HIGH POINT — Less than a year into his tenure as president of Streamline Art, Mark Wiltshire is busy making changes.
The Toronto-based company, which specializes in wall décor, will be moving into a larger showroom in time for the fall High Point Market. Its new space on the 5th floor of the International Home Furnishings Center Commerce Wing will expand it from 5,000 square feet to 7,000. In addition, said Wiltshire, its proximity to other key vendors should increase traffic for Streamline.
Streamline also opened a 7,000-square-foot showroom in Atlanta this year. “We recognized that the décor customer may not come to High Point or Las Vegas, but they do attend Atlanta,” he said.
Streamline’s private equity firm ownership, Lynx Equity in Toronto, challenged Wilshire, who has 35-plus years of experience that includes positions with Stickley, Palliser, Natuzzi and La-Z-Boy, to expand the company’s reach beyond its traditional channels. “We do lots of business with the Top 100 and mom-and-pops love us,” he said.
One way in which the company has broadened its appeal is by offering more than 300 introductions this market. The Streamline team identified nine trends, many of them color centric, around which its introductions are based.
Within those categories, Wiltshire said they have other themes such as coastal, animal, floral and holiday. Based on feedback from customers, Wiltshire said they tweaked their holiday offerings to be “less Canadian,” which resulted in a move away from traditional red and green and into more muted tones. The No. 1 holiday seller is Cold Christmas Truck that has no red or green in it.
Additionally, they’ve expanded their print-on-demand business to include five styles of floating frames and have branched out into a juvenile/youth line, which now features gaming-related art for teens.
While acknowledging that the furnishings business may be slow now, retailers — and consumers — are interested in livening up their assortment, said Wiltshire. “And a $100 piece of art is a more doable purchase than a $4,000 dining room set.”