Home Company Receives $10M Line of Credit from Paragon Capital Former Bloomingdales Chairman & CEO readies new company to go nationwide

Furniture World Magazine

The Home Company, an upscale furniture retailer, hopes to build on its early success by teaming up with specialized retail lender Paragon Capital. Paragon, of Needham, Mass., announced today that it will provide a $10 million line of credit for The Home Company to grow its business. A concept spearheaded by Marvin Traub, former Chairman and CEO of Bloomingdales, The Home Company is a Dallas-based furniture business with stores located in San Marcos, Texas, and Hagerstown, Md. Its stores offers brand name furniture, such as Ralph Lauren, Henredon, Hickory Chair, Baker, Century, Lane, Pennsylvania House and Lexington. Using the financing from Paragon, the company plans to expand nationwide opening initially two new stores a year. The Home Company is currently reviewing several new locations in major metropolitan markets throughout the US. This is the first working capital facility the company has received. "As we looked to expand, we realized Paragon was the best partner to help us grow our business," said George Wehlitz, CFO of The Home Company. "Paragon understands retail lending and will provide us with the financing we need to help our business grow. We're looking forward to working with them as we expand our stores in selected markets." "We're very excited about working with Paragon as we look to expand these stores in new markets across the United States," said Bill Smith, a member of The Home Company's Board of Directors and the Managing Director of Financo, Inc., a New York-based investment banking boutique that has invested in The Home Company, and advised the business on the Paragon Capital transaction. The Home Company opened its first store in San Marcos in August 1999. The store serves the San Antonio and Austin markets. Its Hagerstown store opened in March 2000 and serves the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., markets. In founding the company, Traub, who serves as Chairman of The Home Company, envisioned a big box furniture retailer that would be an anchor for premiere value retail centers. "The high quality of The Home Company's product and service, coupled with its unique ability to target premier value center locations, give the company tremendous expansion opportunities," said Paragon President and COO Andrew Moser. "We are eager to help launch an exciting business led by such seasoned management and committed investors." "We welcome The Home Company to the Paragon family," said Paragon CEO Stewart Cohen. "We are gratified that they recognized the special value we can bring in helping to grow exciting specialty retail concepts." The Home Company's current shareholders include Northwood Ventures of Syosset, New York, its largest shareholder; Prime Retail, the largest outlet mall operator in the United States; and Financo, Inc. Paragon Capital: Based in Needham, Mass., with offices in Philadelphia, Paragon Capital is an asset-based lender to retailers throughout North America. Paragon has experienced dramatic growth since it was founded in 1997, completing almost $200 million in new financing with companies like: The Art Store, Harvey Electronics, Golf America, Pacific Eyes & T's and Sun & Ski Sports. One of the main reasons for Paragon's success is that, as retailers and merchants with lending expertise, the management team applies a true merchant's perspective in lending to retailers. As Paragon's business continues to boom, the company is defining a new specialized lending niche and quickly becoming part of leading-edge developments in the retail industry. Paragon Capital is a partnership between one of America's premier "boutique" asset valuation firms, The Ozer Group LLC of Needham, Mass., and a leader in the asset-based lending industry, Foothill Capital Corporation of Los Angeles. Foothill is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, a $202 billion financial services company. With the backing of Wells Fargo and Foothill, Paragon functions autonomously as an entrepreneurial company that provides financing solutions to North American retail and consumer products companies.