BDNY 2024 Recap

The Stump team was in New York this week for one of our favorite trade shows: BDNY. Short for Boutique & Design New York, this show caters to the hospitality industry. Every year the Javits Center fills with over 650 exhibitors in temporary spaces, displaying eye catching products to showcase various capabilities.

Designers and purchasing agents walk the floor to meet suppliers, while exhibitors are all eager to interact with the key stakeholders involved in the purchasing design. This two-day market is always well attended – we heard there were over 13,000 attendees this year, up from 9,000 in 2023. Plus, November in New York is always fun, usually boasting mild weather and the early signs of the holiday festivities to come.

Key Topics of Discussion

How's business?

Most exhibitors are having a good year in 2024, following a blockbuster 2023 off the heels of earlier-COVID era impacts. Many indicated there has been a slowdown in new orders recently – most speculate this was caused by uncertainty around the US election and lingering question marks around interest rates. But with the election now behind us, almost everyone was optimistic about new order activity and forecasts for 2025 and beyond.

Quote of the Market: “Energy, traffic, and quoting are all up and excellent. But purchase orders have been a bit challenging lately, with many buyers proving inscrutable."

Tariffs

This was the most discussed point, as CEOs grapple with game-planning the possibilities of additional tariffs on imported products. Many are already making plans with overseas vendors to adjust pricing to moderate the effects of any new tariffs, and domestic companies acknowledge adding US capacity is hard given the tight labor market and various regulations.

US Election

Three clients mentioned that several large projects previously on hold were released mere days after the election. In general, it appears everyone wants to get back to business as usual.

Luxury on the Move

The high end 5-star+ category continues to thrive in the US and around the world. Did you see the Wall Street Journal article about the rise of the $1,000 a night hotel room? Large projects and boutique hotels are popping up everywhere, with architects, specifiers and designers seeking proven vendors for meeting their clients’ luxury desires.

Gaming Globally

As one client suggested, “You could run your whole business on Vegas for the next 5 years!” We go to Vegas frequently and the cranes are everywhere. This is also true internationally – we heard multiple references to new properties in Dubai as well as the Philippines – which is apparently becoming “the next Macau” for Asia.

“Resi-mercial” and “Hospi-dential”

We continue to see a blurring of the residential and commercial channels. We were intrigued to see several prominent residential players at the show and discussing a broader push into hospitality. For some of the big residential companies that already sell to interior designers, they see a natural extension into hospitality via the A&D community. We see a lot of opportunity in the collaboration between the two segments.

M&A

M&A in general has been soft the past two years due to economic uncertainty, high cost of capital, and the US-election cycle. We see this shifting quickly given the positive outlook for 2025, (hopefully) lower interest rates, and a more general optimism emerging amongst business owners.

In hospitality specifically, we are marketing several terrific companies. We also remain active in the office/contract sector. We expect to close several transactions in the coming months, and to kick-off Q1 2025 with a blast.

Interested in buying or selling? Call us and let’s get to work.

Quote of the market 2: “For those of us of a certain 'vintage', we never forget the age-old wisdom that cash is king.”