The International Casual Furnishings Association (ICFA) has entered into a strategic alliance with Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in a move intended to provide significant new benefits for ICFA’s retail members. NMG has a 45-year history of partnering with its more than 3,500 members operating more than 11,000 stores—with $15 billion in combined sales with leading appliance, furniture, and electronics branded products. Among the services available to ICFA retail members aregroup-buying initiatives, corporate training, high-impact advertising and promotions, and innovative financing.

John Laing, director of business development at NMG, says, “The two groups share the common bond of helping members prosper in the fast-growing category of outdoor living. The relationship was a natural.”

Doug Sanicola, president of Outdoor Elegance (La Verne, California) and the first retail chair of ICFA, notes that retail-member benefits have been a high priority for ICFA in recent years. “We have worked diligently to find the best benefits for ICFA retailers, and we think that we have an ideal partner in NMG,” he says. “Now, retailers’ membership in ICFA not only supports the organization and our industry, but also provides access to money-saving programs for improved profitability in their business operations. There’s no reason for any casual-furniture retailer not to be an ICFA member.”

Bill Bazemore, senior vice president of furniture at NMG, says, “In recent years, we’ve recognized the great opportunity that the outdoorliving category offers our members. The category’s adjacency to our core indoor products (coupled with the consumer trend of entertaining outdoors) makes it a perfect fit.”