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HIGH POINT — The much-publicized Highway to Home furniture collection by country superstar Eric Church that Pulaski Furniture launched last fall appears to have struck a chord with consumers around the U.S. that are starting to see the new line at retail.
Highway to Home, which includes three collections of bedroom, dining room and occasional furniture, had a soft launch at some Rooms To Go stores around Memorial Day weekend and arrived at other locations throughout the Top 100 company’s network about two weeks later, said Page Wilson, president of Pulaski Furniture.
“It is off to a good start and ready to hit with major TV ads,” Wilson said of the Rooms To Go launch. “We have gotten very nice reorders.”
Rooms To Go officials were not available for immediate comment on the line. However, the company expressed interest in collection almost immediately after it was first announced in April 2015, essentially locking up distribution in its key markets before even having seen the finished goods.
The line has also sold well in other markets outside the RTG distribution area, Wilson noted. He said that thus far, as many as 20 other dealers have bought into some or all of the three collections introduced at the October 2015 market. Wilson noted that these retailers are at different stages of flooring the product, which as of June was on its second cutting with a third cutting planned over the summer.
“Some are waiting for it to hit the domestic warehouse (in Madison, N.C.),” Wilson said, noting that the product is being made in and shipped from Vietnam. “It will take over the summer to get the inventory we are comfortable with to be able to get the product to everybody.”
Early indicators
Among the other dealers that have started to floor the collection is Nebraska Furniture Mart, which has devoted roughly 2,500 square feet of space to the line in its Kansas City and Omaha stores.
“We have high hopes for it,” said Irv Blumkin, CEO of the Omaha, Neb.-based Top 100 Company, noting that he believes the line will do well particularly among younger customers that relate to Church and his music. “He has gotten a tremendous following, but the goods are also really designed well. If people like them, they will buy them.”
A native of Granite Falls, N.C., Eric Church is the son of industry veteran Ken Church, a former executive at Clayton Marcus and Southern Furniture. Eric Church had spent some of his earlier years working at the Clayton Marcus upholstery plant and also studied marketing at Appalachian State University.
He put out his first album, Sinners Like Me, in 2006 and has since recorded four other albums and has had record setting ticket sales in numerous markets such as Nashville, Chicago and Raleigh. He also has won numerous awards including the Academy of Country Music 2013 album of the year and the Country Music Association’s 2012 album of the year.
Rit Mathis, store manager of Mathis Brothers’ Ontario, Calif., location, said the company is flooring a couple of dining rooms and a bedroom from the collection at all four company locations. He said the collection seems to be doing well so far. He said that he had never heard of Eric Church before the launch and noted that he would never just buy a line because it had the name of a famous country singer. But he is impressed with the finished product, which is key to any successful furniture line.
“We bought it because it was good looking furniture at a good price,” he said.
