By Caroline Fossi
The Post and Courier
Saturday, May 26, 2007
A local furniture business has been enjoying exposure this week that would make its competitors green with envy.
Charleston-based Bauer International is providing the furnishings for the Senior PGA Championship on Kiawah Island's famed Ocean Course, an event aimed squarely at the company's target market.
The nationally televised tournament, featuring most of the world's best golfers age 50 and over, runs through Sunday.
Bauer International's participation stemmed from its designation as the official clubhouse furnishings provider for the PGA of America. The company earned the title in 2004 after furnishing the sports organization's country club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and is in the final year of a three-year commitment.
"It's been a fantastic partnership," Ken Bauer, company president, said this week from his perch in a hospitality tent above the Ocean Course's 18th green.
The 15-year-old wholesaler and retailer, based near Daniel Island, specializes in mahogany and rattan British-colonial-inspired furniture, a style Bauer describes as "casual elegance."
A large part of the company's business centers on furnishing high-end resorts and country clubs, including the posh Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah and the Yeamans Hall Club in Hanahan.
Bauer International's products now adorn the Ocean Course's new 24,000-square-foot club house, locker rooms and pro shop, as well as the corporate hospitality tents for the golf tournament.
Bauer estimated that the company hauled 20 truckloads of furniture to Kiawah for the event.
Earlier this year, its furnishings were featured during the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament on Daniel Island.
The company also sells its products through about 1,000 furniture dealers across the country. Last fall it opened Island House in Charleston, its first full-service retail location. The 10,000-square-foot showroom is next to Bauer's corporate headquarters on Clements Ferry Road.
Bauer declined to divulge the company's sales figures. But in the past year, its golf business has grown "exponentially," he said.
Bauer International's furniture line appealed to the PGA for its fresh yet classic style, said Sandy Cross, the group's director of business development.
"We are very careful about who we partner with," Cross added.
Such partnerships can prove lucrative for furniture makers in a time when the industry is struggling, said Mike Pierce, spokesman for the National Home Furnishings Association in High Point, N.C.
He pointed to Bernhardt Furniture's association with homemaking mogul Martha Stewart, who has added her name to a line of furnishings sold by the Lenoir, N.C.-based company. When a business pairs with a celebrity or high-profile organization such as the PGA, its merchandise often gets a sales boost, Pierce said.
"It says this is probably a quality product made by a quality manufacturer," he said. "It tends to drive people to that product."
That's a plus during a tough time for home furnishings manufacturers and retailers, who are dealing with a housing slump and a flood of cheaper imports that have deflated furniture prices, he added.
Pierce said he wasn't familiar with Bauer International's operations. But the company's niche strategy, targeting the resort and golf markets, could help insulate it from the market downturn, he said.
With a background in design and international business, Bauer worked overseas in fields ranging from international shipping to banking before launching the furniture company, which he runs with wife Dee Ann. The couple moved the business to Charleston in 1992, drawn by the Port of Charleston and the local lifestyle.
Bauer designs all of the furniture, which is manufactured in the Philippines.