Furniture Today Staff //Staff Editors//March 3, 2025
Top industry executives rate business in 2024’s fourth quarter and what they are expecting in the quarter to come.
Hossein Azimi, CEO, Bellini Modern Living
The last quarter of 2024 saw a significant increase in business, and we attribute that to having the right product, as well as the increased optimism following the election and people feeling that things would stabilize. Canada’s central bank reduced interest rates by 1.75% leading to significant business optimism. January also started strong, but then things took a turn when talk of tariffs began.
The messages out of Washington are confusing, and to help mitigate the effects, we have created a protection program that guarantees pricing on orders placed any time before any tariffs are implemented. We will also share the burden and minimize any impact as much as possible when and if they are assessed.
The important thing to remember is that the lion’s share of our line will not be affected by the proposed Canadian tariffs, as the assessments apply only to the country of origin and other than our domestic custom upholstery, our products are made in Italy.
There will be challenges ahead. Retail sales are expected to remain flat, and the outlook for spring is uncertain, so we are concentrating our efforts on bringing in new designs to help create excitement on retail floors and maintaining our massive inventory available for immediate delivery from Toronto. Additionally, as we head into spring market, we are continuing to build on successful product programs that help our dealers maximize ROI.
