Pennsylvania House Announces New Appointments

Furniture World Magazine

Pennsylvania House announced that, John T. Lehman has joined the company as the Director of Showroom and Gallery Design. An established design veteran, having worked with some of the foremost companies in the industry, Lehman brings with him a wealth of knowledge on both the retail and manufacturing sides of the home furnishings and design business. "We’re privileged to have John join the Pennsylvania House team," stated Ken Fonville, company president, "Through his expertise, we look forward to unveiling an innovative and imaginative atmosphere in our showroom and galleries throughout the country that uniquely reinforce the Pennsylvania House ‘making classic comfortable’ theme." In addition, David S. Andrew, formerly with La-Z-Boy, Hood and Thomasville, has been appointed Pennsylvania House’s sales representative for the state of Michigan. Pennsylvania House, a LADD Furniture, Inc. company, also a member of the La-Z-Boy family of companies, manufactures and markets fine wood residential furniture and custom-made upholstery under one of the best-known consumer brand names in the industry. In its wood furniture offerings, Pennsylvania House specializes in traditional solid cherry designs and also offers collections in oak, pine and maple. Situated in central Pennsylvania, the company was established in the late 1800’s as the Lewisburg Chair Company and renamed Pennsylvania House in 1933. The company’s website is located at www.pennsylvaniahouse.com. FurnitureFan.com On-line Search Engine for Furniture Increases Site Traffic; Adds Stores and Catalogs; and Nearly Doubles Employee Base. In an industry where brick-and-mortar stores have outlasted their on-line counterparts, FurnitureFan, Inc., is enjoying explosive growth by turning furniture "e-tailing" on its head. Mitchell Russo, CEO of FurnitureFan, Inc., a web-based marketing services company for the furniture industry, announced today that FurnitureFan experienced enormous growth over the past year. The hallmarks of the company’s growth include a 300% increase in page views and a 72% increase in unique visitors to the site since August, 2000 (source, PC Data). The FurnitureFan.com web site is now averaging almost 8 million page views and 600,000 unique visitors a month. In addition, over the past five months, FurnitureFan added 916 new brick-and-mortar retailers, 8,261 new product listings and 50 new manufacturer’s catalogs to its web site. To keep up with the company’s success, FurnitureFan has almost doubled the company’s workforce from 12 to 22 employees since August 2000. Russo credits the company’s growth to the creative use of their site as a "web-marketing" tool for the furniture industry, rather than as a competitive e-tail site. He explains, "Furniture retailing is an industry where consumers prefer to ‘test-drive’ the product prior to purchase and that is clearly impossible over the Internet. Instead of competing with our brick-and-mortar counterparts, FurnitureFan.com aligns itself with retailers and manufacturers as their Internet marketing-services company. We offer brick-and-mortar stores web exposure while directing consumers into their showroom to test the furniture and make a purchase." FurnitureFan.com currently has partnerships with over 1,300 retail stores in the U.S. and Canada. Russo hopes FurnitureFan.com will eventually grow to be the ultimate clearinghouse for every furniture retailer in the country. He notes, "Consumers come to FurnitureFan.com to pre-shop their local stores before getting into the car for what could be a hit-or-miss excursion. It saves valuable time and effort for the consumer, while allowing the brick-and-mortar retailer to showcase their furniture to a greater audience. It’s truly a win-win situation." FurnitureFan, Inc., an online marketing services company focused on driving furniture buyers into retail stores, was founded by furniture industry veteran and president, Gary Chase, in 1999. FurnitureFan specializes in the development of furniture-related integrated marketing programs. FurnitureFan.com, the company’s web property, is the country's largest online directory of furniture stores with over 1,300 active stores currently hosted. FurnitureFan is headquartered at 142 North Road, Sudbury, MA 01776. Phone: (978) 371-2590 Fax: (978) 371-2533 Web: www.furniturefan.com E-mail: info@furniturefan.com.