By Jessica Goldbogen Harlan
ATLANTA–For furniture and accessory manufacturers, having a showroom or booth at AmericasMart in Atlanta allows them to reach a different audience, particularly for their occasional furniture and decorative accessories.
“We’ve been in Atlanta for a long time, and it’s been a good marketplace for us,” said Glenda Ray, chief operating officer for Moe’s Home Collection, which offers accent furniture and coordinating accessories. The company is about 25 years old, and Ray said that Moe’s has maintained a space in AmericasMart for nearly as long.
Moe’s does particularly well in Atlanta with smaller furniture pieces and decorative accessories.
Meanwhile, A&B Home is a supplier of artificial floral items, as well as home decor and garden accessories. All three of these lines are represented in the company’s Atlanta showroom, which it has occupied since 1989.
“Our headquarters is in Los Angeles,” said Ming Hong, president of A&B Home. “Having a showroom in Atlanta gives us the chance of servicing customers coast to coast.”
Conversely, Eddy West, a manufacturer of 18th and 19th century reproduction furniture, as well as Canadian and French country pieces, chose to exhibit at AmericasMart “because it’s basically in our back yard,” said Julianne Eddy, owner of Eddy West. The company has had a spot at AmericasMart for the past 10 years, moving to a permanent showroom after one year in a temporary booth. Another reason for opting for AmericasMart was the market’s longtime reputation as being a top marketplace in the country.
“The biggest advantage to our business is that there is a great deal of regional traffic throughout the year, and also we get a great deal of designer business all year long,” Eddy said.
The strength of AmericasMart is that “it is still considered the one destination that all retailers need to attend,” Hong said.
The permanent showroom of Luna Bella, a manufacturer of handmade lighting, clocks, furniture and mirrors is only a year old, but the company has exhibited in temporary space since 1999. “Our exhibit was growing, and it was getting too big and too difficult to set up,” said Teresa Costa, designer and co-owner of Luna Bella.
Many exhibitors said their long tenures with AmericasMart are in part due to how well-run the center is.
Ray of Moe’s is impressed with how well AmericasMart markets itself and its trade shows to the retail community. “Reaching out to retailers to get them in is very important,” she said.
