Ekornes Reports Sales And Profit Increases

Furniture World Magazine

Amid somber headlines about the economy, reduced revenue expectations by several furniture manufacturers, and the importation of Chinese goods, Ekornes, Inc., the North American sales division of Ekornes, ASA, has continually increased both revenue and profit since 2003. The company realized a nearly 23% increase in revenues from 2003 to 2004 and expects another 13% increase in 2005 over the 2004 figures. Additionally, profit has also steadily risen in 2004 and thus far in 2005, with figures for the first half of 2005 putting profit up 55% over that of first half 2004. Those figures are expected to hold through year end. According to Peter Bjerregaard, President of Ekornes, Inc., several factors have attributed to this positive rise. “For the past two years, we have focused on a back-to-basics approach to business. Previous research has identified the Ekornes and Stressless customer. Our job in the last two years has been to identify new dealers that are in areas where our customer is located. Finding the right dealer is far more important than just opening random doors to sell our product.” So far in 2005, Ekornes has opened 67 new dealers and expects the year to finish with a total of 80. By contrast, in 2004, 24 new dealers were opened. Another important contribution to the increase in profit is a streamlined process for distributing product to dealers. “We have steadily worked to increase our efficiency in our New Jersey offices and warehouse,” says Bjerregaard. “Because of these improvements, we didn’t have to increase our workforce to handle an increase in revenue, which helps the bottom line.”