The Furniture Market is larger than most think. United Stationers Supply Co. has conducted
end user market research as well as accumulated a wide array of existing research and
analyst reports. We estimate the retail market size of commercial business furniture in
excess of $30B, significantly larger that what BPIA and BIFMA estimate the market to be.
Of the $30B we believe 75% to be mid-market grade product for both the business and home
office.
Factors that will affect the market in the future and be driving influences:
Ergonomics and its effect on both safety and productivity.
Changing nature of work demanding increased flexibility and modularity.
Increasing use of commercial grade RTA product and desking systems.
Mid-Market furniture has increased in capability and quality and provides an
increasingly attractive value proposition to the end user.
United Stationers Supply Co. has made furniture one of its major growth targets.
Distribution and Logistics:
As furniture becomes an increasingly important product and sales category for United
Stationers Supply Co. there will be a major focus on quality improvement. Hon and United
have conducted many RCI exercises in 1999 and will conduct more in 2000. This exercise is
a weeklong joint process analysis on how both companies manage and handle furniture
quality. We have produced a manual of findings that will continue to evolve and have made
these findings part of our best practices strategy (MADDOG) that will be implemented over
the coming months to continue to improve the quality of how we handle furniture.
Training is also a focus of best practices. The Field Support Center logistics group has
worked with our manufacturers to develop a CD-ROM based furniture handling training
program that we will be using with our warehouse staff that is involved with furniture. We
will be additionally focusing on training company and contracted delivery drivers on the
proper way to handle furniture.
Underway is the development of an enhanced Furniture Set Up and Delivery program as well
as a data base approach to quickly answer what we do, where we do it and how much will it
cost. This system should be available for testing in early Y2000.
Sales:
In order to serve both the office products and furniture resellers better we have started
the development of a group of furniture account managers across the country. These
furniture specialists will be involved with training our existing office products sales
group to better understand the furniture industry and market as well as be available to
call on those people that have made an investment to sell furniture or are in the business
of only selling furniture. This group of sales specialists will be able to help the
furniture community build a better mid-market furniture strategy while having an
understanding of their core business.
Customer Service:
As our furniture business has grown and will continue to grow we will be building special
furniture teams within our call centers. These teams will be trained to have appropriate
product knowledge and to be more capable of helping with any and all issues related to the
furniture business.
Quoting on large orders, helping with bids, etc. will be part of their capability. We have
developed a new product quoting system to aid in this important area of the business.
Other systems enhancements relate to a new Furniture Set Up and Delivery System are being
developed as well as the ability to electronically track these orders. To date we have
standardized on the processes within our call centers for handling this business as well
as how the order is entered in our order entry system and handled by our logistics people.
Look for news on more enhancements in the future.
