Boutique Design New York (BDNY) 2023

The Stump team traveled to New York for the annual BDNY Hospitality Show held at the Javits Center. What’s not to like about NYC in the fall? The air was crisp, streets were full, and holiday decorations were going up all around. The exhibition halls at Javits were crowded and the organizers of the show listened to last year’s griping about the long queues and lines, and vastly improved the check in process and badge retrieval system. Thank you!

Hospitality furnishings is a rare bright spot among the furniture industry’s various sectors. Hoteliers are refurbishing to maintain their flag standards, and new construction continues with particularly strong business in 2nd and 3rd tier cities that need hotels to support growing (and returning) business travel. Las Vegas continues to be an outsized presence in the hospitality space. One CEO opined, “I can run my business in Vegas for the next 5 years and be just fine.”

Asian imports of casegoods are stronger than ever with ocean freight costs back and even below pre-COVID levels. Plus, Asian factories are eager for business, largely due to the drop in residential furniture demand. Upholstery for guest rooms remains largely a US-business, and our remaining domestic companies are surging. Call us if you need upholstery capacity. We also met several US and Mexican upholstery companies at this market who have compelling production offerings. 

Key Takeaways

Interwoven Show

We left New York and immediately went to High Point for the fabric fair, formerly known as Showtime, now called Interwoven. It’s a good time to see manufacturers and suppliers select new products for the coming season, seeking the newest fashions and colors. Outdoor performance fabrics are a tremendous opportunity for many of the suppliers seeking to capture market share in this fast-growing segment. Controversial forever chemicals, or PFAS (pronounced “pee-fahs”), has emerged as a hot topic with the EPA and various states focusing in on textiles to reduce or eliminate these chemicals from fabrics.

M&A Update

We are busy in the hospitality space with several transactions that should close in the next 100 days. 

E-commerce remains a hot topic and we were pleased to represent GigaCloud Technologies in their acquisition of Noble House. Many folks have never heard of either company, but this new combination places the combined entity into the Billion-dollar (revenue) club. So, keep your eyes on this one. 

Several other transactions are set to close in Q4 or very early Q1 '24, so we will be announcing those along the way. 

In general, the US economy rolls along despite higher interest rates, slow housing starts and sales, and workers still staying (partly) away from the office. These issues plus the US political climate and global geo-political tensions make for a challenging business environment, and what we suspect will be a bumpy 2024. 

Call us to discuss these matters and your thoughts on mergers and acquisitions.