The Sale Niche

The Sale Niche is the place to shop for that special customer who wants a unique Patina piece with the added advantage of immediate availability.

In addition, you’ll notice that not only are the pieces special, so are the prices. These pieces are available at these prices for a limited time and will be sold or removed from sale after 30 days.

This month we are featuring a coffee table and a double chest of drawers:

Cappuccino Coffee Table (T13/CF/ST/RN/CM/6):
Firenze Double Bamboo Chest (C70/DB/ST/DW/BB07/TP/48):

For pricing and other information about these very special pieces, visit the Patina web site at https://www.patinainc.com/sales.php (free registration required)

Pictures of our new warehouse and offices:

A Look Back... A Look Ahead...

2006 marks Patina’s 20th anniversary, an extraordinary milestone for any company but even more so for one that started with a single person’s passion for a particular design and has grown up to be a leader in its industry.

With the New Year upon us, we thought we’d break from our usual format and take a moment to look back at last year.

As years go, 2005 was an eventful one for Patina, Inc. and there was a lot going on that many of you may not be aware of. In this issue, we’ll look behind the scenes at some of the people that make Patina the company it is and talk about some of the changes that 2005 brought with it.

A look at...

Marylu Stevens — President, CEO and Now Owner

Marylu Stevens has been with Patina for 18 of the 20 years the company has been in business. She helped grow the company in the early days from a collection that consisted of just a few well-designed pieces to multiple collections of the very finest quality, hand painted, Italian furniture available today.

In 2000, she became President and CEO and began a 5-year process of buying the company from founders Ann and Waverly Graham who wanted to spend less time running the company and more time with their grandchildren.

The purchase was completed in June of 2005 and now Marylu is going about the business of changing the focus of Patina without changing the high quality of its product and its renowned customer service.

“We have a well recognized name, a great reputation and a wonderful product,” says Marylu, “we’re just taking it to another level. Basically it’s a new company within the same old company.”

Patina recently added new sales reps in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston bringing their total sales network to 12 regional reps and showrooms. They are also looking to expand into 5 more North American regions. Add to that their showrooms in Italy and Dubai and you begin to get a sense of the global reach the company is developing.

The other major change brought about this year was the purchase of a new building to house both corporate offices and an expanded warehouse.

“It was not a step I had been planning and working on for a long time but all the pieces just seemed to come together quickly, once the decision was made, and we decided to go for it.”

As part of the move, Patina gave up its space at ADAC and turned their sales over to Grizzel & Mann who became their exclusive sales rep in Atlanta and the Southeast. For Patina, running its own showroom had become a distraction.

“We want to concentrate our energy on developing new pieces across our existing lines, adding new products and improving production and sales. At the same time, we want to enhance our customer service to designers and their clients in the southeast. This really gave us the best of both worlds.”

Coordinating the renovation of the new building, moving the warehouse, changing representation and showrooms and subleasing they’re ADAC space, all while keeping up with the day to day business operations and signing on with 3 new reps made for a very busy fall season at Patina.

The reward for all that hard work is a beautiful, spacious new building, with everybody under one roof, working together in a much more efficient and focused manner.

The frenetic energy of ADAC has been replaced with a calm, almost peaceful, atmosphere at 1876 DeFoor Ave., the new Patina address, which is still very much a part of the Buckhead Interior Design scene just a little less centrally located.

“We’re still in the mix, just not in the middle.”

Calendar Of Events
January 25-27, 2006 - San Francisco Design Center - Winter Market 2006 * January is design month in San Francisco! Join us at the city’s premier design event. Tour thousands of unique products and vendors all under one roof. * Patina Exhibiting

Jane Cumming — National Sales Manager

Jane Cumming first joined Patina 5 years ago with a background in Italian Fine Art Sales and no experience in the furniture business.

“I think I was the first person Marylu hired when she became President and basically, I took over what she had been doing. She taught me the ropes, how to put in orders, working with Italy, working with the designers, learning the furniture, it was a lot to take in... but 5 years later here I am.”

Now serving as National Sales Manager, Jane has seen a lot of changes at Patina, especially in Marketing and Sales.

“When Ann and Waverly founded the company, it was based on a passion that Ann had for designing furniture. They put the pieces in showrooms and if people bought them that was great. They didn’t really push the sale. It was more of a boutique kind of feel.” That laid back sales approach served the company well in its early years but as the company grew the word of mouth advertising was increasingly supported by magazine and trade advertising and a network of regional sales reps.

That approach became the model for Patina sales and grew the company to its current market position as a leader in the industry. Now, with a new building and a new focus it’s time to kick it up a notch.

“Marylu really wants to take things in a different direction. We want to make this a product that everybody wants to have. It’s so beautiful and unique; different from any other hand painted product on the market. So now, we are becoming more aggressive.”

That new aggressiveness has led to some changes in representation in certain markets.

“We’ve left some of the showrooms that have represented us for years in favor of adding new representation that’s excited about selling Patina. It’s not that the old showrooms didn’t want to sell Patina anymore but it was time for a change.”

“The key for us is to obtain excellent representation in different places around the country with people who are excited about selling Patina. It was a little scary leaving showrooms that we’d been with for years but now we have all these new opportunities.”

Jane is looking forward to 2006, getting out to showrooms and talking to and educating designers about the new Patina.

“We want to promote it. We want to talk about it. Now, you’re going to see Patina more, you’re not going to just happen upon it. It’s really like a new company.”

Warehouse and Delivery

Every month, like clockwork, a cargo container is shipped from Italy to Atlanta, GA. filled with 50-75 pieces of beautifully hand painted furniture destined for Patina clients and showrooms across America.

The job of getting all that furniture delivered safely and on time falls to Operations Manager Tim Stevens, a 14 year Patina employee, who is ably assisted in the warehouse by Victor Mfwamba, on staff for 4 years.

Every piece of furniture comes out of the container individually bubble wrapped - no cartons or crates. Each piece is carefully inspected and catalogued for delivery. Photographs are taken of custom and select stock pieces and each individual piece is prepped for delivery.

Depending on location and the type of piece, some of the furniture will be delivered by moving companies that specialize in blanket wrapped furniture or boxed and shipped. But if you’re lucky, Imre Vanyi, deliveryman and installer extraordinaire as well as a 16 year Patina veteran, will deliver your Patina furniture himself along with his able canine assistant, Marcus.

More than one designer has told us stories of their clients’ delight at hearing Imre’s wonderfully detailed explanations of the construction of Patina furniture. Imre takes it upon himself to educate the customer about their new furniture, and his knowledge about the product and the artists who create it is vast.

“Sometimes the customer has no idea what goes into making the furniture,” says Imre, “The designer has simply told them they’re getting a bed delivered. I tell them about the furniture, how it’s hand made in Italy and hand painted, and about the artists. It helps them understand the cost of the furniture.”

“I talk to a lot of the customers on the phone,” adds Tim, “and some of them are really anxious about expensive furniture. After Imre makes the delivery, they’re fine. They call back and they want to order more. He helps them appreciate the purchase.”

Besides delivering pieces directly to customers Tim, Victor and Imre work with Jane Cumming and Tina Marion, Customer Service Manager, to make sure all 12 of Patina’s showrooms and reps have the latest stock and any special pieces they need.

“Jane and Tina work closely with the showrooms to decide what they want,” says Tim, “New York will say ‘Black is really hot this year’ so we’ll pull black pieces from stock and deliver them to the showroom as quickly as we can.”

It takes about 2 -3 weeks to get the contents of each container unpacked, catalogued and delivered, leaving just enough down time to clean up the warehouse and get ready for the next container.”

With the move to the new warehouse, the job has become a little easier and having everyone together in one building helps keep everybody on the same page.

“I think it’s great!” says Tim and Victor and Imre agree.

In Our Next Issue —

We’ll be back to our regular format of news, information and designer interviews next month with the lowdown on new sales reps and some striking new uses for Patina furniture.

From all of us at Patina, Inc. we wish you a Happy and Successful New Year!