The Tupelo Furniture Market taking place Aug. 18-21 will draw a larger and more diversified group of vendors and buyers, according to market officials.

The estimated 10,000-11,000 registrations at the close of July represent an increase of 14% over last year and 23% over the February market, said market President Kevin Seddon.

Since Seddon joined the market five years ago, he has worked with the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau to develop and execute a plan to diversify and revitalize the market.

“Tupelo is often seen as promotional and where you can get closeouts,” he said. “We’re far more diverse now.”

In addition to growing design and décor opportunities with the Design Resource Center, market official continue to ask vendors to remove or reduce their minimum requirements to help small to midsize dealers and designers who don’t have the need or ability to buy in higher quantities.

The featured promotion for this market is Mattress Mania with at least 16 vendors participating with incentives above the usual market specials. “We have more than 40 bedding companies at Tupelo,” said Seddon. “There are small operators regionally who have survived during the downturn in the market because of their mattress business.”

Serta Simmons Bedding shows in two spaces by brand, and featured products include Serta’s iComfort, Simmons Beauty Rest Black and Beauty Rest Platinum — all launched earlier this year.

“Retailers can make any tweaks that they may feel necessary now that they have the product on the floor,” said Nate Grindle, sales manager for Serta. “We’ve also got some recent roll-backs and some special products for the back half of the year.”

Located in the heart of upholstery manufacturing, the Tupelo Market has a clear advantage as a smaller, regional market with a slower pace than other markets, giving buyers and vendors the opportunity to focus on product and conversations in greater detail.

Patrick Mayo, owner of Texas-based upholstery manufacturer Mayo Furniture, said the smaller market environment at Tupelo allows his customers to give more focused attention on best sellers that they’ve seen at a previous market.

“It’s a way to reach the regional market, and it’s easier for customers to get there,” he said. “What I want is to see a lot of the regional ‘mom and pops’ retailers that Mayo has been doing business with for the last 50 years, and to grow that segment of our business.”

United Furniture will have new upholstery to show at the market this week in addition to emphasizing value. The Mississippi-based manufacturer returned to the Tupelo Market last August and signed a long-term lease after a three-and-half-year absence. It also launched its case goods line and saw more than 400 customers at that market, according to company estimates.

“We are a national manufacturer with 15 facilities nationwide, and we felt we were losing our Southeast and Midwest customers,” said Jay Quimby, executive vice president of sales for United. “We analyzed where we were pulling customers from and saw that there is value for us to be in Tupelo.”

He added that in addition to the midsize and “mom and pop” dealers, United will also see its largest customers at Tupelo. The market draws about half of the Top 100 retailers, according to Seddon.

The retail climate for the first half of the year has been unclear with mixed reports.

“It depends on who you talk to, but it does seem that retail is more challenging right now with a common theme being the (presidential) election,” said Quimby. “May and June were tough, but from large to small (retailers), July Fourth was very good. The consumer is looking for extreme value so we are going into Tupelo aggressively and making a real value statement. It’s the manufacturer’s job to have compelling value for our customers.”

Marketing content editor Brianna Glenn contributed to this story.

(Source: Furniture Today  Author: Erin Berg)