up because they place orders there.”
When it comes to supply chain difficulties, Spectra has a big role – it’s factory owned. The group purchases 90 percent of the goods from its factories located in China, Cambodia and Thailand. Although Spectra borrows bare wood, the group pours its own polyurethane foam, cuts its CNC plywood frames and owns companies that make furniture boxes.
“We try to be as vertical as possible so we can avoid supply chain problems,” Tillich says. “Having the factory has been a huge help, especially when it comes to buying the product in bulk.”
Spectra also works with a local supplier in Thomasville, North Carolina, along with other American-made groups. Using local suppliers provides a way to balance what the group is getting abroad.
“I can get my American-made product faster than my Asian one, and that helped me fill in that gap of still having something in stock,” he says. “We buy in bulk and bring it in and store it here. It’s geared towards having inventory and being able to ship quickly. That helps the American side. But customers know they are limited in what they can buy. I think every fabric in our US facility is made overseas, for example.”
It is also difficult to bring foreign products into the shipping container.
“It’s obviously two to four times more expensive than it was two years ago,” Tillich says. “This is something you have to pay for – there is no way around it. Once it’s here, moving it abroad is also a challenge. So much furniture is being sold today that carriers can’t keep up.”
Some customers are starting to choose to pick up furniture in North Carolina to avoid high prices and long lead times.
“The faster they ship to the customer, the faster they get the money, so they are collecting their own merchandise now,” he says.
At Bellini Modern Living, most of the inventory comes imported from Italy. Hossein Azimi, the company’s founder and CEO, says it has been much easier to get the product from Europe than it was in Asia during the pandemic.
“Although the market was not hot, we did not slow down in production,” Azimi says. “We kept receiving merchandise time and time again. We continued this trend despite the higher cost of shipping. We only paid the extra cost to satisfy our agents, so they didn’t have to wait nine months for a dining table or sofa.”
At the end of 2020, Bellini also purchased and pre-ordered huge quantities of raw materials for only a better price. To combat today’s price hike, Bellini has implemented additional shipping charges to cover the cost of the container. Azimi says this is a temporary measure and expects shipping to be reduced down the line.
“We’ve seen that inflation coming in last year,” he says. “Whenever we have problems, we work with our raw material suppliers, manufacturers, and shipping companies and try to make it as easy as possible for our agents.”
When it comes to upholstery, our craftsmen are true craftsmen. Trading takes a great deal of time, attention, and detail. Unlike box goods, which can be automated when it comes to operations like wood cutting, upholstery requires a lot of ingenuity and craftsmanship.
“After it’s cut, there’s no automation,” Telleysh says. “They are all handmade or handmade. The labor pool is good abroad, but my local factory is having a hard time with its labor pool because through COVID, some workers got different jobs.”
Many true craftsmen are also approaching retirement age, which contributes to the labor shortage in the industry. To combat this, Bellini offers incentives to employees who bring friends or family to work.
“In northern Italy, we didn’t have much of a problem with craft work,” he says. “In the south, we had little manpower. In this part of the world, all the light goods are manufactured in that region. There are two or three people in every family who work in a factory that does upholstery. So employee incentives helped a lot.”
Looking to the future of upholstery and its modern challenges, Hooker began focusing on attracting and retaining young workers interested in learning the craftsmanship needed to build products. This has been an ongoing challenge, with most individuals needing to be trained from the ground up in upholstery and tailoring. Regardless, many companies are investing in these new entrants, offering factory tours and implementing training opportunities.
“We’ve partnered with local high schools and community colleges to try to identify those students who are looking to move directly into the workplace,” Smith says. “We do a lot of rounds – the kids will come and go through the factory to see if that’s something they want to do.
“Ultimately we want to develop a program that will allow them to come and work a few hours a day. Then when they graduate, they can attend full time. Not everyone commits to university, and not everyone needs a college degree to be successful. We are trying to capitalize on that.”
