Charlotte, NC, June 13--Furniture shoppers apparently don't consider Martha Stewart's legal troubles to be a poor reflection on her tastes.
Orders for the Martha Stewart Signature line of bedroom, dining room and living room furniture are going "remarkably well," said G. Alex Bernhardt Sr., chairman and chief executive of Bernhardt Furniture Co., on Wednesday.
The privately held furniture manufacturer in Lenoir, N.C., is producing the line under license from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. Retailers first began selling the products about a month ago.
A week after Stewart's indictment on securities fraud and obstruction of justice charges involving her December 2001 sale of Imclone Systems Inc. stock, the only change in order flow for the furniture line has been positive, Bernhardt told Dow Jones Newswires.
"This is a seasonally weak time in a year which has been weakened by everything from bad weather to an Iraqi war," he said. "Despite that, we are getting great customer-sold orders through our fax machine daily. There seems to be no effect whatsoever from Martha's personal situation."
The line, which includes two collections totaling more than 200 pieces and a third collection to be introduced at retail early next year, "is good furniture that would sell without the Martha Stewart name or the Bernhardt name," said Bernhardt, whose grandfather founded the furniture maker 114 years ago.
When Bernhardt Furniture introduced the line to retailers in October at the industry's semiannual trade show in High Point, NC, it set a Bernhardt record for initial orders based on dollar amount, the CEO said.
Bernhardt Furniture doesn't disclose annual sales, but the trade magazine Furniture/Today ranks it among the top 15 U.S. furniture makers, with about $300 million in annual sales.
"Now that it's at retail, I don't recall any other previous collection where we got so many consumer-sold orders so fast," he said. "It's an immediate and large consumer positive reaction."
Indeed, the publicity surrounding Stewart's legal woes has probably drawn increased attention to the line.
Phil Richmond, vice president of marketing for Breuners Home Furnishings Corp., said the line is doing very well for the Lancaster, PA, furniture retailer. Breuners is selling Martha Stewart's line at 27 of its 47 stores, which operate as Breuners on the West Coast, Huffman Koos in metropolitan New York City, and Goods in the Northeast.
June is a slow month, but sales of Martha Stewart's line are keeping pace with other lines, Richmond said.
"We believe that the collection helps differentiate us from other furniture retailers," he said. "The furniture is great looking. It's really nicely styled, it's really nice quality, and like any of her other lines of products, it's a great value that's recognized by the customer."
