Furniture Classics drops Morgan Hill line
Work stoppage closes India source factory
Thomas Russell, Furniture Today -- Home Accents Today, 3/19/2007 6:34:00 AM
Accent furniture specialist Furniture Classics has told its customers that it will no longer distribute the Morgan Hill furniture line.
First developed by Theodore Alexander CEO Paul Maitland-Smith in the mid 1990s, Morgan Hill was a high-end, European-influenced reproduction line of case goods, accents and accessories. It was produced in a factory in Mandawa, India, called High Land House.
The line was later distributed by Sarreid Ltd. between 2001 and 2006. But because of quality and delivery problems with the manufacturer, Sarreid did not renew its contract with the High Land House factory.
Furniture Classics agreed to distribute the line late last summer and began promoting it at the October High Point Market. But the factory shut down in late January, according to Furniture Classics Sales Manager Alex Boyer.
“The factory was literally closed and padlocked and workers were let go and we had no advanced notice,” he said. “They abruptly cancelled all our orders.” Boyer said it wasn’t the first time there had been a work stoppage at the plant. “But our goods flowed well and we delivered container-direct to a good assortment of customers,” he said. Longtime Morgan Hill customer Carol Jean Clark had mixed feelings about the demise of the line. She had ordered it from Sarreid for her Starbuck International showroom in Los Angeles since 2001 and had done well with it, but orders often took six to 12 months to arrive. She had not ordered the line from Furniture Classics, however. “I will tell you that their shipping was almost intolerable,” she said. “Yes, I am sorry to see it go, but you move on.” Although it has dropped the India line, Furniture Classics will continue to source goods from Indonesia and plans to launch about 40 new SKUs this market. It also plans to look for new sources in other Asian countries such as Vietnam. “It’s certainly a disappointment for Furniture Classics and to many of the Morgan Hill dealers who have carried the product line over the past decade,” Boyer said. “We certainly had high hopes that it would be a flagship for Furniture Classics, but we believe that we have the wherewithal to expand our business.”
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