Thomasville Expects To Accelerate The Pace Of New-Store Openings

Furniture World Magazine

Twenty-five to 30 new Thomasville Home Furnishings stores will open for business in 2004, up from 17 stores in 2003. The stores are run by independent store owners. As 2003 draws to an end, store owners have celebrated or will celebrate new-store openings in 11 states, including three in Georgia; two each in California, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and one each in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri, New York and Rhode Island. Much of the expansion in both 2003 and 2004 is coming from existing store owners, who plan to open additional stores in current or new markets, according to Tom Tilley, president and chief executive officer of Thomasville Furniture Industries. “While we continue looking for new candidates, we regard expansion by existing independent owners as an excellent source for growth. We grow as they grow. We both win,” Tilley said. Paul Coleman in Connecticut, Barry Goldberg in upstate New York and the Massood family, owner-operator for New Jersey and the District of Columbia area exemplify the Thomasville retailers who are continuing to expand their businesses. Coleman expects to open his fourth Thomasville Home Furnishings store in Connecticut next year. The location and timing have not yet been decided. He opened his initial store nearly four years ago in Brookfield, Conn., and sales were “double our expectations. We happened to be in the right place at the right time in the right market. But this was not a flash in the pan. Sales have continued to grow,” said Coleman, who is president and chief executive officer of Connecticut Home Furnishings Inc. Since then he opened stores in Manchester, Conn., on Dec. 26, 2002, and in Orange, Conn., on March 1, 2003. Both are performing “according to projections,” he said. “We are very pleased.” Coleman had been in the furniture business for about 15 years but had not previously been associated with Thomasville prior to his Brookfield store. The main reason for selecting Thomasville, he said, “was the name. They offered the best name recognition that’s known for value for the consumer, so I could go from nowhere to somewhere fast. He said he opened the Manchester store the day after Christmas last year “because that was the first day we could open.” He wasn’t concerned about missing pre-Christmas shoppers because “the three weeks before Christmas are a dead time for the furniture industry in Connecticut.” Business picks up afterwards, as residents fight against feeling housebound during New England winters. “The week after Christmas is always great, and the first quarter is our best quarter of the year.” Like Coleman in Connecticut, Goldberg is continuing to expand Thomasville’s presence in the Upstate New York region. Goldberg opened Thomasville Home Furnishings stores in Poughkeepsie in August 1998, in Albany in July 2001 and in Syracuse in August 2003. He expects to open a store in Rochester on January 1, 2004, and in Buffalo the following year. The Syracuse store, he says, is state of the art not only in design but also in making customers feel comfortable and at home. It has skylights in the Design Area, a supervised room for children, a coffee bar with a kitchen for baking cookies and pies, and an area where, typically, a husband watches sports on a 50-inch television while his wife is visiting the Design Center. Other large-screen televisions in two other areas of the store are pre-set to the Cooking Channel and home-related shows. “I think I can safely say we’re the only furniture store I know of where children cry when parents say it’s time to leave. Beyond entertainment for the family, we’re also providing tools that help our sales people,” Goldberg said. Goldberg has been in the furniture business since 1982 but converted his general-furniture store in Troy, N.Y., to Thomasville before replacing it with the Albany store. “I saw the writing on the wall” that the store would do better if it were affiliated with a manufacturer, he said, adding that he selected Thomasville because of the quality and breadth of the products and his long-standing relationships with Thomasville executives. For the Massood family, the road to carrying the Thomasville line began by carrying many lines of furniture – literally. The family operates MGM Transport, which specializes in hauling furniture from North Carolina manufacturers to department stores and other retailers around the country. “Through MGM Transport, we know the major players in furniture manufacturing and retailing and the logistics of the furniture industry. That led us to consider going into the retail end,” said Paul Rizzuto, chief financial officer of MGM Transport and vice president of Plum and BETM Management, which operates the stores. They selected Thomasville because of its “quality products and well-received name. The branding is complete,” Rizzuto said. The New Jersey stores are in Paramus, Princeton and Woodbridge. Plans call for opening stores in Eatontown this year and East Hanover in mid-2004. They are also planning to open stores in Wayne and Bridgewater, and they are exploring whether to open a store in Ocean County, Rizzuto said. The Washington, D. C., area stores are in the Virginia suburbs of Alexandria, Tyson’s Corner and Fairfax. They are also exploring whether to open stores in Maryland in Rockville, Annapolis and Baltimore, he said. Founded in 1904 in Thomasville, North Carolina, Thomasville Furniture Industries is a full-line furniture manufacturer with dedicated galleries in more than 400 leading independent retail furniture stores and more than 125 Thomasville Home Furnishing stores. Thomasville Furniture is a subsidiary of Furniture Brands International (NYSE:FBN), the nation’s leading residential furniture manufacturer. For more information about Thomasville Furniture’s home furnishing offerings, please call 1-800-225-0265 or visit www.thomasville.com.