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Furniture Basics brings back popular P.J. designs

By Jane Kitchen -- Kids Today, 11/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Rancho Dominguez, Calif. —

Furniture Basics Inc., a new partnership between Dean LaPlante and manufacturer Xinhau Yin, is bringing back several of the P.J. Kids designs under the Furniture Basics name.

Xinhau Yin previously manufactured furniture for P.J. Kids, and LaPlante is a 30-year-veteran of Asian sourcing and manufacturing, with the past 20 years spent in China. Keith Covey, formerly national sales manager for P.J. Kids, is vice president of sales.

The youth collections include Better Basics, Simply Sweet, Design Classics and the whole nursery collection.

"We didn't want to reinvent the wheel," said Covey. "The sales were already there."

Covey said the company went with only the top-selling items in each collection, keeping beds and key case pieces, but streamlining production to leave out some of the accessory pieces. Additionally, pieces will wholesale for $15 to $50 less than they did under the P.J. name, and customers can mix containers with no minimum, Covey said.

The goods are being manufactured in a 793,000-square-foot plant northwest of Shanghai, China.

Furniture Basics has a West Coast warehouse and is looking for an East Coast facility in the High Point area, where Covey is based. The lines will begin shipping from the West Coast warehouse in December, said Covey.

The company made its debut at the High Point furniture market in October in the former P.J. Kids showroom in the International Home Furnishings Center. Plans are under way to launch another three to four youth collections in April.

Furniture Basics will concentrate on furniture only, however, and has no plans to bring back any of P.J.'s accessories or textiles.

"You're not going to see the frilly bedding and all that, but we're going to get you the meat and potatoes of the line," Covey said.

Xinhau Yin, left, and Dean LaPlante have partnered to form Furniture Basics Inc.

Acknowledgements
Furniture Today case goods editor Powell Slaughter contributed to this report.

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