Finger Furniture Is Back

February 23, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Store Openings on February 24, 2010

Finger Furniture has reopened in its remodeled, 200,000-square-foot showroom in Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.

In addition to an expanded selection of its traditional offerings, the location features Urban Leather, a "store within a store" owned by Tracy Weeks and specializing in custom leather upholstery.

The store has been open Friday through Monday since a soft opening last week, but will begin regular business hours on March 19.

Debt problems drove the former Finger operation out of business, Rodney Finger told the paper.

"Debt killed us," he said in the report. "My dad started an aggressive growth campaign in 2005. He and I began expanding our store base and built an expensive new distribution center."

Finger then signed an as the local licensee for Ashley Furniture's HomeStore operation, taking on a huge amount of debt, which hurt the business even more during the credit crisis and recession.

Last March, Finger gave up its Ashley Furniture HomeStore franchise to Hill Country Furniture Partners, owners of Ashley stores in Austin, San Antonio and other cities. Finger had announced the prior year it would transform two Finger stores to Ashley stores and close the other stores.