Westwood Design

Westwood Does Not Make Drop Side Cribs

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Krueger) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:19:00 +0000

I'd like to make clear Westwood's position on drop side cribs. Westwood has never made drop side cribs. When we started the company, we made a very specific decision not to manufacture a crib with drop sides. We realize the current news reports may make things confusing, but I want to be very clear: If you own a Westwood Design crib, you do not have a drop side crib.

Thank you to all our loyal customers who have made our company a success.......we'll keep making beautiful furniture, thoughtfully designed.

Scott Krueger

Copa Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:19:00 +0000

And this is the second new group we are launching in 2009. Copa is a value priced crib that doesn't skimp at all on quality or style. For the entire duration of the ABC show we had a Copa footboard setup on sawhorses with a 75 pound weight suspended from one of the slats. Copa has a clean, modern look and comes in both Chocolate Mist and our new Cider finish. The crib uses a new (and patent pending) conversion method that is easier to convert, stronger, and gives a more finished looking toddler/day bed.

Waverly Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:33:00 +0000

This is the first of the two new groups we showed at the 2009 ABC Show. The Waverly collection is a transitional group that features our popular Euro size cases. It also includes our innovative convertible hutch / bookcase (patent pending). It will be available in both Tuscan and Chocolate Mist finishes.

2009 ABC Show

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:31:00 +0000

We just got back from the 2009 ABC show in Las Vegas, the baby industry's big industry show for new products. In addition to our usual line we showed a couple new products, both of which were very well received. As usual, I'll post some pictures for you to weigh in on, but I also wanted to show some behind the scenes stuff from the show. I would have posted these from the show, but the Las Vegas Convention center charges $100/day for wireless internet access, so that wasn't happening.

Our booth was 2000 square feet. Some companies hire event management people to set up their show booths, but at Westwood we do it ourselves. Consequently, booth setup and tear down are the two most dreaded events on the entire calendar.

Everything (about 15 cribs, combos, hutches, and chests) shows up boxed, disassembled and on palettes. We have to unbox it all, assemble all the cribs, clean up, and decorate everything. This is what it looks like a day of work.

After another long day, it's pretty much finished. The empty boxes go onto storage offsite, and in a few days we have to do it all over again in reverse.

Pictures of the new groups to follow...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Krueger) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:01:00 +0000

The newest Westwood Special Group - Asheville - is now on Walmart.com. This is another special Westwood (Hart Furniture) group featuring Euro-Size chests and the amazing convertible hutch/bookcase. See it on Walmart.com now !!

Online Crib Registration

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:05:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce we have embraced late 20th century technology. You are now able to register your crib online, rather than fill out a form and mail it in (though you can still do it that way if you want). Check it out: Registration Form

Registration is totally optional and doesn't affect your warranty either way, but as with all baby products, registration gives us your name and contact details, which is very important if we ever need to pass on important safety information about your product. We don't believe in spam, so we won't use your info for marketing unless you opt in to our very infrequent email mailing list. And we certainly won't be calling to sell you stuff, that would just be awkward and weird.

Product Availability on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Krueger) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:35:00 +0000

We're going to try to get product availability information to consumers faster. I have a Twitter account where I will post updates when I receive them. They'll be kind of random - just product availability for all our different brands and products that are hot topics like: arrivals for Meadowdale Bed Rails, the Dakota Group, Monterey availability, etc. Your retailer is still the best source for information, but we think this may help on specific issues. We'll try it and see if it works. Twitter account: "Cribguy". I know, kind of lame, but all I could think of.

Brookline and Dakota

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Krueger) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:30:00 +0000

One consequence of these times is the inability to get really good feedback from our retailing friends about demand. When Brookline and Dakota were introduced at the September 2008 ABC Show (you saw Scott Bennett's post on these), retailers had a chance to order as much as they wanted. Because of the economic downturn, most retailers didn't order very much- I really don't blame them. HOWEVER a result of not ordering a hot group is a shortage when consumers get a look at the product and WANT IT NOW, IN LARGE QUANTITIES. This reluctance to order Brookline and Dakota resulted in a shortage that may or may not affect consumers with a close due date. Once again, Westwood asks all consumers with a due date within 3 months to check with your retailer about product delivery dates. Some retailers will have plenty; others may not. We are making A LOT more of these two new groups and should be caught up shortly. Thanks for your patience and your support of our company.

Scott Krueger

8th Edition Baby Bargains Book- Westwood Still Wrecking the Grade Curve

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:09:00 +0000

So the newest 8th edition of the Baby Bargains book just came out, and we are pleased to see that we still have the highest rating, A. If you haven't seen it before, the book is a ridiculously complete, independent, and detailed guide to just about every product you can buy for a baby. I personally just used it when we were shopping booster seats for our daughter (we went with the Recaro Vivo Lite if you're curious). Only a handful of crib makers can claim an unreserved A rating, and we've had it since we started. A few highlights:

"Quality-wise, Westwood is a good value."

"We also like how transparent the company is- Westwood even posts pictures of their Vietnam factory to their company blog." [Glad you noticed! -ed.]

"...customer service at Westwood is excellent."

Brookline and Dakota Have Left the Building

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:28:00 +0000

The first production runs of both Brookline and Dakota are completed and packaged, and have passed final inspection. By the time you read this they will have departed the factory to catch the boat. They should start arriving at stores in around 6 weeks or so.

ABC Intro- Brookline

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:20:00 +0000

Our third major intro for ABC is Brookline. This is another large group like Stratton, with big cases and lots of storage. We think the crib is pretty cool- the curved slats give it an interesting transitional look, with a sort of sleigh influence. The crib is tricky to photograph too- looks a lot better in person.

(And again these colors came out weird under the lights in here. This is actually in Virginia Cherry, just like Stratton.)

ABC (Re)Intro- Pacifc

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:55:00 +0000

Yep, it's Pacific again. We had a strong response to this group at last year's ABC show, but Stratton went crazy, and with Jonesport launching at the same time, this one had to wait. I took the opportunity to tighten up the design a bit and respond to some feedback from the last time we showed it. We went with smaller cases ("Euro size", like Dakota), thinking that this group will probably do better in cities and urban areas where people don't always have a lot of space.

The crib construction has been refined a bit (and is currently patent pending). We also showed it converted into a bed. This is probably the coolest thing about this crib, and it's hard to grasp without seeing it in front of you. All convertible cribs on the market (that I know of, anyway) use regular bed rails to convert into a normal, fairly tall bed, and almost always fit a full size mattress. We did something a little different. We used low, wide platforms that can fit either a twin or full mattress. If you've ever seen a two year old try to climb out of a normal tall bed, this will make perfect sense. With a twin size mattress in place, there's a nice little step that a little kid can hop right up on (and a perfect place for a parent to sit and read a bedtime story).

Keen eyed observers will also notice that we changed the color (the wood is darker, and there is a lot less white).

ABC Intro- Dakota

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:20:00 +0000

While the rest of the industry builds big walls around their booths to keep away prying eyes, we take the opposite approach. Those guys are going to copy us either way. We're more interested in customer feedback than trying to keep things top secret.

Dakota is the first of the new intros we've brought to the ABC show this year. This one is exclusive to members of the National Independent Nursery Furniture Retailers' Association (NINFRA). Dakota has a couple of notable features. First is the intro of new "Euro size" cases- we've tried to scale the combo and chest down a bit so they fit into smaller spaces.

Also new is the hutch for the combo- we include an extra base that can be screwed to the bottom of the hutch to convert it into a bookcase later. This neatly solves the "what do we do with the hutch after the baby gets a bit older" problem. Response to this piece has been very strong. We think this is the first time this has been done, and we are working on patenting it.

I'll publish some more new stuff over the next couple days here.

[This is the Chocolate Mist finish, which for some reason is really difficult to photograph under the terrible lighting in here.]

2008 ABC Show

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:11:00 +0000

We are here in Las Vegas at the ABC Kids Expo, the baby industrial complex's annual trade show. We have a few new groups (and a couple of cool new features), which I'll be posting pics of over the next couple days.

Factory Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:07:00 +0000

All Westwood products are made in a new state of the art factory just outside of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. We're always taking pictures when we're over there, and we thought you might like to see a little bit of the factory and the manufacturing process.

This is the main office building. Behind this is living quarters for the management and supervisors who don't live in Vietnam. Sometimes we stay here too.

Factory garden. I was here right after this had been planted in 2003. It's amazing how quickly things grow in that climate.

Motorbike parking. Beyond this is a smaller section for bicycle parking, but almost everyone has a motorbike. The traffic all over Vietnam is indescribable. It moves pretty well, there is just a staggering volume of motorbikes, and everyone is constantly honking their horn.

Here are some parts being shaped.

This is one of the main milling rooms, where parts are made and sent onto the assembly areas.

A few of our groups have hand carved elements. This is the carving room.

This is the crib assembly area. Here they are cleaning up any adhesive that may have squeezed around around the slats when they were put together. They have just used that nail gun to also further secure the slats with pin nails.

After assembly, the cribs go to this climate controlled drying room to bring the moisture level down. This is a very important step. Wood absorbs humidity from the air, and it is of course extremely humid in this part of the world. If you don't do this (and a lot of manufacturers don't), when you bring the furniture into the low humidity, climate controlled environment of your house, the wood will shrink and crack. This is also my favorite spot in the whole factory. After walking around in 80-90° heat (with 90% humidity), coming in here is like stepping into a nice chilly fall Denver day.

This is the finishing line. The pieces slowly snake around on a twisty track going through several spray booths (you can see a couple in the background with the numbers on them). While they ride around, they dry before hitting the next booth. The two women in the red shirts are looking for finishing flaws that they will mark with tape so the pieces can be pulled out and corrected.

After finishing, everything is looked over one last time. These two are checking and adjusting the drawer fit. To the left of this picture is packaging, then it goes right out the door and onto trucks.

Stratton: On the Way

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:12:00 +0000

We were caught a little by surprise by the demand for Stratton, and our initial run sold out very quickly. We have been producing it in large numbers to get caught up- we try to keep everything in stock at all times to minimize the amount of time you have to wait to receive furniture after ordering. Lately we've had several questions from people asking when their orders would come in. To answer that, these pictures were taken yesterday at the factory. These containers will be leaving today, and it will take about 4-6 weeks for them to cross the ocean and leave our warehouse for delivery to stores.

Call for Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:44:00 +0000

We want to build a customer gallery on the website showing how real people use our furniture in their homes. It helps us to jog people's imaginations, and it's a great chance for you to show off that new nursery you've been planning and feverishly working on for months. Got a photo you'd like to share? Send it in and we'll send you a little gift (yet to be determined) as a token of our appreciation. (Got an idea for a gift? Send that too!) You can send photos to sbennett (at) westwoodbaby.com, and you can leave any ideas or suggestions here in the comments. Thanks!

Website Additions

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:29:00 +0000

I just added the product page for Jonesport, which should start hitting stores in the next week or two.

I also added some photos showing how we build our drawer boxes (and we build them very well). You can read more about them here.

Jonesport

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Jonesport is the last of our latest batch of new groups. It is currently in its initial production run, and should be arriving in stores around the second half of April.

The finish is really deep and rich, with a lot of glaze. Jonesport hits a lower price point than most of our other groups, but we didn't strip any of the quality out of it to get there, so it's an exceptionally good value. ~~We'll have a full product info page up in a couple weeks.~~ Just added the product page here.

Dropside Cribs

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:53:00 +0000

In response to some questions we have been receiving regarding recent crib recalls, Westwood does not, and will not, make drop side cribs.

Pacific

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:50:00 +0000

Pacific is another new group we're showing in Las Vegas. We've had this one in the works for a long time, and we think the time is finally right for it. Pacific is a clean, modern group that still manages to have some curves and soft edges. The best part? Pacific will be priced in line with our other products, representing the exceptional value that Westwood has become known for.

The crib has a very unique conversion system that allows as many as 10 different configurations (an industry first), including both twin and full size options. Unlike most crib conversions, it converts to a more modern platform bed- which is also much easier for kids to get in and out of.

New Group: Stratton

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:08:00 +0000

We're headed to the ABC show in Las Vegas next week, where we will have a huge amount of new product. Normally these things are shrouded in secrecy, but we thought it would be a nice change to show you what we've got coming. Not all of it will end up in production, so if there's something you like, tell us!

First up is the new Stratton collection. This one will go into production, and will be available in stores starting in November. Stratton is scaled very big (this is hard to show in photos, but it's big) with a rich, elegant finish. We like this one, and we think it's going to be a big hit.

Westwood Gets Top Marks from Baby Bargains Book

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:15:00 +0000

We are very pleased to announce that Westwood received the highest mark, A, for both our cribs and cases from the industry bible, the Baby Bargains book. This is the first year we've been reviewed, so we're very pleased that all our efforts have been noticed. A few excerpts:

As for quality, the first reviews from parents are in and the word is quite positive. "Sturdy and high quality" is how one mom described her Westwood crib and dresser.

...the overall view is Westwood is worth the money (and possible wait). One telling review: when one reader's Westwood hutch arrived cracked, the president of Westwood himself personally contacted the customer to apologize and pledged to make it right. In an era of customer service in the nursery biz that ranges from abysmal to abhorrent, *that* is refreshing.

The Baby Bargains book is really a great resource for new parents- the authors exhaustively and honestly review just about every product available for babies, and throw in a lot of good advice as well. We're not just saying that because they like our stuff! It really is a good book- we used it ourselves when my daughter was born. You can get more information here:

Baby Bargains book

Safety

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 02:54:00 +0000

With all the recent recalls of products made in China, a lot of people are starting to be concerned about where and how the products they buy are made. We think this is great. From the very beginning, all of us at Westwood have taken a very active effort in ensuring the safety and quality of our products. We not only test to the minimum government standards, but also go well beyond that. All of our products are made in a new, state of the art factory in Vietnam, because it was the best factory we could find. In the next week or so, we're going to post more behind the scenes photos and information detailing our manufacturing and testing process. We believe in complete openness, and we think you'll appreciate it too.

In the meantime, we wanted to make a statement specifically about lead content. We have taken strong steps to ensure that lead stays out of our products. Again, this is not a reaction to current events, this is what we have been doing all along. Our finish partner, Valspar, is strongly committed to using only lead-free material (read their letter here). We, of course, also use an independent third party test lab to check our finished products not just for lead, but for other heavy metals and hazardous substances.

You will not find any company more deeply committed to product safety than Westwood Design.

You can read more about what we do here, including copies of our actual finish test reports: Link (with much more information to come soon).

Cypress Point in Toffee Pine

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Bennett) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:02:00 +0000

This is actually fairly old news, but we wanted to point out that the Cypress Point collection is now available in a new color: Toffee Pine Distressed. This is a deep, rich color rather reminiscent of, well, a nice almond toffee. We think it looks pretty good.