The furnishings trade works beautifully for large manufacturers and poorly for everyone else. The barrier has never been quality. It's access — the cost of a showroom, the length of a lease, the distance to a buyer.
We have spent twenty-three years building the way around it.
The British Home, 2003 — a consortium of fifty British SME producers reaching US retailers and designers through a shared logistics, showroom, exhibition and distribution program. None of them could have afforded the market alone.
Las Vegas Market, 2005 — a challenger to a market calendar one city had held for a century, with a segmentation scheme that gave smaller exhibitors their own B2B communities in design, sustainable products, textiles and outdoor furnishings rather than losing them in a hall. Also the home of Living Green, the market's sustainable furnishings program.
Expo City - South Korea, 2014 — an experiential platform fusing physical showrooms with technology to give Western lifestyle brands a combined marketing and supply chain route into Asia, developed with Gensler, Gale International, Korean Airlines and Hyunjin Shipping across New York and Incheon.
Mill Collective, 2017 — a curated biannual showcase of seventy-five independent American studios across furniture, lighting, textiles, rugs and ceramics, exhibiting every season at High Point Market and later Round Top, with Meet the Maker programming and curatorial partnerships including the Black Artists + Designers Guild.
Plant Seven, 2018 — a 100,000 square foot innovation and cultural center in the 100-year-old Adams-Millis Hosiery Mill in High Point. Shared workspace, a Material ConneXion library, a design store curated by Dezeen, exhibition galleries and photo studios, initial funding of $3 million from State of North Carolina grant matched by private donors. Built so that makers who could never lease a showroom could still reach the trade.
Each one removed a different barrier: the cost of entry, then the geography, then the technology, then the curation, then access to space and equipment itself.
What we do
Five services across the furnishings trade. Each one maps to a side of the business we have actually worked from — none of them is a category we're learning on your project.
Most engagements combine two or three.
Trade agency and cluster programs
For governments, trade promotion agencies, and industry associations promoting a national or regional furnishings industry abroad.
Most programs are designed around what the agency can offer rather than what a buyer needs in order to place an order. We close that gap: sharper market selection, propositions built for the buyer's decision, and pavilions, missions and platforms judged on trade rather than attendance.
Typically includes: market and channel prioritization · buyer-side proposition development · pavilion, showroom and mission design · exhibitor selection and preparation · counterpart platform and association linkage · program assessment and redesign · results measurement that tracks orders
Usual timeline: 12–20 weeks, with multi-season program work common
Market entry for manufacturers and brands
For furnishings companies entering a market for the first time — or the third time, into a market that didn't cooperate.
Entry succeeds or fails on a small number of decisions made in the right order: whether demand is real at your price, which channel fits your margin, whether you need a distributor or your own showroom, and which platform actually reaches your buyer.
Typically includes: market and demand assessment · channel and pricing analysis · entry mode selection (distributor, agent, showroom, subsidiary) · regulatory and compliance pathway · partner identification and screening · platform and trade show strategy · costed entry plan
Usual timeline: 8–12 weeks
Trade platform development and repositioning
For anyone building, buying, or fixing a place where the furnishings trade happens — a market center, a showroom district, an exhibition.
The question is never whether it can be built. It's whether occupants will come, at what price, on what terms, and whether the economics survive the first renewal cycle. We answer that before the capital commits.
Typically includes: demand testing with prospective occupants · competitive and comparable platform analysis · concept and format definition · occupancy and pricing model · operating plan · repositioning strategy for underperforming assets
Usual timeline: 8–16 weeks
International participant recruitment
The work that decides whether a platform is genuinely international or only says it is.
Recruiting an overseas manufacturer is not leasing to a domestic one. Different economics, different risk tolerance, usually a different language and a much longer relationship. We know what that pitch has to contain, because we have made it.
Typically includes: target market and category prioritization · prospect identification and qualification · value proposition built for international decision-makers · direct outreach and relationship development · delegation and trade mission design · in-market representation
Usual timeline: 4–12 months; ongoing engagements common
Capital and deal structuring
For projects that need institutional money, public participation, or both — and need the case to survive real underwriting.
Having worked the capital side, we know which questions kill a project in the first meeting. We build the underlying logic first, then shape the materials to the specific institution's criteria.
Typically includes: funding and partner landscape mapping · financial modeling and underwriting logic · public-private structure design · incentive and concessional funding integration · sponsor and investor materials · due diligence support
Usual timeline: 6–12 weeks