Croscill Reloads, Readies for Market

New York—Croscill heads into the New York Home Textiles Market later this week with a new thrust in top-of-bed, a new in-house product line and a new design influence in its branded bedding collection.

"We're continuing to broaden what you think of as Croscill," said David Kahn, Croscill president and CEO.

Croscill is evolving its business model, too. The company has engaged in producing co-branded lines with key retail accounts and is leveraging its product development capabilities to create exclusive brands that do not carry the Croscill name, he said.

"As long as the taste level is right, co-branding is something we've been very comfortable with," he said, pointing to Croscill's experience with Cheri Blum and, more recently, Jonathan Adler. "If it's the right match, it can halo us and it can halo them."

Operationally, Croscill over the past three years has moved 90 percent of its bedding production offshore and has been building out staff at the Shanghai office it opened last year.

Kahn pointed to delivery changes in the apparel world over the past decade as emblematic of the future for home textiles suppliers.

“Ten years ago, retailers started telling apparel suppliers they wanted the goods to arrive already on the hangers. We (home) suppliers are all going to that level on some products,” he said. “Various retailers want us to ship them in new and different ways.”

The retail trend toward shorter-run fashion cycles and more in-and-out captive brands is forcing additional adjustments in product development, he said. But Kahn said it remains to be seen whether every retailer talking up the strategy will manage to pull it off.

“Every strategy is essentially a prisoner of its execution. The person who's doing something just because the other guy's doing it is going to get killed,” he said, adding that a series of failed in-and-out programs could flood the market with bad product.

While industry price points have steadily eroded over the past few years, Croscill's better price-point comforter sets are still holding up, Kahn said.

Although last year the company began creating more goods for the moderate range of its price grid, “We didn't abandon the $349 price point. I expected it to be a niche, but that's not what's happening. We have a lot of success at the $349 to $389 price points. We're continuing to design into it.”

For the New York Home Textiles Market, Croscill is layering in a new top-of-bed direction: coverlets. The motifs follow the company's traditional, aspirational design in a paneled jacquard construction. Priced at $99, the coverlets will be offered in coordination with freestanding sheets and bed skirts.

Croscill aims to fill both a real estate niche and a design niche with the program.

At store level, Kahn sees an opportunity to fill space that has fallen open in the post-peak era for fashion quilts. In terms of design, Croscill's coverlets target the void between country/quilt looks and somber, high-end luxury presentations. In some cases, Croscill is tapping its new comforter or duvet designs for coverlets.

The trick, again, will be in execution at the retail level.

“The challenge is that it has to be shown on a bed with the shams, sheets, bedskirt, dec pillows and window,” Kahn said.

Elsewhere in new introductions, Kahn described Croscill's new “bridge” line as the most important design thrust among the new fashion bedding offerings.

In another new introduction for the market, Croscill is bringing its window hardware business in-house to boost the category. The company will launch with 25 designs in a range of styles that includes art deco, contemporary/metropolitan, opulent/traditional and global looks.

Price points will range from $29 to $39 for 28-inch to 48-inch rods, according to Jack Mahon, vice president, window. Croscill will also offer rods in 48-inch to 86-inch and 86-inch to 120-inch sizes.

“We want to show design leadership in this category,” Mahon said. “We're focused on better finishes, covering with some different materials and putting a different twist on the looks.”

In bath accessories, Croscill offers a wide variety of new designs. Among this market's new designs: a luxurious marble look that is actually a decal wrapped around porcelain; a glazed metallic bronze look; and black and white photographic images on metal accessories.