Special Upholstery Feature

"Reach Out and Touch" Philosophy...

It’s Paying Dividends for Massoud

By Brooke Baldwin

Seeking advice from its customers and its customers’ customers is taking marketing to new heights for Massoud Furniture Manufacturing Co. At the same time, production levels have increased based on equipment selected to increase efficiency and ensure the timely delivery of customized, quality sofas and chairs.

Massoud Furniture Manufacturing Co. of Dallas, TX, has more than 800 fabrics and delivers any combination of special order options within an average of 36 calendar days. Stock business is four to five days faster. There is a 21 day quick-ship program on about 15 of its top selling fabric and frame combinations. Fifty to 60 sofas and 50 to 60 chairs a day are produced and then delivered on Massoud’s own trucks.

Yet, it is trend awareness and price competition that Charles Massoud, its president, considers to be the greatest challenges facing upholstered seating manufacturers. And he believes the way to meet those challenges is to keep in touch with your customers; put them on your ‘board of directors’ so to speak.

"To realize what the trends are today, manufacturers must listen to their customers and find out what sells," says Massoud. "Talking to your customers and letting them help you direct your company is the key. If you listen, they will tell you what is happening out there. For example, we have a big special order business here and we have standard colors in place that have been proven to be successful over the years. We also need to see, however, how many new colors and which new colors will sell. We never want a company so big that we personally can’t control it, because we believe that the success of our business has come from the quality of our product and listening to our customers."

Massoud’s son, Chuck Massoud, vice president of the company, echoes the importance his father places on listening skills. "The industry in general is not listening to the end user, and the end user is not the retailer that is selling our goods - it is the consumer. When you look at the automobile industry, it is listening to end users and then putting in the features they are asking for. It is not concerned about the price. That’s something we try to do here by way of listening to feedback from various retailers and various consumer-marketing studies. Consumers are telling our industry that furniture is not exciting. They will pay the price if the true value and look is there."

Tell them what their money’s really buying!

Price competition always has been, and continues to be, another challenge. In addition to listening skills, manufacturers must reach out and educate their customers as to what they are getting for their money, Massoud believes.

"There are always people out there who feel they can build a sofa that retails for $399, so it makes it more difficult to explain why what we have retails for maybe $1,599," says Massoud. "As consumers become more educated, however, they are quick to see and know the differences. We try to educate our floor people through our sales reps so that they in turn can educate our end user.

"Our sales reps explain the nuts and bolts of our product and what differentiates our line from others. Typically that is our fabrics. Buying high quality covers makes it more difficult to make a profit, but to stay in our niche, we must continue doing that. Our reps encourage the retailer not to just take an order, but to try and find out what the consumer’s actual needs are going to be. If someone has four small children, for instance, a cotton print is not going to be as durable as something else. By listening to their needs, they have made someone happy and that person is more likely to come back for their next upholstery piece."

"We never cut corners," joins in Chuck Massoud. "We make our frames out of 5/4" kiln dried poplar and we actually have added wood to our frames in the past three years. If that means we have a few dollars price increase, then that is still what we are going to do."

Reinforcing Frames

"We have added wood to various areas of our frames because we don’t think the wood we’re getting now is of the same quality as that of 15 years ago. It is a thing like that, where we are always trying to keep our same quality or improve our quality, that is obviously why our prices have never gone down. I wish there were secrets to keeping the same quality at lower prices, but I don’t believe it’s possible.

"Unfortunately, price is what drives our industry. Our industry has a tendency not to reinvest in itself and it is price that is the continuous driving force in the way our goods are being marketed. Perceived value is duping the customer. Let’s talk about the real value and what we, at our price point, are giving the customer."

When it comes to technology, Massoud cites the upholstery cutting machine as having made the most difference in his company.

"It is very difficult for us to compete with other industries for the people who have the abilities that it takes to learn how to hand-cut and hand-match fabrics, which is what we have to do in our price category," says Chuck Massoud. "We have the standard Gerber cutter and where it has made the biggest difference is in training. It takes anywhere from a year to a year and a half to train a hand cutter to the point where he can be on a table by himself. With the Gerber cutting machine, a cutter can be trained in about four weeks, which really cuts training costs. We flow match and this machine definitely matches the fabric within the tolerances of the industry. Additionally, if the fabric is out of line or bowed, the cutter follows the stripe or plaid about as well as it can be done."

Another efficiency device is the company’s general scale that weighs fabric. "We are able to get measurements from the mill as to how much a yard of fabric weighs," explains Chuck Massoud. "Weighing keeps our inventory up to date. We check the fabric in and out as it is cut, so that when it comes back, we can update in our computer how much is left by weighing the fabric instead of having to unroll and measure it. This system is highly accurate and we now have our entire fabric inventory inputted and are able to update our inventory on a daily basis."

Massoud’s sewing room has been completely updated with Pfaff sewing machines.The faster speed of these machines has improved production by 10 to 15 percent, according to Chuck Massoud.

Customizing Order Entries

When it comes to program entry, Massoud relies on its own resources. "Our whole computer system is custom made since there is not anything out there for program entry that really fits us," says Chuck Massoud. "We have our own computer programmer and he knows how our system works. On our sofas, for example, we can have an infinite number of combinations of different legs, fabrics, fringes, welts and skirt treatments. Our system is built for our customization."

As for cushions, Massoud is striving for a continuous loop between the plant and the vendor. "We are at the point where we have one vendor for cushions. All padding comes in packaged per style and per order, which enables us to run it down the line where it is ready to go. This saves on time and labor and means less inventory."

Charles Massoud started out in the automobile upholstery business. In the mid sixties however, a demand developed for residential furniture for furnished apartments and he seized the opportunity. Along with Henry "Buck" Rogers, a knowledgeable industry leader who joined him, Massoud soon started to make larger scale frames and larger scale furniture.

"Upgrading our product enabled us to go into the better stores and opened up more avenues of business for us. I would never have been able to survive had we stayed in the promotional end of the business. We would rather be competing in the higher end arena. Also, a lot of good advice has come from our dealers along the way, asking us to make certain styles and certain looks and that has gotten us pretty much to the point where we are today."

Massoud has 85 employees and the owners estimate that 65% of the workers have been with the company at least 10 years. "No matter how good I think I am or how good other people might think I am, I’ve been smart enough to know that I need to have good people around me," Massoud said. "That’s always been the direction that I have taken and that’s what works."

As for Massoud Mfg. delivering its products on its own trucks, Chuck Massoud says, "We don’t have a bunch of trucking companies hauling furniture out of Dallas, so our own trucks are the best way to go, not only for efficiency for our products, but also for the cleanliness of our products as they arrive. The way we cut costs on our own transportation is by back-hauling. We back-haul everything we can that we buy out of the Carolinas, and being in Dallas, that helps us. We’re saving quite a bit of money on back-hauling all of our fabric, the down cushions, all of our springs - everything like that."

Chuck Massoud feels strongly about industry members being positive and supportive of each other. "I believe in our industry working together more. I want our line to be on the floor with the best lines. I want to take my line and offer a retailer something he doesn’t have. I don’t want to replace anyone because then someday I might be replaced. We want to be with loyal people who are the most successful with the best lines. We want every line there to be thriving and we will get our share of the business."

For more information on Gerber cutting machines enter Reader Service No. 547, Pfaff sewing machines enter Reader Service No. 595 on the Reader Service Card found on our web site at www.modernwoodworking.com.

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