Briefly ...
Staff -- Home Accents Today, 10/1/2006
- The National Retail Federation reported retail sales for August rose 6.5% over last year and increased 0.3% seasonally adjusted over July (sales figure excludes automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants). In its Sept. 14 report the NRF also said furniture and home furnishings store sales rose 6.4% unadjusted from last year but were down slightly at 0.3% from July. The NRF has predicted above-average holiday sales at 5% sales gain, but less than last year's strong holiday sales gain of 6.1%. The average growth rate for the November and December period is 4.6%.
- Wal-Mart Stores announced it will unveil its first celebrity line of home products this month, the Csquared by Colin Cowie holiday home collection. The collection, available only through the end of December, will feature solutions for holiday decorating and entertaining including barware accessories, photo frames, floral decor, and compilation music CDs. Cowie's company, Colin Cowie Lifestyle, is an event planning, design and catering company with offices in Los Angeles and Manhattan. Cowie is a contributing editor for InStyle, Eating Well and Honeymoon magazines and has authored several books on entertaining.
- Thompson and Beau Lange and the staff of Homescapes, Carmel, California, celebrated their seventh year of business in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea in September. Since opening their home furnishings business in 1999, the brothers have grown Homescapes into an award-winning retail enterprise, being named the Furniture Store of the Year, West coast region, in 2006 by the Accessory Resource Team.
- Midwest retailer HOM Furniture has expanded its rug category with the opening of a 17,000-sq.-ft. World Rugs Superstore in Plymouth, Minn. More than 3,000 rugs are displayed in the new retail space and 7,000 more are housed in an attached warehouse, making it the largest rug showroom in the upper Midwest. The rug galleries within each of the HOM furniture showrooms have also been expanded and remodeled but World Rugs Superstore is the only standalone rug showroom within the HOM chain of retail locations. The new facility features custom retractable display racks, specialty lighting and wood floors.
- Kirkland's Inc. reported a net sales increase of 4.8% to $91.0 million for the second fiscal quarter ended July, 2006, compared with $86.8 million for the second quarter ended July, 2005. Comparable store sales for the period decreased 9% compared with a 10.2% decrease for the second quarter of fiscal 2005. The company reported a second quarter net loss of $5.6 million, or $.29 per diluted share compared with a net loss of $5.7 million, or $.29 per diluted share, for the prior-year period. Net sales for the 26-week period ended in July, increased 7% to $183.6 million from $171.5 million for the same period, prior year. The company reported a net loss of $8.6 million, or $.44 per diluted share, for the first half of 2006, compared with a net loss of $7.3 million, or $.38 per diluted share, for the first half of 2005.
