Sep 29 2009
Mention hotels and most people think of beds, but a comfortable chair or sofa to relax upon are also important to guests’ satisfaction. Building on their company’s forty years of experience, Kimball Hospitality, a unit of Kimball International, Inc. (NASDAQ: KBALB), expanded its already strongly-positioned brand with the unveiling of its new upholstered seating offerings.
The extensive seating capability was introduced to the market at the Miami Hospitality Design Show, held September 14th-15th. The seating products shown represent the latest trends in hospitality style and provide a sampling of Kimball’s broad capability enabling designers and property owners to customize or personalize their seating needs. Kimball Hospitality, known for bringing distinctive furniture solutions to life, is a leading global supplier specializing in proprietary and custom-designed furnishings for the hotel, casino, and resort industries.
Making the announcement, Stan Sapp, Vice President and General Manager of Kimball Hospitality, stated: “We view this introduction as a natural next step in the evolution of our business...We’ve taken a methodical, logical approach to entering full-scale into the hospitality seating business. Even though we’ve already produced thousands of seating products for major brands, we’ve done our homework before making this major push forward. This is a strategic move.” Sapp added, “We’ve qualified our supply chain, which will include production at our own 16th Street facilities in Jasper, Indiana, and made sure the design talent, engineering skills, processes and people are all in place to fully support the seating business. At a time when other companies are pulling back, thanks to the financial strength of Kimball International we are able to invest in and move forward with this key initiative. Judging by the initial reaction by the industry at the Miami show, which was very positive, we believe we are bound for success with this significant new program.”
Anticipated to help enlarge Kimball’s presence worldwide, the new Kimball Hospitality seating capabilities provide designers and developers with yet one more tool to create uniquely defined spaces. While focused on guest room seating, including ottomans, lounge chairs, sofas, and even sleeper sofas, the Kimball Upholstery line also addresses lobby and public space seating.
Bob Bomholt, Vice President, Sales, Kimball Hospitality, explained: "This program showcases the type of products and logistical support services we are known for around the world. Our supply chain and manufacturing capabilities mean that we are able to respond to our customers’ needs and provide both large quantities of hundreds of like chairs for guest rooms as well as small, custom quantities of twos and threes for lobby areas."
“By introducing these seating products, we are building on our forty year history of producing commercial seating,” says Paul Wahl, Director of Marketing, Kimball Hospitality. “From piano benches to seating for the home, to the healthcare environment, and complex, ergonomic seating for the office workplace, we understand the different physical demands, scales and functions for different market applications.”
Market potential for seating is considered high, since approximately a third of the industry’s overall sales are generated by seating products. The typical replacement cycle for those seating products, chairs, and sofas for guest rooms and lounge areas is generally on a four to seven year rotation, a much shorter span than the seven to twelve years typical of hotel casegoods, otherwise known as beds, side tables and dressers. Industry reports indicate that as of August 2009 there are over 475,000 hotel guest rooms in the development pipeline in the U.S., and each room needs seating.
Kimball Hospitality strategically focuses on providing products via three market sectors: custom, program and catalog. Kimball’s long-standing reputation for quality and its performance record in the hospitality market is well known among designers and developers of hotel, casino, and resort properties worldwide. Products by Kimball have been installed in hundreds of thousands of guest rooms and suites across the globe.
Source: http://www.kimballhospitality.com/