Perennials Buys Mill, Creates $20 Million Indoor/outdoor Fabric Brand
December 17, 2009
DALLAS, Texas - Perennials, which has become a recognized brand of indoor/outdoor performance fabrics for the high-end residential and hospitality markets, finally purchased its own jacquard mill in San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 2008.
Perennials headquarters and 33,000-square-foot warehouse reside in Dallas about an hour and a half plane ride away from San Luis Potosi on the NAFTA highway where it ships stock overnight.
Ann Sutherland started the business 12 years ago with her then new husband, David, who also owns David Sutherland Furniture. While the companies are owned separately, with David running the furniture business and Ann running Perennials, David often buys fabric from Perennials to upholster his furniture lines.
The couple launched a teak outdoor line and became an early buyer of Perennials fabric with six Sutherland Furniture Showrooms serving as the distributor of Perennials products. Nowadays, the showroom number has doubled, offering 12 locations to purchase Perennials. While David and Ann collaborate on everything they do, Ann runs the day-to-day Perennials business. The first designs were provided by John Hutton, the lead designer for Donghia Furniture.
Sales of David Sutherland Inc. and Perennials are not disclosed, but there are 175 employees between them. Perennials sales are in the $20 million range according to industry insiders but the privately-held company will not release figures or comment on this estimate.
''We like to keep our heads under the radar a bit, said Ann Sutherland. But we also realize that the outdoor sector is bursting open after many years of neglect.''
''I also feel that many fibers including olefins and polyesters are trying to make a case for the outdoor business; but they do not perform as well as solution-dyed acrylicsnot even close,'' Ann continued. ''Sometimes these other fibers give the outdoor industry a bad name because they don't perform well in the field.''
''When we looked to see what was out there 12 years ago, all we found was ill-suited marine fabricsnot right for upholstery,'' Ann explained. ''Initially, we commissioned our fabric designs with an outside Mexican supplier but we found the packaged, dyed acrylic yarns used did not meet our standards. The color faded too quickly so we began to replace it in the field with better product. I cried every night in those days.''
''Ultimately, we were destined to buy our own mill and develop our own soft, pliable novelty yarns to control the quality,'' Ann said. ''In 1999, our line featured solution-dyed acrylic dobbies in eight colorways but the line quickly grew because I didnt know what I couldnt do.'' Ann bought her first mill in 2008 and today there are 700 skus which run on slow speed looms designed for comfort not speed. ''The business kept growing,'' she said. ''I found that COM drove the business.''
Not much is known about the size of the indoor/outdoor market for textiles as it is still dominated by PVC fabrics. ''Perennials competes with manufacturers of solution-dyed acrylic fabrics who exclusively serve the professional market interior designers and architects,'' explained Tim Shaw, director of marketing for Perennials.
''The broader market includes competitors like Sunbrella, producing solution-dyed acrylics and other blends for both the retail and professional markets,'' said Shaw. ''Solution-dyed acrylic fabric technology for the professional design market is a highly fragmented category.''
Competitors in the segment offering solution-dyed acrylic fabrics with design for and distribution to the professional market include: Giati, Chella, Janus et Cie, Schumacher and Rogers & Goffigon. To a lesser extent, competitors with ''partial'' lines or outdoor fabric brand extensions such as, Donghia and Holly Hunt, constitute a portion of the market.
''Perennials outdoor fabrics exports 30 percent of its production to 40 countries outside of the U.S. including Europe and South America in that order,'' explained Ann. Perennials also just logged its first Maison & Objet Show in Paris this past September. It turned up six new furniture accounts for the line. The potential for Perennials lies in private label lines for wholesalers, editeurs and furniture manufacturers. A growing hospitality business now accounts for 40 percent of the companys sales. Hotels and restaurants use the Perennials line for restaurant banquettes, accent pillows and interior pieces.
''In fact, the boutique hotel trend has been a boon to Perennials business,'' Ann explained. ''Everyone wants to get away from the cookie-cutter hotel formula. We can customize the fabrics to a specific location.''
Most sales are made through showrooms to the designer, but lately, more and more hospitality designers are finding the fabrics useful in high-end projects. So far, an acceptable solution for FR solution-dyed acrylics has not been developed so a topical coating is applied to pass the fire code. This compromises the hand, but Ann hopes in the future to offer inherently FR fabrics in her line which now sells for $39 to $85 a yard to the designer.
Among other interesting designs, including a leopard pattern, Perennials is one of the few mills which features a jacquard velvet for outdoor use. The latest collections also feature roller prints and hand screen prints on solution-dyed acrylic made with Dolan fiber, the only fiber used by Perennials. The fabrics come with a three-year, no-fade warranty and clean with bleach, according to Ann.
Residential collections also include designs by Clodagh and Galbraith & Paul while internal collections are turned out by four in-house designers. ''Consumer expectations for outdoor fabrics is that they will last, but commodity acrylics and other fibers are not performing as well as solution-dyed acrylics,'' Ann explained. ''Outdoor is a growing business for us. Thats all we do and design innovation is our biggest challenge today.''
Perennials headquarters and 33,000-square-foot warehouse reside in Dallas about an hour and a half plane ride away from San Luis Potosi on the NAFTA highway where it ships stock overnight.
Ann Sutherland started the business 12 years ago with her then new husband, David, who also owns David Sutherland Furniture. While the companies are owned separately, with David running the furniture business and Ann running Perennials, David often buys fabric from Perennials to upholster his furniture lines.
The couple launched a teak outdoor line and became an early buyer of Perennials fabric with six Sutherland Furniture Showrooms serving as the distributor of Perennials products. Nowadays, the showroom number has doubled, offering 12 locations to purchase Perennials. While David and Ann collaborate on everything they do, Ann runs the day-to-day Perennials business. The first designs were provided by John Hutton, the lead designer for Donghia Furniture.
Sales of David Sutherland Inc. and Perennials are not disclosed, but there are 175 employees between them. Perennials sales are in the $20 million range according to industry insiders but the privately-held company will not release figures or comment on this estimate.
''We like to keep our heads under the radar a bit, said Ann Sutherland. But we also realize that the outdoor sector is bursting open after many years of neglect.''
''I also feel that many fibers including olefins and polyesters are trying to make a case for the outdoor business; but they do not perform as well as solution-dyed acrylicsnot even close,'' Ann continued. ''Sometimes these other fibers give the outdoor industry a bad name because they don't perform well in the field.''
''When we looked to see what was out there 12 years ago, all we found was ill-suited marine fabricsnot right for upholstery,'' Ann explained. ''Initially, we commissioned our fabric designs with an outside Mexican supplier but we found the packaged, dyed acrylic yarns used did not meet our standards. The color faded too quickly so we began to replace it in the field with better product. I cried every night in those days.''
''Ultimately, we were destined to buy our own mill and develop our own soft, pliable novelty yarns to control the quality,'' Ann said. ''In 1999, our line featured solution-dyed acrylic dobbies in eight colorways but the line quickly grew because I didnt know what I couldnt do.'' Ann bought her first mill in 2008 and today there are 700 skus which run on slow speed looms designed for comfort not speed. ''The business kept growing,'' she said. ''I found that COM drove the business.''
Not much is known about the size of the indoor/outdoor market for textiles as it is still dominated by PVC fabrics. ''Perennials competes with manufacturers of solution-dyed acrylic fabrics who exclusively serve the professional market interior designers and architects,'' explained Tim Shaw, director of marketing for Perennials.
''The broader market includes competitors like Sunbrella, producing solution-dyed acrylics and other blends for both the retail and professional markets,'' said Shaw. ''Solution-dyed acrylic fabric technology for the professional design market is a highly fragmented category.''
Competitors in the segment offering solution-dyed acrylic fabrics with design for and distribution to the professional market include: Giati, Chella, Janus et Cie, Schumacher and Rogers & Goffigon. To a lesser extent, competitors with ''partial'' lines or outdoor fabric brand extensions such as, Donghia and Holly Hunt, constitute a portion of the market.
''Perennials outdoor fabrics exports 30 percent of its production to 40 countries outside of the U.S. including Europe and South America in that order,'' explained Ann. Perennials also just logged its first Maison & Objet Show in Paris this past September. It turned up six new furniture accounts for the line. The potential for Perennials lies in private label lines for wholesalers, editeurs and furniture manufacturers. A growing hospitality business now accounts for 40 percent of the companys sales. Hotels and restaurants use the Perennials line for restaurant banquettes, accent pillows and interior pieces.
''In fact, the boutique hotel trend has been a boon to Perennials business,'' Ann explained. ''Everyone wants to get away from the cookie-cutter hotel formula. We can customize the fabrics to a specific location.''
Most sales are made through showrooms to the designer, but lately, more and more hospitality designers are finding the fabrics useful in high-end projects. So far, an acceptable solution for FR solution-dyed acrylics has not been developed so a topical coating is applied to pass the fire code. This compromises the hand, but Ann hopes in the future to offer inherently FR fabrics in her line which now sells for $39 to $85 a yard to the designer.
Among other interesting designs, including a leopard pattern, Perennials is one of the few mills which features a jacquard velvet for outdoor use. The latest collections also feature roller prints and hand screen prints on solution-dyed acrylic made with Dolan fiber, the only fiber used by Perennials. The fabrics come with a three-year, no-fade warranty and clean with bleach, according to Ann.
Residential collections also include designs by Clodagh and Galbraith & Paul while internal collections are turned out by four in-house designers. ''Consumer expectations for outdoor fabrics is that they will last, but commodity acrylics and other fibers are not performing as well as solution-dyed acrylics,'' Ann explained. ''Outdoor is a growing business for us. Thats all we do and design innovation is our biggest challenge today.''
