Furniture First announced that order to better serve its members with in-depth merchandising expertise, it recently welcomed two staff members to its team.
Andrew Kauffman joined Furniture First as the Director of Mattresses on October 31, 2011. Andrew brings more than twenty years of experience in the furniture industry to the organization. He began his furniture career in 1989 delivering mattresses. He worked his way up to Store Manager, and eventually Sales Manager, for a Pennsylvania sleep shop with 5 locations. In 1999 he joined a two-store furniture retailer as a Sales Manager and helped institute new sales training guides for mattresses and upholstery. In 2009 he took over as Operations Manager and Assistant Buyer. “Andrew brings a working knowledge of the day-to-day challenges that independent furniture retailers face in this tough economy,” said Bill Hartman, President of Furniture First. “His knowledge of mattresses and sales will be a great resource for our Members.”
Shauna Snyder joined Furniture First on November 28 to fill the newly-created position of Director of Accents & Accessories. Reporting to Tony Moretti, Vice President of Merchandising, Snyder is responsible for creating, managing and continuously improving Furniture First’s supplier program relationships. Prior to Furniture First, she held positions with Storehouse, Art Van Furniture, Surya and most recently, Rizzy Home. “Shauna’s extensive retail and wholesale background and experience in accessories and area rugs will help Furniture First Members build their business with incremental sales in this often-neglected category for furniture retailers,” said Tony Moretti, Vice President of Merchandising
The staff additions will allow existing team members, including Senior Director of Merchandising Ron Page and Vice President of Merchandising Tony Moretti, to focus in more depth on core merchandise categories, case goods and upholstery respectively.
Furniture First is a 17-year-old national buying group serving the retail home furnishings and mattress industry. Furniture First has 183 company members representing 396 store fronts and $1.2 billion in retail sales. For more information on Furniture First, please call Bill Hartman at 800-411-3477 ext 123 or email BHartman@FurnitureFirst.com.