The Best RTA Sofa in the World Challenge

Duane,
I thought you might enjoy this. I sent out a PR article last week challenging all of the RTA (that's Ready-To-Assemble for you non-furniture experts) Sofa manufacturers to see who makes the best RTA Sofa in the World. http://www.prlog.org/10693609-simpli...facturers.html

The article was picked up by a Furniture Today reporter who is going to be interviewing me next week. This could be fun. So far as I know we are the only RTA sofa manufacturer to use solid oak frames and offer a choice of ultracell, down-blend or spring-down cushions. We are currently working on engineering an 8 way-hand-tied spring suspension that will fit into our RTA system.

Best of all - I am convinced that our RTA sofas are the world's easiest and fastest to assemble. To prove this, we shot a YouTube video showing a 60 lb. 8 year old boy assembling one of our full-size sofas by himself in under 4 minutes. The link to that video is included in the link referenced above.

Jeff Frank
http://www.simplicitysofas.com

I saw the 'challenge' a couple of days ago, Jeff. I wonder if anyone will take you up on it! It seems like you guys have a real advantage in the marketplace, great customer service and lots of good word of mouth around the internet. A great way to expand a business!

I can't even get a Hancock and Moore sofa out of the packing material in 4 minutes .... lol. And I'm faster than an 8-year-old.

Actually it takes about 15 minutes to unpack the sofa. The video only showed the assembly.

Jeff
www.simplicitysofas.com

Duane,

I wanted to ask if you have seen a surge in business lately. Our March, 2010 sales were 30% higher than the best previous month in our 3 year history (last October).

Sales for May, 2010 were nearly double our record March figures. I have been quoting 6-8 week production times for the past month, up from our standard 3-4 weeks.

Sales have increased so dramatically that I was forced to move up a scheduled transfer of our factory to a new, larger facility a month earlier than originally planned. The new factory should enable us to double our production rate and get back below 4 week delivery by the end of the month.

This means that we have been hiring new employees, which is big news for the town of High Point, NC, which still considers itself "The Furniture Capital of the World" , despite the fact that we are the only new furniture factory to open here in the past 3 years.

Jeff
www.simplicitysofas.com

Yes, there is definitely an uptick in sales, however customers are not impulse buying and shopping carefully. They are doing more research, getting more educated, asking more questions and often coming back to the store several times for local buys, or exchanging many emails/pm's for long distance purchases. And it seems to be mostly all in upholstery, the wood case good end of the business continues to lag behind.

I see lots of price increases this summer however as manufacturers are getting hammered on cost and availability of raw materials.

Glad to see your biz is on the uptick! Good news, Jeff....