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HIGH POINT — Amish furniture resources showing at the October High Point Market found a receptive audience from buyers seeking a solid wood story and a possible alternative to Chinese-made product facing tariffs.
While Amish workshops have extremely limited capacity compared to Chinese wood production facilities, they have become more important in the marketplace. In addition to offering solid wood construction, they also offer custom finishes and custom configurations in bedroom, dining, occasional and office furniture.
Among the Amish resources showing at market were Daniel’s Amish Collection, Country View Woodworking, Borkholder, Simply Amish and Urban Barnwood.
George Arbeiter, national sales manager for Daniel’s Amish, said dealers didn’t necessarily shop the line due to concerns about imports as much as the interest in quality American-made wood product.
“Dealers who are buying from us are more inclined than ever to say ‘I should give this collection a shot vs. imports’,” he said. He added that while the company can handle some increased business relating to the tariff situation, capacity is not unlimited, due to labor shortages.
With some 3.5 acres of production under roof, the company produces a line of bedroom and dining furniture using six different hardwood species including Northern red oak, quarter sawn white oak, maple, cherry, hickory and elm. It also has recently begun using reclaimed wood from barns that can be up to 100 years old.
“The supply is limited, but you can get a lot of table and chair sets out of one barn,” Arbeiter noted.
Urban Barnwood, which produces its bedroom and dining room furniture, has been around for 19 years and has offered reclaimed barn wood for the past five years, noted general manager Marion Yoder. At the October market, it received commitments and some written orders on a number of reclaimed bedroom and dining sets made with solid red and white oak.
“Every single piece has a story behind it,” Yoder said of the barn wood furniture.
The company also offers an express-ship program that remains popular with dealers. Shipping product in about 12 days compared to standard six to eight weeks, Yoder estimated that 90% of the stores in the showroom at market sought to get furniture on their floors through the quick-ship program.
Indeed proximity to the customer base is a major draw for most Amish and other U.S. based wood resources, particularly those with quick-ship programs.
Country View Woodworking expanded its own Express Ship Dining program at market with several new table and chair sets that can ship in two weeks from the time of order. These also are available in as many as 20 finish options, said company executive Roy Miller.
“We got good written business,” Miller said, adding that standard lead times are from six to eight weeks. “People want quality hardwood furniture, but they don’t want to wait. That quick delivery and shipping is really critical.”
Simply Amish added to its own toolbox this market with a custom design app called Style Your Own, which lets consumers design their own furniture online, or at a kiosk in dealers’ stores. This generated as much, if not more interest than new product which included three new bedrooms and three new dining sets, according to Kevin Kauffman, founder and president.
Kauffman added that, while no one said they came into the showroom specifically because of China tariffs, the issue probably didn’t hurt attendance either.
“We did have a decent number of new people who had been in and had never been in before and signed up as new dealers,” he said. “That is rare.”
While the Style Your Own app was a hit, the new product did well, too, with both commitments and some written business, Kauffman noted.
With new product expected to ship in December, Kauffman isn’t making any firm predictions but does believe a 25% tariff on Chinese-made product “potentially would benefit us.”
