Anichini Broadens its Reach

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 8/17/2009 12:00:00 AM

Tunbridge, Vt. —

High-end home textiles designer/supplier Anichini has changed its focus, moving more toward the interior designer community as well as boutique hotels in the hospitality segment, while retaining its position with high-end specialty retailers.

Two months ago, the company closed its 230 Fifth Avenue showroom after 20 years, and earlier this year it closed its leased department at ABC Carpet & Home after 15 years, said Susan Dollenmaier, co-founder and ceo of the luxury home textiles company.

Instead, the company is expanding its to-the-trade showroom at the D&D Building at 979 Third Avenue, where it will host specialty retailers during this week's International Gift Fair in New York. “We will open a showroom to the interior designer trade at DCOTA in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., by the end of the year. I see lots of activity in that sector,” she commented.

The company also is looking at designer showroom sites in Texas, including Houston, which will open in the first quarter of next year.

The firm's Los Angeles showroom/store “is very slow but eking it out.”

The D&D Building showroom will have twice the space it originally had to accommodate both the interior design trade and specialty retailers. “The wholesale business as we knew it has disappeared. That business hasn't fallen apart, but the buyers are reluctant to come to New York. We started looking around to designers and are getting a lot of exposure to them as well as to TV and movie people.”

While the company has long been involved in the hospitality business, it now has a renewed focus on boutique hotels under the aegis of Dollenmaier's sister, Marti, the company's president and co-founder.

For all products, Susan Dollenmaier emphasized, “We are refocusing on our signature hand-made and hand-crafted products — bedding, table linens. window coverings and decorative pillows. “We made a definitive decision not to make a diffusion line as so many others are doing. And despite the economy, we are still doing business and growing.”

As part of this strategy, Anichini will continue to focus on its original vision, “and not reinvent ourselves.” In sum, this means a continued emphasis on quality as opposed to “conspicuous consumption, which means 'bling,'” she explained.