ST. LOUIS — Furniture Brands International's ready-to-assemble business will introduce about 40 new SKUs of its Assemblease products in the Broyhill showroom at the High Point Market, which opens Saturday.

Assemblease - which doesn't use a typical cam-and-bolt assembly method, but has a preinstalled push-and-grab system - did well with retailers when it was introduced at the April market, Furniture Brands said. The products are not yet available at retail.

The new assembly method, available on some products, is just one of the substantial changes the past year has brought to FBI's RTA business.

It dropped the former Creative Interiors brand for the category and is instead selling RTA under its Lane, Broyhill and Thomasville brands. And the company has broadened its distribution - in addition to mass merchants, which were the key focus for Creative Interiors, the company also is going after office superstores and mid-level department stores. Two RTA collections with 17 SKUs recently launched at Office Depot.

Doug Freeman, RTA business leader at Furniture Brands, said FBI is adding more value to its RTA lines, like better quality finishes and paper cuttings - but not enough to makes prices less competitive. The line includes paper laminate and particleboard products in New Visions by Lane and wood and wood veneer items in Inspirations by Broyhill and two Thomasville lines, Renovations and Style@Work.

Inspirations was launched at the April High Point Market, while Renovations has been available in Target stores for about three years and is the lead national RTA brand for the retailer. Wood and wood veneers are a key distinguishing material used in Renovations, Style@Work by Thomasville, and Inspirations to indicate better quality goods, Freeman said.

All of the RTA division branded product will be shown in the Broyhill showroom at the High Point Market.

"We're actually going to bring the value of a brand out to the RTA. It'll validate to consumers they're buying product design by a top notch furniture company, produced by a furniture company," Freeman said

RTA products are available in the entertainment, bedroom, home office, storage and casual dining categories.

The new Assemblease mechanism, which Freeman said was well received by retailers in April, is only available in the Broyhill-branded RTA. Some of the Inspiration by Broyhill still is in traditional construction since they were developed and introduced prior to Assemblease, but all new items in Inspirations by Broyhill will have Assemblease.

Freeman said the company plans for the Assemblease system to eventually flow through its other brand offerings. He said the system dramatically reduces the time needed for assembly, improves the structural stability of the product and greatly improves the experience consumers will have in the assembly process.

"It's truly unique to the marketplace. It's patented and we're getting calls from customers asking when we can ship it, how many can we ship and can they have an exclusive on it. It's really giving us a lot of good exposure," he said.

Furniture Brands will begin shipping the Assemblease Inspiration product for a first-quarter launch at a North American retailer with 400 to 500 stores, Freeman said, although he declined to identify the retailer.

Across the three branded RTA lines, there are currently about 100 existing SKUs of RTA offerings, not counting items exclusive to retailers, he said.

For the Assemblease items, an RTA media stand has an average retail price of about $300. With a conventional assembly system, prices for a media stand in wood veneer are about $229 to $249, and in paper laminates are about $159 to $179.

Some particleboard and paper laminate product is produced out of FBI's Appomattox, Va., plant, while wood and wood veneer products are sourced from Asia.