See Dimplex in booth 1048 at RentDirect PrimeTime!
Agenda | Vendor List | Floorplan

Dimplex North America creates a firestorm of demand throughout RTO

Dimplex North America creates a firestorm of demand throughout RTO - contact Wayne Strachan at 905-880-7422 for more information.

Who’d have thought mantelpiece fireplaces – long known as permanent fixtures in predominantly grand old homes – would be such a hit in the rental market? Apparently, Wayne Strachan had a hunch.

“I saw how well these were selling at retail and I knew about the rental industry from my wife (Elizabeth with Botanica by LABS, Inc) and thought it was a great fit. These are a completely new category for rental. Dimplex Fireplaces employ a worldwide patented technology that uses an incredibly realistic 3-D flame effect to add instant ambiance to a room.”

Dimplex Fireplaces are portable and run on electricity. Customers need only to plug them into a wall to start the unit. There is no venting necessary. And, the fireplaces come with optional heat from a built-in 5,000 BTU system.

“That’s enough to heat about a 400 square-foot room so the units are flexible because customers can enjoy flame only or heat and flame, depending on their needs and time of year.”

Which leads us to the issue of seasonality. Wouldn’t it make sense that portable fireplaces would have a similar return pattern to, say, portable air conditioners?

“The interesting things is that there appears to be no seasonality like there would be if these were just space heaters. Once a customer gets these into their home and it becomes part of the room they have no desire to return them. In fact, store managers are telling me the keep rate on these is much higher than the average rental item.”

Dimplex Fireplaces come in 9 different styles and are available as wall units or corner units. Finishes include black, oak, mahogany and walnut and there are even versions that resemble old-fashioned pot-bellied stoves. Wholesale prices start at just $120 and even the top-of-the-line mahogany bookcase unit is no more than $500.

“A popular combination has been to offer the fireplace in a package with a thin flat panel television set. The customer places the TV on the mantle of the fireplace and it’s really a great, high-tech and functional look for their home. Since the heat on the Dimplex unit blows forward and not up it’s perfectly safe for the television set and it gives rental dealers a chance to combine two big items on one agreement.”

POINT DIRECT: A Fire Marshal conducting a pre-show walk ordered the Dimplex fireplaces shut off, thinking the flames inside were real.

Dimplex is a proud participant in the 2006 RentDirect PrimeTime! buying Show, August 20-23, 2006 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tradeshow FloorPlan	Tradeshow Agenda	Complete Vendor List