We have been at this furniture thing for a minute and we have learned a few things over the past twelve years.  We have always viewed Restoration Hardware’s (now RH) furniture customer as someone who should be, and likely would be, if they really looked at what we offer in comparison to RH. We offer some very similar styles to what RH offers in the way of sofas, sectionals, chairs and such. The RH Maxwell is functionally the same sofa style as our COCOCO Monroe, for example. Ours is just made better, using better materials, and offered at a better price.
There are, of course, vast differences between RH and COCOCO. They are the dominant company in our sector; selling a style as much as a product. One thing we share is that we both rely on Moore & Giles for the vast majority of the leather offerings.  Moore & Giles is the largest provider of natural leathers for upholstery. RH is, not unexpectantly, Moore & Giles’ largest customer while we are, last I checked, number eight. Even at #8, that means we use a fair amount of leather. Our success with Moore & Giles relies on the fact that we offer a broader range of leathers and colors than do most leather furniture makers and no one does color and range like M&G.
One of the great things about our relationship with M&G is that when they bring in a new leather we are often the first North Carolina furniture company to see it. This is because we are more light on our feet than are traditional furniture makers. If they bring us a leather we like, we can start showing it to customers right away.  Often the same day. This has happened numerous times over the years. So we see the best leathers for our customers to use for our made-to-order furniture before RH or any of the fifteen different furniture manufacturers ( Thinking supply chain and QC issues?) they use to make their upholstered furniture.  In this way, we are able to be a resource to M&G to provide real feedback from real customers, often many months before RH sees it.
An early example of this was when M&G introduced Berkshire leather way back when. It was basically a milled version of the iconic Brompton leather.vWhen they brought it to us, it blew us away with its wonderful hand and subtle pull-up effect. We started offering Berkshire that day and it was immediately successful. Our customers loved it and it was a terrific engine of growth for our company. RH sold mostly Brompton leather at that point and Berkshire was such an original and, frankly an improvement, we were not surprised a year or two later when, what was then known as Restoration Hardware, picked up Berkshire.  We were actually pleased because we thought there was an upside to our flagship leather becoming a well known name.  What we did not appreciate at that point, was that there is a downside to having leather picked up by a giant company like RH. When they have leather as successful as Berkshire at a place like RH they order it. A LOT OF IT!
Berkshire, like most of our leather, is made in the charming town of Bassano del Grappa in the north of Italy  The tannery there is a fifth-generation enterprise founded the year our civil war in America ended. They are magic when offered a chance to stretch their creativity. But when such a large company starts ordering hundreds of thousands of square feet of leather (each hide of Berkshire is 50-55 Sq ft) and demands it at a lower and lower price, compromises happen. One way to produce that much leather at a lower price is to lower the quality, or grade, of the raw material, in this case English bull hides, as there are only so many premium quality hides available. The other way to achieve that level of production is to shorten the tannage by removing some steps to save time. Either way and usually it ends up being both, it results in a diminution of the character of the leather.
We are not saying Berkshire is not a really nice leather. It certainly is and we still offer it today. It makes up beautifully. Berkshire is just not as special as it was when we were first introduced to it.
Fortunately, Moore & Giles and the artisans at that amazing tannery in Italy, are not the sort to rest on their laurels. They are always innovating and improving and developing new leathers. One of these is a leather called Ellis. Ellis is a magnificent leather made with a unique tannage on German hides which are renowned for their combination of size and quality. Ellis came out right before the pandemic came to America and because of our proximity and flexibility, we were able to see Ellis before any other North Carolina furniture manufacturers. It was a stunning leather and it honestly reminded us of how we felt when we first saw Berkshire all of those years ago.
As it worked out, COCOCO was the only furniture maker who was able to use Ellis for about a year and a half because all of the shows were canceled and no one else could see it. This was a great opportunity for us as we had a year and a half head start and were able to participate in color selection and refine our cutting and upholstery to take advantage of Ellis’ greatness. We know the time would come when RH would consider adding Ellis to their lineup of leathers and we were both surprised and happy that they opted not to pick it up. Apparently, they thought it was “too natural”. We are not sure what that means, but we knew the decision meant that we did not have to worry about Ellis being dumbed down. Ellis is still a special leather and our flagship offering, and you can’t get it at RH.