The Growth History of Leonards New England

Furniture World Magazine

Since 1933, Leonards New England has been offering its customers an impressive, continually changing selection of beds and antique furniture. As their households changed from generation to generation, families who have purchased furniture from Leonards have returned to sell it back to us and buy other pieces. This has made it possible to develop lifelong relationships with our customers and their children. But when it comes to enterprise, Leonards is thoroughly modern in its approach. A family business, it has been transformed from a $1 -million-a-year antique shop to a $ 10-million-a-year industry leader. To keep up with the demand for high-quality furniture, Leonards launched its popular reproduction business in 1988. The authentic reproductions are made by highly skilled hands at Jenkins and Plaud, a wood-working shop in Tiverton, R.I. The use of hand-tooling as well as sophisticated machinery is what produces Leonards' heirloom-quality pieces. Today, the ratio of antique sales to reproduction sales is 2-to-1. Leonards has also expanded from one to three shops in the last few years, with beautiful showplaces in Westport, Conn., and Nantucket, Mass. And we have procured lucrative contracts with upscale catalog giants, such as Cuddledown and Garnet Hill. Leonards has also been able to demonstrate the craftsmanship, beauty 'and history of its products - both new and old --on the Web at www.Leonardsdirect.com. Some of the country's finest B&Bs and inns showcase Leonards beds and furniture. And Leonards signature quality and selection have attracted a broad base of customers, including celebrities from Mick Jagger to Julia Roberts. But the heart of Leonards is the original Seekonk, Mass., shop with its workshop where craftsmen skilled in delicate cabinetry and finishwork, repair and restore furniture that may need a minor repair or a major restoration. They resize antique beds that don't hold conventional mattresses, using as much of the old bed as possible when transforming it to fit today's needs. They match the wood and use the same joinery whether they are restoring, resizing or reproducing a bed. The pieces are painstakingly finished with carefully mixed and expertly matched water-based stains to bring out the depth of the wood. Water-based stains tend to raise the fiber of the wood so they have to be finely sanded between coats. Mr. and-Mrs. Lester Leonard started the one-of-a-kind shop in 1933 in their Seekonk residence. As a boy, Jeffrey Jenkins, now the owner of Leonards New England, worked at the shop under the direction of his father, Robert Jenkins, who was sales manager. He fondly remembers Mrs. Hazel Leonard as a woman who took nothing for granted. On Jeff s 30th birthday, after he had grown up in the business and worked at Leonards fulltime for 10 years, he remembers Mrs. Leonard asking him "so, do you think you'll stick with it?" Jenkins has more than stuck with it. Leonards now offers at total of 30,000-square-feet of showcase space in Seekonk, including the 6,000-square-foot barn that used to house thoroughbreds in Saratoga, New York. The barn, which dates back to 1808, was painstakingly dismantled, piece by piece, and reconstructed in Seekonk to become part of the flagship store. Leonards New England Fact Sheet Leonards New England sells thousands of beds a year and is the country's leading antique bed retailer. Leonards beds can be found in all 50 states and many foreign countries, and grace the homes of some of America's most well-known personalities. •Leonards New England acquires and sells antique bedposts and "marries" them with compatible reproduction or antique parts to create beds that meet modem standards of comfort while retaining their period appearance. •Leonards New England's classic reproductions represent every style of bed popular in America between 1700 and 1850. Their handcrafted case pieces include compatible nightstands, chests and mirrors. Leonards' hand-planed farm tables and servers grace American homes from Mercer's Island, Washington, to Nantucket, Massachusetts. •Leonards New England's custom hand-crafted beds are available in more than 5,000 design combinations with options that include four wood choices, 60 bedposts styles, 30 headboard shapes, five canopy frames, five valances and 15 finials. •Leonards New England's client roster includes upscale, well-educated consumers including celebrities, designers, innkeepers and architects. •Leonards New England is so confident that the value of their antique beds will continue to increase over time that the company has a trade-in policy for 100 percent of the original purchase price. •Leonards New England is known for its extraordinary service. The company delivers to New England, New York and New Jersey by its own trucks. Many deliveries go to the new homes of long-time customers or to the homes of the family's next generation.