MONTREAL, Canada —Master Fabrics may be one of the last Canadian wholesalers to penetrate the USA market but in just over one year, it has increased its American business to 25 percent of total sales, according to Erich Imbach, the second generation family owner and president of this $10 million plus jobber/converter.

Master joins a short list of Canadian jobbers operating in the USA today. This list includes the giant  Joanne Fabrics and J.E. Ennis both in Toronto;  Maxwell Fabrics in Vancouver and Renaissance, also based in Montreal like Avantgard. Avantgard focuses in on middle to higher end markets in the USA in the $2--$100 price point to the designer trade. Joanne Prévost, decorative design director; Fitz Graham, sales manager upholstery; Julie Lanthier, converting designer contract & upholstery director; Erich Imbach, president. (not shown: Margaret Dietsch, decorative sales manager for Canada; Ira Klienhaut, decorative sales manager for USA)

“Years ago, we did half of our business in the States and I see no reason why it should not double in the next five years for us.” Erich took over the running of the business seven years ago from his father, Bobby who started the business 40 years ago. Bobby still comes to his office when he’s not in Florida basking in the sun during those cold Canadian winters. He still loves to carouse with the local customers

 “We haven’t stopped investing in our business just because of the recession,” the younger Imbach said. “”We’re now in a growth mode and we’re very optimistic about the future. Eventually, we’ll get out of this recession and we will see good growth. Now, we’re building strong ties with 50 suppliers, with 80 percent of our buying focused on just 10 of those,” he said. “Just 10-15 years ago, we bought half of our products from China and today with Chinese prices up 35 percent,  China represents  less than 15 percent of our purchases.”

“Chinese leather has dominated the furniture business for a long time but this is changing slowly. We also see a greater desire among our customers to buy more products from local suppliers. They want quality and choice. Of course, beige suede out of China is one thing but if you want variety in checks, plains and plaids, you can’t get that from China. We hope that U.S. furniture manufacturing comes back to the USA.”

Avantgard concentrates on direct sales to decorators with its higher end lines as well as sales to manufacturers, hospitality and healthcare markets. Master is the name used for its converted lines  for the hospitality, healthcare, cubicle curtain and drapery markets while Avantgard covers the lines purchased from other suppliers in India, Turkey, China, USA and, Europe

Master has a warehouse and office in Montreal, a showroom in Toronto and 100 agent showrooms around North America. It sells through 40 company and independent agents and has 30 fulltime employees which Imbach says are his key to success. “We attend all the major shows and have a stand at MoOD in Brussels.”

Master was part of the early shift to Chinese goods as it saw its local markets dry up in bedding and manufacturing disappeared in the USA and Canada. “It was a perfect storm scenario. We started to import from China using our original designs to produce chenille in piece dye and yarn dye; jacquards and tapestries. We competed with our domestic manufacturers in the USA but we had better prices from China. We shipped containers from China to Canada every week. We knew the local manufacturers of fabric were having a hard time.

“We originally had a great business in transfer printed flock when we became a converter in 1985 after starting life as a jobber in 1972 with printed floral and flock lines. We serviced the furniture manufacturer. That was a huge export market for us until China happened. Our export business dwindled and we had to rethink the market.”