2 ways that Jensen Outdoor is using ‘new’ to navigate headwinds

ATLANTA — With the fall Casual Market in the rearview and High Point just around the corner, luxury supplier Jensen Outdoor is focused on finding new customers while leaning into its unique material story as a differentiator in a difficult economy.

As Jensen pursues growth on these fronts, company leaders say it is also keeping close track of what buyers want on their sales floor as it works to position its product in the outdoor segment.

“Like everyone, we want to grow, and we have a lot of new customers that we are bringing on this year, combined with 18 from last year,” company President Eric Parsons told Furniture Today. “So we’re doing the right things, we’re listening to dealers. Based on that feedback, some of our new product is smaller footprint, and we’re getting good floor placements.”

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Parsons added that Jensen is not afraid of being bold in a business environment where many suppliers are playing it safe and expanding bestselling lines rather than introducing new ones.

“There’s definitely a thirst for new products, and we’ve seen really good acceptance and placements on orders overall,” he said. “We’re right on track since we’re now hitting the second market, and when you factor in price increases, then we’re running pretty flat or a little bit up.”

Along with this desire for new products among many of Jensen’s dealers, there is a degree of anxiety about current economic conditions, Parsons explained.

“They’re all afraid of, for the most part, inventory, unless it’s really well known that a product is going to sell because they’ve got a history with it,” he noted.

The trend toward smaller outdoor spaces, which is well understood at the mass and middle-income consumer segments, has also impacted buyers at the higher end, noted Director of Marketing Phillip Crowe.

“We are finding that outdoor spaces that our design buyers are working with are often smaller,” he said. “So the smaller footprint stuff means that, if a designer or a retailer’s customer is optimizing for a balcony in something like a condo, we can pick up those sales.”

Another residential trend that Jensen sees driving sales of products with smaller footprints and versatile applications is that of multiuse outdoor spaces and multilevel terraces, said Bryan Echols, who was named the company’s vice president of sales in August.

“A lot of homes are maximizing the use of their outdoor space, but they’re not necessarily putting it all on one plane,” Echols said. “So you’ve got multilevel terraces, or a little balcony off of the bedroom — not everyone is just working with a big patio. So I think a lot of people have different needs and different uses for their outdoor spaces.”

Materially different

Jensen manufactures much of its furniture out of a wood sourced from Bolivia called ipe, which Parsons believes offers an attractive profile for specialty outdoor retailers.

“Dealers are always looking for something different that they think will sell,” he said. “We’re the only ones that produce ipe furniture, and we’ve been successful at delivering what buyers expect. In addition to deliverability, another differentiator for us is service. Dealers talk amongst themselves and they know what’s going on. They walk by showrooms, they see the level of activity. So in addition to the product itself, our service for buyers has certainly helped our performance a great deal.”

Jensen’s material story has also contributed to its product doing well on retail floors, Echols said.

“As more people are getting into the outdoor category and elevating their spaces, they are looking for something unique,” he said. “Dealers walking these halls are not always seeing unique products, and in many cases they know that a certain commonly seen silhouette or material is not selling. So our performance on sales floors is another thing making a big difference.”

Parsons explained that the company is also working to find new customers by expanding the matrix of materials it uses.

“Ipe is our heritage, but it’s a small slice of the overall pie,” Parsons said. “Over the last three or four years we have been using more materials, including teak. We know how to manufacture wood that can live outdoors. If it can be done in ipe, it can be done in other materials. Soleo, which we just introduced in Atlanta this fall, is a collection that exemplifies this.”

“If we’re going to step into another category where there are a lot of players, we better do it with the right design that makes the buyer go: ‘Wow — I don’t care what your heritage is, because I trust you as a manufacturer and I trust you as a furniture designer.’”

As the company gears up for High Point next month, it will shift its showroom merchandising strategy to attract the interior design buyers that Jensen sees more of at that market.

“High Point is always a tough nut to crack because you’re looking to attract a very overloaded customer,” Crowe said. “You have to wow them, stop them in their tracks. They’ve already seen 50 lines. Now you’re the 51st. How do you get them to stop? So we’re going to lay out our showroom with a different concept. We’re mixing and matching the same things, but we’re going to show Soleo in almost an amphitheater-type setting.”