High Point Fall Market registration reflects tumultuous business conditions

Activity bolstered by first-time visitors, interior designers, international buyers

-- Home Accents Today, 11/18/2008 10:36:00 AM

The number of validated buyer registrations at High Point’s Fall 2008 Market, 44,634, was down 2,534 or just under 6% from the previous market. Total registrations, 76,403, a figure that includes exhibitors, sales personnel, students, press and other industry members, declined by nearly 7%.

“From the softened housing market to bloated inventories, tightening credit and the melt-down on Wall Street, home furnishings professionals across the industry have been struggling to cope with some of the most difficult business conditions they have ever encountered and market registrations reflect this,” said Brian D. Casey, president and CEO of the High Point Market Authority. “Across all categories and all facets of the business we are seeing unprecedented change. Our industry is contracting and consolidating in ways never before experienced.”

While thousands of full-line furniture stores have closed their doors in recent years, new channels of distribution are taking shape. “The complexion of the marketplace is changing,” Casey said. “At the High Point Market, we’re focusing on attracting new buying organizations and constituencies such as interior designers. At the same time, we’re reaching out to buyers who have not registered in some time and encouraging them to experience all the changes that we have instituted throughout the past two years.”

Casey said the strategy is working. More than 8,800 buyers registered for the first time and more than 2,000 buyers returned to the market following an absence of more than one year. New buyers included 618 international visitors and 3,023 interior designers. Over 1,600 international buyers and about 15,000 interior designers registered.

“These buyers found the full breadth of product introductions in every category, at every price point, including the world’s greatest collection of high-end, one-of-a-kind showrooms,” Casey said. “They also enjoyed the strong sense of community that only the High Point Market offers. They know that High Point is where the world chooses to conduct business because it’s the only Market with the stature to draw the executive leadership of both buyers and sellers. And they used their time here to work together to find solutions.”

Casey said many characterized the mood at market as surprisingly upbeat. “Exhibitors, buyers and suppliers made a choice to stay positive and focused on the future of their businesses despite the current economic pressures. Buyers saw the product they will purchase when business improves, and they reached out to learn from industry leaders -- seeking connections during the days and evenings at hundreds of seminars, parties and market-wide networking events where attendance was robust, often with sell-out crowds.”

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