BREEZESTA RECYCLED PATIO FURNITURE

As I said last season we are going to work extra hard this season to increase our business in the “recycled plastics” category. When Mia and I went to the casual market we saw & heard from everyone that the “recycled plastics” category was one of the fastest growing areas of our business.  That being said we decided to increase our slots in this area and utilize our outside patio area for this type of product.

For Breezesta we decided to continue again this year the Coastal Gliders.  We sold out of this set very early last year and had many compliments on it so we increased our early buy in the hopes of having another successful year with this collection. We will again show this collection with a two seat double glider for $799 and a single seat glider for $549. In addition we will stock a small matching accent table.  All three pieces will be shown in a multi-color combination of Colonial Blue and Gray.

The second set we will continue with is the Coastal Tete-a-Tete. This unique looking set will include two coastal counter height adirondack chairs joined together by a connecting tete-a-tete table.  All three pieces will retail jointly for $1,199 and will be shown in the multi-color combination of Black & Cedar.  This set also includes a hole in the table for an umbrella.

The first new set this year is the Avanti Skyline dining set.  We are bringing back the 60” rectangular dining table and showing it with new Avanti Captain’s chairs and Skyline backless bench.  This 5 piece set will retail for $2,499 and include the table, two Captain’s chairs and two backless benches.  This set will be shown with the table in Gray and the chairs & benches in two tone Gray and Colonial Blue combination.

Last season we had several customers asking for picnic tables so we decided to stock a few from Breezesta this year.  Our picnic table will be the 6’ size with attached benches and retail for $1,199.  We will show the table in two tone color combination of Black & Weatherwood.

In addition we will continue to carry from last year the Basic Adirondack chair $339 and footrest $99 in colors Cedar, Redwood & Forest Green.  Matching chat tables are also available for $99.  In the Redwood finish only we will show the 60” Skyline Garden bench with arms for $529 and the 60” backless bench for $349.

CASTELLE (FORMALLY PRIDE FAMILY BRANDS)

Last year was our first year stocking patio furniture from Pride Family Brands.  This company consisted of two major brands called Castelle and Summer Winds.  Castelle was their upper end line and Summer Winds was their opening price point company.  Both of our collections came from the Castelle line.  Today Pride Family Brands is trying to re-brand themselves as Castelle only so going forward we will now only refer to them as Castelle.

The first carry over collection from last season is Madrid.  It consisted of a 42” Balcony table and four padded sling swivels shown in Antique Dark Rum finish.  This 5 piece set retails for $4,899.

The second carry over set is Park Place.  This contemporary seating set was a top 5 seller for Castelle but we did not do well with it.  We think our customers are just not ready for ultra-contemporary yet.  We did sell one set (yeah) but still have the floor model left.  It is currently on clearance and will not be re-ordered.

The only new set we brought in this year from Castelle is Villa Bianca.  This is a traditional smaller scale chat set that will be shown with two cushion dining arm chairs, two cushion dining swivel rockers and a 40” round propane fire pit.  These pieces will be shown as a set but can be purchased individually.  These items have a slightly higher price point so I did not price them out as a set.  We don’t want to give customers sticker shock.  The fire pit retails for $2,199, arm chair $1,219 and swivel rocker $1,429.  All pieces will be shown in Antique Black finish with Sunbrella fabric Classic Linen Spice on the cushions.  The fire pit will have a cast aluminum top with Sunburst pattern from the Classic table line.  A matching burner cover lid and Tequila colored fire gems are also included with the fire pit.

CASUAL CUSHION

The Casual Cushion line will stay almost the same as last year. The sales of stock cushions this season were ok but not outstanding.  We focused mainly on just re-ordering the few color combinations that did sell.  We did not add any new fabrics to the 20” barrel pad.  The colors we currently have in stock will stay the same.  In the 44” club chair there were also no color changes.  We did have a slight price increase of $2-$4 on a few assorted fabrics but nothing major.  In the 74” chaise lounge pads the only new color addition is the Sunbrella Canvas Navy.  This replaced the old Navy color that was discontinued.  As fabrics become discontinued we are trying to replace them with either Sunbrella or solution dyed fabric.  It makes no sense to sell such expensive cushions and then only offer the customer the cheapest fabric Casual Cushion makes.  At the prices we are charging customers they are expecting a better quality fabric to be paired with a better quality cushion. This year we decided to take one of every cushion we stock and hanging it on the slat wall where the chaise lounges used to hang.  This will allow us to take down the cushion rack in the solarium and add two more furniture slots to our floor.  The back stock of all of our cushions will be in the mezzanine.  We are hoping hanging the cushions on the wall will be more visually appealing to customer’s to help increase sales.

Again, this year, we took advantage of the Chicago Casual Show special on throw pillows.  Each year Casual Cushion offers a really nice selection of fabrics at reduced prices on a bulk order of well-made throw pillows.  They offer us a 15” square throw pillow that we can retail for $19.⁹⁹.  As a reminder:  Casual Cushion is always a really good source for inexpensive well-made throw pillows.  Some of the prices on throw pillows from our furniture manufactures are expensive and many of our customers balk at the prices we quote them.  If you get a customer who is shopping more on price Casual Cushion pillows are a good substitute and they offer a really nice selection of fabrics to choose from!