THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608100317
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: 54 lines
A new line of furniture named after Currituck County and Corolla's Whalehead Club goes on sale in the fall.
Orders from wholesalers, the manufacturers say, are at a record pace.
``They're screaming for it,'' said Susan English, marketing director for Kincaid Furniture, a La-Z-Boy company based in Hudson, N.C. ``It's what the consumer has been asking for.''
Kincaid Furniture said the idea for the Currituck Cherry and Whalehead Oak collections came from Ducks Unlimited.
The collections include 110 pieces made of solid wood finished in a 23-step process. Individual pieces reflect the wildfowl reputation of Currituck County, with names like the Pintail Chest, the Mallard Cove Panel Bed, the Swan Island China Cabinet, and the Waterfowl Hall Tree.
``This is 250 percent bigger than any market the company has ever had,'' said Buck Thornton, a Corolla developer and a marketing consultant with Kincaid. ``So much of the heritage of Currituck revolves around waterfowling, it was natural to name them after individual Currituck places and the Whalehead Club.''
During the early 1900s, the Whalehead Club attracted wealthy sportsmen to Currituck to bag some of the millions of ducks and geese that migrated here. The two-story wooden mansion is being restored, after sitting vacant for years.
Thornton said Ducks Unlimited approached Kincaid about producing the furniture.
A percentage of the profits from the collection will go to Ducks Unlimited efforts to preserve wildfowl habitat.
``In three or four years, there will be millions of dollars contributed to Ducks Unlimited,'' said Thornton.
Ducks Unlimited, founded in 1937, is the world's largest private waterfowl and wetlands conservation organization with a membership of three quarters of a million. Traditionally, Ducks Unlimited buys land in Canadian prairies to preserve waterfowl breeding grounds.
It now owns 4.9 million acres in Canada, 1.3 million acres in Mexico where ducks often winter, and nearly one million acres in the United States.
Lines of clothing, outdoor sports equipment, greeting cards and watercraft also carry the Ducks Unlimited name in the interest of raising money for conservation projects.
The Ducks Unlimited name adds to the marketing value of the products.
Thornton said Kincaid will soon introduce solid pine furniture called the Pine Island Collection. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo courtesy of Kincaid Furniture
Kincaid Furniture, based in Hudson, is working with Ducks Unlimited,
a private waterfowl conservation group. A percentage of profits from
pieces such as the Pintail Chest and the Mallard Cove bed will go to
the organization. by CNB