chipping away at the paint: wallcoverings makers out to reclaim their turf.

NEW YORK--
About 90% of the walls in the United States have been painted, which is a good thing for paint suppliers, but it is a curse in the wallpaper industry.
Industry experts, manufacturers, dealers and retailers cite this statistic and have been active in the wallpaper industry for many years.
However, leading wallpaper suppliers are taking various ways to change the percentage from strengthening-
Develop coordination projects with bedding and bath manufacturers and enter the field of new product House design capabilities.
A buyer of a professional chain store with a large independent Wall cloth project said that the wall cloth industry had recently made mistakes in color and design.
\"These changes did not change when other home textile industries changed,\" the buyer asserted.
\"Now, you can see that this category is starting to make a comeback.
\"Estimated wallpaper industry between $1.
The $5 billion and $2 billion retail business has been plagued by numerous problems, such as consumer concerns that their paper will be suspended, label descriptions are chaotic, and retail goods are not sold well, and the integration of manufacturers and dealers all of this has led to a decline in internal sales in recent years.
Industry officials say it\'s no wonder most of the walls are replaced with paper paste.
Some retailers selling wallpaper even admitted that the industry seemed to fall asleep on the design table for a while, and that the product was far behind other household items in terms of trends.
\"As an industry, we have to make the consumer feel that we are creating a room theme,\" said Ken Grandberg, president of Mass Wallcovering, a manufacturer and distributor of Mass.
\"We have to expand our business to other categories like kitchentextiles, fabric, etc.
However, to do this, we will all lose very little money in the beginning, but as an industry, we have to do this collectively in order to stay ahead.
\"Also, in most cases, wallpaper does not have its own department in mass merchants, specialty stores and department stores, which is the presence of home textiles.
Some retailers see wallpaper as DIY decorative items in some stores and see it as an add-on
Sales of decorative articles such as bedding and toiletries.
According to the National Association of decorative articles, there are 37 independent paint and wall paint stores.
Wallpaper market share of 9%.
The group estimates that the market share of department stores, discount stores and home centres accounts for 33% of the market share.
The rest is distributed in the home store, hardware store, building/Supply Center, interior decoration and flooring store.
Nevertheless, wallpaper has reappeared, according to various suppliers and retailers.
As a matter of fact, there are several suppliers who are
Invent wheels and give categories awell-
In this process, by creating the side walls and boundaries of cooperation with home textile manufacturers, it is worth a facelift.
Some retailers, such as Jim likari, a vice buyer at Sears, have grown in this category.
Sears has an independent wall covering project in the hardware field, with leading suppliers such as Empire, Brewster and Eisenhardt.
Licari has witnessed the revival of wallpaper, thanks to something like Self-
Bonded borders and painted walls.
\"If you look at the wallpaper from a decorative point of view, not from a maintenance point of view, there are still a lot of opportunities for the boundary and the side walls to make a comprehensive decorative statement,\" Licari said . \".
\"Now, from a design point of view, you\'ll see a lot of artificial textures on the wallpaper that used to be just a degraded decoration.
\"Companies are taking various approaches to help drive growth in the industry, such as strengthening
The color and design ability of the house.
Car Vizzi, president of leading manufacturer York Wallpaper & Fabric, New York, Pa.
He believes that the advantages of the company are based on him. For now, Vizzi--
Unlike other wallpaper manufacturers, these manufacturers are coordinating their borders and side walls to produce home textiles-
Focus only on his three departments: the side wall of 70%;
Borders, which accounts for 20%, and fabric, which accounts for the rest.
\"We\'re high-
Because we have unlimited design sources, our Document Design Archive Collection.
We haven\'t even done anything. A low-
The final coverage of products has become a commodity type of mass merchants.
This is not our game . \"
\"We are not in the commodity business.
However, other wallpaper suppliers have chosen to observe bedding by coordinating boundaries and move into new product categories to work more actively with home textile companies.
For example, according to Ron Sood, vice president of Empire sales, Empire wallpaper is the largest wallpaper supplier and has been bordering Croscill for 10 years.
\"I think consumers just want a full look, a fully coordinated way of decorating.
That\'s why this cross
\"Coordination with accessories like borders is very good,\" said Soeder . \".
The Imperial Hotel has also produced a line called \"family harmony\", which includes hats, decorative pillows and furniture.
\"Yes, we have something to gain in other categories, such as home harmony, and I believe that expanding to other categories will be good for the wallpaper industry in the long run,\" said Soeder . \".
Granberg of Brewster walgé agreed.
The company has launched its own collection, called \"the third volume of kitchen and bathroom focus\", which now includes kitchen textiles, chair uppers, furniture, location and napkins.
At FSC wallpaper, which owns Schumacher, Waverley, country and Gramercy brands, developing other products such as kitchen textiles has become the second nature of executives.
\"We have two projects,\" said Mike Landau, president of OfFSC . \".
\"The two are brand Waverly and the other is brand Waverly, Village and Gramercy, called in-house solution, designed for wallpaper
A driven retailer who wants to participate in the coordination plan.
\"This huge project includes other projects such as kitchentextiles, shower curtains, gift hats, and other non-wallcoverings-
Related household goods.
But FSC also has an authorized partner, field crest Cannon, to help the store sell wallpaper.
\"If the items for Crest at field are itstowels and top-of-
Bedding, we might be showing our wallpaper next to it, \"said Lando.
The stores currently displaying the fsc/field crest Cannon licensing partnership are linen, bedding and other supplies.
In terms of distribution, many suppliers have begun to see professional chains such as department stores, national chains and Sears homes as the next possible channel for selling wallpaper.
However, Brewster\'s Granberg sees specialty chains as a retail venue for future wallpaper sales.
\"They are really the future of each category.
For merchandise wallpaper in department stores, you must sell the product as part of arroomin-a-bag concept.
But these are higher.
The End department store will never get this shift from the wallpaper that the bedding will get, \"said Granberg.
\"Some department stores like Sears have some major projects that do a good job and produce a lot of goods.
It doesn\'t have a store like Macy\'s or Bloomingdale yet, but I want to see the wallpaper sold by these department stores in the next five years, \"Bruce Brown, general manager of Brewster ·
However, while acknowledging that the side wall sales growth has been minimal, Sears\'s Licari claims that this is partly due to the growth in border sales, which are smaller --ticket items.
\"When you move from the side wall to the boundary, your price drops to the third.
As a result, the unit may actually increase, but the dollar will not increase.
\"In fact, the mixed problems of the border have plagued well-known company executives such as Brewster\'s Glenberg.
\"What I am worried about is that the wall skin side wall is falling in sales and may be stagnant.
As an industry, we are now halfway across the border.
\"This is really becoming an order business, not a side-wall business,\" comments Glenberg . \".
George Plohr of Sullivan Marketing Group, a Wall Street consultant, believes that the border is the gold son of the industry because it is easy to apply.
\"They are great because consumers can make an entire room with four spools for less than $40.
\"Professional chain buyers support this theory because he admits that the boundaries are far from selling well as the side walls.
Many people like themselves. decorate.
It\'s much easier than it\'s a side wall.