NEWARK, New Jersey — “We want to bring back the idea of having furniture made and upholstered in America,” said Bob Senior, president and a principal of Thibaut a wallcovering and fabric converter. 

This represents a sea change for Thibaut which historically has been dominated by its wallpaper division. Overall, Thibaut reported a 20-percent uptick in business 2011 since the fourth quarter of 2010 and upholstery should account for 15 percent of the Thibaut business.  

Bob and Stacy Senior“The time has come where you’re starting to see how long competing products from China last. People don’t want to waste their money.”

In January, Bob returned from Heimtextil 2012 and Maison & Objet optimistic that this would be another good year. People at the Heimtextil booth commented on the intertwined leather-looks and embossed vinyls.

“People liked that some of our wallpaper is more textural than graphic. They liked the colors that our studio created, the price points and the texture vinyl’s and grass cloths. The key to wallpaper is texture beyond colors.” 

Aside from the fact that he thinks some clients are now beginning to see the downside of buying cheap products from China, Senior estimates that 98-percent of his products are kept in stock, and companies overseas simply cannot compete with the turn-around time on shipping and freight costs. 

In fact, he said, he is seeing Russia and countries in Asia looking towards America again for furniture. 

Currently, three quarters of Thibaut’s business is domestic while the balance is shipped to buyers everywhere from Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. 

His company also began 2012 with a new online ordering system. For the first time in its 126 year history clients can now place orders online rather than through mail or fax. 

Senior retired from RPM International in 2005 and purchased Thibaut in the first quarter of 2006 with his private equity partner, The Riverside Company. Thibaut is now owned by its management and The Riverside Company, which Senior said has been great to him with “understanding when things were tough a few years ago and willing to consider acquisitions and expansionary investments and initiatives.” 

Previously, Thibaut was owned by RPM International, a publicly traded company that owns The Zissner Group and Rust-Oleum, both paint and finish companies. 

As president of the Zissner Group in the early 1990’s, Senior became responsible for managing Thibaut. His daughter, Stacy, had recently graduated from Loyola College with a degree in Business Administration and she was one in a small team to report to Senior for Thibaut’s “overall strategic guidance and financial planning and results,” he said. 

Stacy is now marketing director of Thibaut.

She and her father have already expanded the wallcovering and fabric business starting in 2007 with the acquisition of U.K.-based Anna French. He said companies aren’t focusing on printed fabrics and to address that void, Anna French has committed to one wallpaper collection and one fabric collection annually. 

Thibaut has four wallpaper and four fabric collections each year. On average, he estimates that a yard of fabric from Thibaut retails for $90. 

Stacy said she recognizes that Anna French carries luxury products and that clients may not have the appetite for opulence right now, but she’s confident that “people will pay for something special because they don’t want to feel like they’re being ripped off.” 

“Anna French hasn’t had an overwhelming impact on revenues until recently,” said Bob. “It’s become more popular now because we have more products, a better base for distribution and they have become more harmonious with Thibaut’s existing business worldwide.” 

As a company, Anna French is relatively small. It has a warehouse and an office in London and a staff of six people. Jonathan French, the son of Anna French, founder, moved to the U.S. after the acquisition and now serves as brand manager to develop expansionary programs and manage relationships with the showrooms. Thibaut does not have its own showroom but is in over 70 showrooms across the U.S. 

As part of its market research to gauge how and where to diversify it product offering, the company conducted a study in 2009 in which it surveyed 2,000 people on the most important part of the residence to furnish. The master bedroom was listed as number one and it appears to remain this way today, Stacy said.  F&FI