Strictly Furniture, Inc. to Unveil Fifth Avenue Flagship Store

Furniture World Magazine

After 42 years of creating exquisite, handcrafted wood furniture for retailers around the world, the parent company of Strictly Wood Furniture (http://www.strictlywoodfurniture.com/) announced the official opening of its flagship company store in the heart of New York City later this month. The walk-in Fifth Avenue store will give consumers and interior designers direct access to all the furniture and accessory collections that are made under the Strictly Furniture umbrella, including the newest Contempo Collection, which definitely has a "Mission meets Manhattan" attitude. The New York store is the first of several company stores slated to open over the next few years in various parts of the country, explained Strictly Furniture, Inc.'s company spokesperson, Susanna Barker: "The flagship store signals the beginning of an exciting end to our traditional method of selling Strictly Wood Furniture exclusively through a dealer network. ... The company has been slowly gearing up for a shift away from the traditional dealer distributions model, and the Fifth Avenue store will certainly solidify our commitment to the ultimate consumers. We will be able to serve them in ways that are just not possible when going through a middle man." Hakan Altunbas, Strictly Furniture, Inc.'s CEO and the design brainchild behind most of the furniture styles, will be on hand for the opening and plans to be in Manhattan with his team of designers and architects as much as possible as he travels among projects and company facilities in North Carolina, Arizona, and Turkey. His wife, Strictly Furniture vice chairman Sherry Altunbas, will make her full-time home in Manhattan and will personally oversee the store through the first few years of operation. Working as a team for over ten years to continually bring fresh ideas into the 40+-year-old company's tradition of building high-quality furnishings, Sherry and Hakan talk about the hands-on style that has been the hallmark of their work ethic: "We're in this business because it excites us; we absolutely adore it. We love every aspect from the boardroom to the shop floor. We want to be involved with our clients and our employees as much as possible. We get our greatest inspiration from being out there and hearing first-hand what's going on in the marketplace - everything from the clients' desires to their frustrations." "One thing we hear a lot now is that the pool of furniture manufacturers truly making a quality product is shrinking at an alarming rate. We've had a lot of pressure over the years to cut corners in places the client wouldn't see or ever know to look, and we have resisted that fiercely," continued Sherry and Hakan. "Of course, the bottom line is important; but more importantly, the bottom line for us is being able to be proud of everything that we do. We are continually looking for ways to improve the quality and design: Where can we actually spend a bit more and have it return exponentially to our clients in terms of satisfaction and performance? You take a look at one of our two-inch thick table tops and realize that we could make 41 veneer tables out of that same amount of wood - then you begin to get an idea of the value of having real solid-wood furniture." For the Altunbas family, the business is a labor of love, and will continue to be. "We love people, we love architecture, we love furniture, and we love what we do - nothing could be more satisfying than designing and building these outstanding and functional 'works of art' that totally enhance our customers' experience of their homes. We are committed to continually raising the bar, regardless of industry trends; and we can't think of a greater city on earth in which to renew that commitment."