Furniture First Next Gen Group Holds Two-Day Meeting at Furniture Mall of Kansas

Furniture World News Desk on 10/6/2017

Interior shot of Furniture Mall of Kansas

Furniture First recently announced that their member Furniture Mall of Kansas (FMOK) hosted the buying group’s Next Gen members for a day and a half of networking and store tours. Twenty-four member stores participated, sending 40 individuals to the inaugural education event.

“It was great to connect with the Next Gen members within Furniture First,” said Kyle Deets, Deets HomeStore in Norfolk, NE. “The Winter family were gracious hosts, showing us their operation. In a fast-paced digital world, personal relationships still matter and I am excited to be part of the Next Gen.”

The program kicked off with a tour of a large local competitor before the group proceeded to FMOK’s Olathe store. At the store attendees were divided into five tour groups that took turns at stations throughout the store explaining how FMOK manages orders, compensates and tracks employees’ tasks, prices merchandise, manages deliveries, and creates a stellar customer experience.

Day two started with a tour of FMOK’s Topeka store, with special attention paid to the backend of the operation. Delivery processes, including merchandise assembly and preparation, were explained within the continuous improvement framework established by the store that helps them maintain a high level of profitability and control.

The meeting wrapped up with a review of the resources that FMOK uses for buying and merchandising. This includes several sales analytics reports that the store developed to track the sales of each product in their two stores, representing roughly 320,000 square feet of retail showrooms.

“Independent, family owned businesses are getting rarer and rarer in this economy,” said Amanda Daubert, Director of Services for Furniture First. “When the next generation joins the family business, we want to help them with the resources they need to keep it running. Networking is a big part of this.”

Comments from attendee Jill Thigpen of Furniture Distributors in Havelock, NC confirmed this observation. “This was a really great first step,” said Thigpen. “When we are at market or other conferences, the older generation tends to take the lead. At this Next Gen event I saw a lot of great ideas coming from people, like me, who are growing their leadership roles at their family businesses.”

“The response to our Next Gen group has been outstanding,” said Andrew Kauffman, CEO of Furniture First. “We did a survey about a year ago and found out that the majority of our members’ businesses are multi-generational, and are operated by the second, the third or greater generation. This is something our members were really looking for to help their family businesses thrive.”

More about Furniture First: Furniture First is a cooperative national home furnishings and mattress buying group serving full line independent retailers with sales over $2 million. A recent analysis found that collectively the group represents $2 billion in retail sales through 482 member store fronts. Furniture First occupies a showroom in High Point, in IHFC G-770, where they display products from several of the group’s approved vendors. For more information, visit www.FurnitureFirst.coop/join or call 800-411-3477.