Maitland-Smith imports custom orders

Maitland-Smith imports custom orders
Program includes 500 furniture items, lamps
Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, July 6, 2009

These versions of a Maitland-Smith tripod-base table illustrate how a single piece can take on different looks through options in the company’s One program. The table in back has a mixed veneer parquetry top and is shown in a Hyde Park mahogany finish. The middle one has a mirror inset top and a Regency mahogany finish, and the one in the foreground has a snakeskin stone top and a truffle black finish.

These versions of a Maitland-Smith tripod-base table illustrate how a single piece can take on different looks through options in the company’s One program. The table in back has a mixed veneer parquetry top and is shown in a Hyde Park mahogany finish. The middle one has a mirror inset top and a Regency mahogany finish, and the one in the foreground has a snakeskin stone top and a truffle black finish.
HIGH POINT — A key advantage many domestic wood producers tout over their foreign counterparts is the ability to produce custom orders.

Now one high-end case goods importer is showing retailers and designers that it too can handle serious custom work - from its factories in Asia.

Maitland-Smith launched the custom program called One in October with 323 pieces and has since expanded the program to 500 pieces, including 400 furniture items and 100 lamps. Through One, Maitland-Smith offers about 100 options, including 34 stain and painted finishes and 16hardware finishes.

But company officials say the real distinction from most other custom programs lies in the program's offerings of exotic materials. As Maitland-Smith customers know, the company for years has used such materials, ranging from black and tiger penshell to snakeskin and mactan stone varieties, which can applied on surfaces like table or desk tops.

Choices also include some 14 varieties of hand-tooled leather and upholstered leather inlays such as brindle and zebra hair hides, which can be applied to pieces such as a bar unit or a drum table. With lamps, the choices include 100 bases, 100 shades and multiple finials.

Customers can even get pieces with nameplates bearing their signature or the name of their company.

The company also can use customers' own materials on products like chairs and even lampshades.

Maitland-Smith produces some chairs and beds in its factory in Indonesia. But for the most part, One is handled out of the company's factory in Cebu, Philippines, which specializes in working with exotic materials.

The company has produced custom orders for years, but wanted a more formal approach to the process, said Amy Finley, vice president of product design and marketing.

"We did a lot of research in and outside the industry," she said. "We wanted to go above and beyond what was out there."

The roots of the initiative date from 2005, when Maitland-Smith expanded its inventory of whitewood, or unfinished, products. That allowed it to produce custom goods faster.

"The rest of it has been refining our processes as a team of designers, product engineers and production staff," Finley said. "One by one we go through the items and say, ‘What can we change?'"

The company describes the options in marketing brochures and on its Web site at www.maitland-smith.com.

Online, consumers can see what an item looks like with a different finish, fabric or stone option. Retailers and designers (but not consumers) also can get price quotes on the Web site to determine the upcharge.

Typically, there is a 12- to 14-week lead time on simple custom orders such as those with wood or painted finishes. However, this increases depending on the complexity of the order. For example the lead time on a wood piece getting a stone top or penshell surface will be about 16 to 18 weeks.

Doug Renfro, owner of Knoxville, Tenn.-based retailers Renfro Interiors, said the concept of customization has been around for years in upholstery but there hasn't been as wide a variety of options in case goods.

"The possibilities are endless," he said. He also said he believes Maitland-Smith has improved its lead times by stocking more items. Pieces ordered at the April High Point Market have already arrived, he said.

Chris Godfrey is co-owner of Denver-based Whitney Evans Ltd, a showroom that primarily does business with interior designers. He said the Maitland-Smith Web site in particular helps designers work with their clients.

"If you want to customize a piece, you can actually do the design instantaneously," he said. "Designers are pretty good at visualizing this type thing and it helps them show their clients what it will look like."

Dan Bradley, president of Furniture Brands International's Designer Brands division, which includes Maitland-Smith, said he is pleased with the effort.

"They are really offering a product that is probably one of the most innovative products that I have seen in the industry in several years," he said. "This is personalization at its finest.... They literally are producing one of a kind, custom furniture."

On that note, Maitland-Smith's Finley said some visitors to the company's High Point showroom didn't recognize pieces that they had seen before, but were customized. She said more SKUs will be added as the company expands the One program.

"We are really setting ourselves apart in the industry by doing this," she said. "It will drive the bar up and raise the standard of what other people do."