Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: The Quilt Market Conundrum
It has been a little while since I last discussed the ever exciting Quilt Market predicament. I continue to get lots of calls and emails on this subject which is a good thing because it is still on everyone’s mind. I hate to say it, but I don’t think this discussion is going away until there is some major change and unfortunately I don’t see that coming anytime soon. The fact that I did not get one response from anyone at Quilt’s Inc. this entire time while blogging and speaking publicly about the problems with quilt market just shows that these people could care less about public opinion. They just think this will fade away, but I personally think the attendance by vendors and quilt shop owners is going to start to drop precipitously and Quilt’s Inc. will be forced to take action or fold.
This is the first year that I am starting to hear from people that they are not going to attend the May market. I am talking about people that have had big booths at market in the past and are big players in this industry. Also, those who typically have big footprints at market are reducing those footprints dramatically to reflect the real decrease in sales and attendance. For those who have attended quilt market in the past, are you going this year in May or October or both?
People are still feeling that the Quilt Market isn’t worth the time and the money to attend anymore. In other words, the risk reward just isn’t there. These are the questions that I am most frequently asked: Are we attending market? Or are we boycotting?
So what are the Jaftex Companies (Studioe Fabrics, The Blank Quilting Corp., Henry Glass Fabrics, A.E. Nathan & Fabric Editions) going to do? As of right now, we are attending market. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil and one of the most valuable things about market is that we get to meet with our International distributors who we only get to see 2 times a year at each market…if they attend. The problem this time around is that the dollar strength is hurting all of our foreign partners so badly that they too don’t feel a need to attend market. Another reason for us not to attend.
However, this year we are doing quilt market differently than we ever did it before. This year, we will not be participating in sample spree. We will have fewer booths for all of our companies. We will have fewer of our team members attending market and we will actively be bringing people in and out so as not to overspend on travel and hotel. We are simplifying our booths so as to reduce that cost. We will however be participating in schoolhouses. That just about sums it up. As for the future after that, we will just have to see what this quilt market brings, but if we have to, we will continue to downsize with the possibility of simply no longer attending. We just aren’t there yet. Stay tuned.
Please share with me what you have planned and what you have heard. We need to keep the pressure on.
Thanks
Salt Lake City Scott