Fall 2007

Table Linens: Your Profits, Covered! By Randall Mielke

Making a Statement

Retailer Michele Trzuskowski will tell you: Table linens in her store are selling—and selling well. Trzuskowski is owner of the upscale T is for Table in Palm Beach Gardens, FL—one of the many stores seeing strong sales in table linens.

Even better, anecdotal data suggest that luxury is in. Vendors like Patricia Spratt are seeing consumers increasingly making lifestyle statements through the high-end products they buy. Spratt is owner and president of Patricia Spratt for the Home, a wholesaler of luxury table linens headquartered in Old Lyme, CT. She says her company’s linens are products that make a statement. “People are not just buying a tablecloth or a table runner, they are buying an attitude. They want something that will make an impact on the table; something to make a statement,” Spratt says.

Lucha Bott, a sales representative for Victoria Winslow & Co., a decorative accessory and gift company in Northern California that represents luxury table linen wholesaler Le Jacquard Francais, also sees a demand for higher-end items. “People are investing a little money in good quality cloth,” she says.

The numbers

Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, defines table linens as towels, tablecloths, napkins and place mats. Vendors and retailers tend to include table runners and other assorted items such as napkin rings in their table linens category.

In “The U.S. Market for Household Linens,” a 2005 report by Packaged Facts, sales of table linens were shown to have been increasing at a small but steady clip. Packaged Facts set the market for table linens in 2004 (the latest year for which numbers were available) at $348.6 million—up $13.1 million (3.9 percent) from 2003. As a comparison, sales of bathroom linens remained steady from 2003 to 2004 (at about $1.68 billion), while bedroom linen sales rose from $5.76 billion in 2003 to $5.95 billion in 2004. Packaged Facts estimates that the household linen market in the United States will grow to $8.4 billion by 2008. Of that $8.4 billion, $390 million will be in table linens.

Why the growth?

Andrea Brown, design department manager for table linens wholesaler Now Designs, in Vancouver, BC, says the growth in table linens (as in most upscale home products) might be attributed to the “cocooning trend.” This refers to an emphasis on creating a protective and nurturing environment in the home, a trend that has been observed since the events of Sept. 11, 2001. “[The cocooning trend] is all about creating a beautiful environment full of things you cherish,” Brown says. Investing in high-end products helps preen the home “cocoon.”

The Packaged Facts report states that people are spending money and effort to make their surroundings comfortable and relaxing havens where they can spend time with their families. “These trends are having a positive impact on the household linens market,” the report adds.

Trzuskowski, of T Is For Table, offers an alternative explanation for the rise in sales of table linens. She says sales in the category were on the rise even before 9/11, because consumers’ larger homes were able to accommodate more and better things. “With my customers, a huge percentage of them have multiple homes, eat dinner out and travel a lot,” she says.

According to Vicky Grant, consumers’ increasing love for entertaining at home moves sales. Grant is creative director for Manual Woodworkers & Weavers Inc., headquartered in Hendersonville, NC, which wholesales a variety of table linens. “We see . . . people’s love of entertaining, the joy they find in cooking and sharing and their love of a beautifully set table,” Grant says.

Bott, the rep for Le Jacquard, says: “Our clientele are people who are really proud of their homes and love to entertain in the home, and have a highly developed sensitivity to the impression they give.”

Super-sized tables

Jackie Hirschhaut sees market changes coming as a result of the changing size of tables. “Dining tables are changing dramatically. Now they are more oversized and square. The reason is to have two guests on each side of the table. It enhances dinner conversations,” says Hirschhaut, vice president of public relations and marketing for American Home Furnishings Alliance, a High Point, NC-based trade association representing more than 200 of the furniture industry’s leading manufacturers.

Hirschhaut suggests that tablecloth sizes, too, will eventually change. She predicts that linens less tied to table size, such as place mats and table runners, will be big in the near future.

Some companies are already noticing the trend. “We’ve seen a lessened interest in full-coverage tablecloths, but more excitement over table runners and place mats,” says Brown, of Now Designs.

Spratt says runner widths are changing from the traditional 12 inches to 17 inches. “The wide width is a new fashion statement, catering to the high-end customers,” she says. “Many clients have big tables and they want them to look opulent.”

Place mats in materials other than linens are also competing in the marketplace. SORAYA Jones, a wholesaler out of Washington, for example, offers heavy-gauge laminate, reversible place mats. Modern-Twist, based in Oakland, CA, wholesales silicone place mats featuring minimalist contemporary designs.

Out of the dining room

People are becoming more creative in using their place mats and table runners, and that also drives sales. “Runners also have gone into the living room and the entry foyer,” Spratt says. “They are considered more like decorating accessories. That is the part of the line that we have increased production on the most.”

Michael Gingrich is co-owner and designer of Melrose International, in Quincy, IL. Melrose is a home-decorating company that two years ago started offering tablecloths and runners to the upper-end market to accent its other products, such as vases and candle holders. “People are using table linens on corner tables, coffee tables and end tables,” Gingrich says. “You can put an inexpensive linen, like a square tablecloth or a runner, on an end table, and then you can put a gorgeous one on top of that. In that way there is not a lot of money tied up in it, but it gives you a change.”

Grant says her company’s products, which include tapestry woven place mats and runners, are also being used in multiple places in the home. “The tapestry runners are very versatile and aren’t just used for the dining-room table,” Grant says. “For example, runners can be placed on sofa tables, dressers, buffets and side tables.”

Many possibilities

Retailers such as Marie Myers of Name Droppers, in McLean, VA, have noticed that their customers enjoy mixing and matching table linen items. “The SORAYAJones items sell extremely well in my store because of the pretty colors,” she says, referring to the line of place mats with floral designs, fruit patterns and vegetable patterns. “Personally, I would buy place mats to match, but people buy six different ones that are reversible.” Name Droppers offers personalized gifts, stationery, frames and place mats, among other items.

Soraya Chemaly, president and designer for SORAYAJones, says customers love having flexibility in their buying choices. They also appreciate being able to create many combinations using the items they buy.

Grant sees mixing and matching as part of Manual’s allure. “Manual offers 72-inch and 36-inch tapestry table runners, as well as tapestry place mats,” she says. “Many of our collections include coordinating ceramics, like candlesticks and dinnerware, which adds to the appeal of the tapestry wovens.”

Industry professionals across the board agree that table linens continue to enjoy strong sales.

“With table linens, people can transform a home for a season or for a night,” Patricia Spratt says.

Randall Mielke

Mielke is a freelancer who writes about retail, business and economic development for a variety of publications.