Saturday, May 29, 2004
At 77, a familiar furniture maker aims for a young, urban fashion image.
MONROE, Mich. (AP) -- For many people, the name La-Z-Boy says it all: comfy but clunky easy chairs designed for lazing about, not for making a fashion statement.
The 77-year-old furniture maker is trying to free itself from that image. Without giving up on the overstuffed recliners that made it famous, La-Z-Boy Inc. has unveiled a furniture line by designer Todd Oldham that is all about clean lines, funky patterns and a young, urban aesthetic.
"We own comfort in the consumers' minds when it comes to home furnishings," said Jennifer Sievertsen, La-Z-Boy's director of brand and retail marketing. Now the company wants people to know that "we absolutely have that very comfortable recliner ... [but] we also have a fairly wide variety of very stylish, trendy products."
The line is being carried by the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores in Boardman and Niles.
The new line represents an attempt by La-Z-Boy, the nation's second-largest residential furniture manufacturer, to boost sales. Like the rest of the furniture industry, it has suffered from a post-Sept. 11 decline in sales to hotels and also from competition from cheap Chinese imports. Fiscal 2004 sales, released Tuesday, fell more than 5 percent to $2 billion.
New focus on style
La-Z-Boy, which branched out beyond recliners in the 1980s, has tried to bring its furniture more up to date in recent years, and in 2000, launched a new marketing campaign focused on style.
The new line, Todd Oldham by La-Z-Boy, is "taking it to the next level," Sievertsen said.
Laura Champine, an analyst at Morgan Keegan & amp; Co. Inc., said the Oldham line is key to La-Z-Boy's efforts to expand its customer base beyond aging baby boomers.
"The real challenge for La-Z-Boy is to get the target customer for that line into their stores in the first place," she said. "The company's really fighting its own brand image, which is as this customer's father's store."
But Champine said the collection would have a hard time competing on price with companies such as Ikea, which she said fell more within a twentysomething's budget. A sofa in the new La-Z-boy line goes for up to $1,000.
La-Z-Boy began selling Oldham's creations in March and April, and more styles are scheduled to arrive in August.
Surprising choice
Oldham, who previously designed clothes for the likes of Julia Roberts and created home accessories for Target Corp., acknowledged that he might seem like an odd match for La-Z-Boy.
"Isn't it nice? We surprised you," Oldham said with a chuckle from his New York studio. "The thought of doing La-Z-Boy was really funny, and then the more we talked about it, the more blessed I figured I was."
Oldham said he has been given creative freedom to apply his designs to La-Z-Boy's engineering and time-tested expertise on comfort and quality. "That furniture lasts forever -- sometimes longer than you wish," he deadpanned.
Oldham's style is considered midcentury modern, and many of the designs have a retro feel.
Examples
Among the most distinctive pieces: a rectangular sofa with a removable back and arms, allowing it to be transformed into different forms, such as a fainting sofa or chaise; a sleek, arching chair that doesn't resemble a recliner until you lean back and the footrest appears; and an ottoman that doubles as a storage box for toys or CDs. The line also includes right-angled wood and metal coffee tables and entertainment cabinets, as well as rugs and accessories.
There are 154 fabrics -- both conservative solids and stripes and wacky patterns such as polka dots and cocktail umbrellas -- to mix and match with the furniture.
At a La-Z-Boy store in Toledo, Ohio, Oldham's furniture occupied a small display near the center of the vast room. Store manager Matt Simpson said the line has already been a big hit, bringing in a younger customer than the retailer normally sees.
Feeling comfy but not necessarily looking it is the whole idea, Oldham said. La-Z-Boy's older styles are "more sinewy and puffy and visually comfort-oriented," he said. "Ours are handsome and physically comfort-oriented, but you might not think, 'Wow, that looks like the most comfortable thing in the world.'"
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