Living Locally at Circle

July 31, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on August 2007 Circle Furniture is local people, selling local furniture: five stores, two outlets and a warehouse. The Tubman family, which has been running the business since Isadore Tubman started selling to Harvard boys back in the 1950s, recently opened its second outlet, and aspires to build the chain into a regional powerhouse. But as Circle Furniture grows, the Tubmans insist, it must remain true to itself.

“We are what we are,” said CEO Richard Tubman, a laid-back businessman who doesn’t much like titles.

And what they are is very New England. Tubman, his wife and his brother—the triumvirate in charge—are all natives of Massachusetts. They went to local colleges, pay special attention to local charities, and hire people whose accents are pure Boston. But their love for the area is most evident on the showroom floors. Most of the case goods they sell are made in New England. And each year, they work harder to keep it that way. As Asian manufacturers command a larger proportion of the market, it gets increasingly difficult to stock stores with “Made In New England” merchandise, Tubman said. But he and his family know their customers appreciate the local label, so they keep searching for the best homegrown products they can find.

“Those manufacturers have a quality story that you don’t get elsewhere,” Tubman said. “I don’t want to disparage manufacturers in other parts of the country and in Asia. But the stuff you get here is a quality you just don’t see everywhere. When you see a dresser where the wood grain is continuous from one drawer to the next, you know somebody thought about that. They didn’t just pick a bunch of drawers from a stack of them.”

So the Tubmans are always on the lookout, searching the back roads of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire for craftspeople who may not get much attention from bigger chains. “We used to joke that any vendor that has ‘Vermont’ in the title, we would buy,” said Tubman. Among their vendors: Vermont Tubbs, Vermont Furniture Designs, Vermont Precision Woodworks and Maine Cottage.

Customers who appreciate the “Made in New England” label also tend to appreciate Circle Furniture’s emphasis on green merchandise. Tubman and his family are avid skiers, bikers and hikers, and the third Tubman brother is a geophysicist, so the interest in the earth runs in the family. Many consumers may not seek out sustainable woods, but they notice when a piece is certified by The Forest Stewardship Council, and seem to feel good about the purchase, Tubman said. And the focus on green at Circle Furniture goes beyond wood.

As the company’s Web site proclaims: “While you are looking at the fine earth-friendly wood products, you’ll have to see our collection of revolutionary, bio-based upholstery. The cushions are made of soy-based foam and other sustainable components and offer an enhanced level of comfort. With water-based finishes and recyclable materials, these products are truly eco-friendly!”

But Tubman knows that most customers’ interest in buying environmentally friendly products is dependent on cost. “Everybody cares about the environment, at a certain price,” Tubman said. It’s the same thing with buying local. He figures that for a 10 percent premium, most people won’t pause before buying green or local. But when prices climb higher, he knows he’ll lose customers to the discounters.



Growing Up in Furniture

For a family that cares so much about who makes their inventory and how they make it, you might think the business started with a single carpenter, painstakingly carving table legs. To the best of Richard Tubman’s memory, however, it started with a trucking business.

When the boys at Harvard (it was all boys then) would clear out of their off-campus apartments each summer, Tubman’s grandfather, Isadore Tubman, would truck away what they left behind. Sometimes they left behind furniture—furniture someone else could use. So at nearby Putnam Circle (now known as Putnam Square), Isadore Tubman opened Circle Furniture. Isadore’s grandson, Richard Tubman, remembers the day the sign was painted: “New and Used Furniture Bought and Sold.” He also remembers his parents—Robert and Frieda Tubman—working long hours in the shop.

“That was my day care center,” he said. “I used to love hanging around the store.”

The most fun days were when the family bought a truckload of furniture at an estate sale. “We bought the whole house,” Tubman remembered. Still, the young man foresaw a different career for himself, perhaps as an astronaut.

As it turned out, Tubman went to the University of Massachusetts, studied zoology and there met his wife—Peggy Burns—a month before graduation. After college there were his “ski bum” years in Colorado, and then the return home where he opened a computer store. After he sold the store, in 1984, he and his parents discussed the possibility that he might want to enter the family business as they moved toward retirement. Older brother Harold Tubman, now president of Circle Furniture, was already working for the firm. Richard Tubman and Peggy Burns, who had worked in the computer store with him, decided that Circle Furniture would be their future too.



Slow and Steady

Growth was strong but gradual. From the Cambridge store, near the heart of Boston, came a second in the 1970s, in the city’s burgeoning western suburbs. The Tubmans opened a third Circle Furniture in the 1980s in Acton, about 20 miles northwest of Boston. A few years later, the Hanover store opened south of the city, to be followed by the Danvers store, due north.

In the past few weeks, the company celebrated the opening of its second outlet, close to Circle Furniture’s roots and Harvard College. It’s the smallest store, at 3,000 square feet. The busiest and biggest store, at 11,000 square feet, is also in Cambridge—a relocation of the original store opened by Tubman’s grandfather.



Dancing Online

So Circle Furniture circles Boston, relying on the area’s affluent and well-educated market. Unlike so many others in the industry, the company, which saw more than $14 million is sales in 2006, is enjoying a modicum of growth this year. It plans to build on that growth with an advertising campaign, a mix of print and broadcast, but also by capitalizing on its Internet strategy.

No, the Tubman’s don’t expect to see meaningful Internet sales anytime soon. But they have more hopes for the Internet than many others in the industry. That’s based on the increasing number of customers coming into Circle Furniture and remarking on an item they saw on the company’s comprehensive Web site.

“My perception of the Internet is that people are educating themselves on it. They come into our stores and say ‘I saw this or that on your Web site,’” said Tubman. “I think people are shopping online. They may not be buying online.”

The Web site, circlefurniture.com, showcases much of the store’s offerings, but also offers tools that attract new customers, such as an interactive room planner which allows them to e-mail ideas and questions to a designer. The site also invites customers to join the stores’ “Inner Circle,” a buyers program that gives advanced notice of sales and new products.

“We love our Web site,” Tubman said.

A Circle of Growth

The Web site, Circle’s growth, and its involvement in so many local charities caught the National Home Furnishings Association’s eye. The firm was nominated for “Retailer of the Year” twice in the past few years. But if anything stands out on the application for the award, it’s the company’s relationship with its employees. Several have been with Circle Furniture for more than 20 years, a testament, Tubman said, to the keen interest the family takes in employees’ professional development and happiness on the job.

Among the more original of Circle Furniture’s programs is an employee-only Intranet, through which they can share ideas, thoughts and family photos. And it’s up to employees at Circle Furniture to choose the company’s “Vendor of the Year,” who is thrown a party by the firm to which all employees are invited. Recent winning vendors include American Leather and College Woodworks. Then there’s the more than 50-year-old internship program, which has nurtured students from the Boston area’s many colleges and universities who are interested in the industry. And just-plain-fun outings—taking the entire warehouse and delivery team to a go-cart racing park, for example—are important morale boosters.

Employees are also rewarded for community service, with the Tubmans setting the example. It’s hard to find a Boston-area charity the company hasn’t supported in one way or another. They have regularly donated furniture to local libraries and the Ronald McDonald House, as well as survivors of Hurricane Katrina who have relocated to the Boston area. Circle Furniture has both a sailing team and cycling team that raises thousands of dollars for local children’s charities. Harold Tubman has been recognized in particular for his work with the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Boston Public Library, among other groups and institutions.

And it is Harold Tubman who may have created the link that will carry Circle Furniture into the future on the shoulders of a fourth generation of Tubmans. His daughter Jessica, 25, is the company’s director of communications, managing the Web site and internal communications, and making sure all the stores have correct pricing information. She is leaving Circle Furniture this summer to pursue her MBA. But there is hope among family members that she will return one day.

“It would be spectacular,” said Richard Tubman, her uncle. “She seems to have a passion for it.” HFB