Luck Plants Successful Business

October 31, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on November 2007 The Maynard family didn’t know how lucky it was when Al Maynard, home from World War II, decided to open up a second-hand furniture shop in little ol’ Belton, S.C.

Lt. Maynard, an Atlanta native who had a business degree from the University of North Carolina, was discharged from the Navy and landed in a furniture shop in Rome, Ga. He had but one year of furniture-selling experience under his belt before he went into business for himself. Maynard picked Belton for what seemed a good reason: his wife was from Belton.

Maynard’s store, founded in 1947 with some personal savings and relatives’ investments, was the homiest of businesses—5,000 square feet on the Belton town square. Al Maynard had a way with people, and starred in his own radio and TV advertising. He introduced every ad with his signature “Hello, nice people,” and that was how most people greeted him around town. He started selling new furniture when the post-war economy shifted from the production of war materials to domestic goods.

Today, a third generation of Maynards is selling home furnishings in two Maynard’s stores—on 25,000 square feet in Belton and 20,000 square feet in nearby Piedmont. Though Belton is still a tiny town, with 4,700 people, and Piedmont is about as small, Maynard’s has managed to thrive. Sales in 2006 hit $4.3 million and growth, even in this soft economy, has remained steady in the single digits in recent years.

Maynard’s, it turns out, was founded in the right place, in that Upstate South Carolina has been one of the rapid growth zones of the New South.

Belton sits off the well-traveled Highway 76, a short hop from I-85, one of the South’s major thoroughfares. From the Belton location it’s a 16-mile drive north to the Piedmont store, which is a quick commute to Greenville and Spartanburg, the booming twin cities of the Upstate. In the 1990s, BMW gave the regional economy an enormous shot in the arm with its choice of Spartanburg for its only American plant. Suppliers to BMW followed suit. And the Upstate also became the headquarters of Michelin, USA. Furthermore, the region’s mild climate has attracted retirees who have further expanded Maynard’s customer base. Now the stores draw from three states, with most people driving no more than 60 miles to pay Maynard’s a visit.

Occasionally, this widening, more diverse net of shoppers prompted Maynard’s to tinker with its product mix, a mid- to high-end blend of traditional furniture. They would display contemporary pieces, or skew their price points down to reflect the more general trend toward cheaper imports.

Those were mistakes they learned from, said Rex Maynard, Al’s son and the current president of Maynard’s Home Furnishings.

“We would always get into trouble when we would try to buy a cheaper product,” he said. “Even though my dad started out selling second-hand furniture, he always tried to offer the customer the best quality he could get.”

The same goes for style.

Contemporary just wasn’t striking a note with Maynard’s loyal customer base. “You can’t put one or two transitional or contemporary sofas on your floor,” said Maynard. If that’s what customers want, he reasons, they’ll also want more choices. So for Maynard’s, traditional is the past, present and future.

“We’re in a traditional area,” he said. “You have people moving in from other parts of the country who have some different tastes, but you can’t be all things to all people.”

But you can distinguish yourself. Aside from offering higher quality than many of the regional chains, Maynard’s offers a large selection of outdoor furniture—about 7 percent of its inventory—a somewhat high proportion for a furniture store. “We kind of lucked into it,” says Maynard. A rep called his father one day and wanted to know if he would buy a boxcar full of outdoor furniture. Al Maynard bought it, and did well by it.

In 1952, Maynard’s moved off the town square to its current Belton location, along the highway to Anderson, S.C. Al Maynard was ahead of the curve in displaying furniture in vignettes, which he began doing in the early 1960s. And he smartly invested in his homey radio and television advertising. His talent was connecting with people, and the airwaves connected him with an increasingly wider audience.

Al Maynard’s son Rex was not one who had to be coaxed into the family business. He graduated with an economics degree from Wofford College in 1969 and went straight to Maynard’s, where he had spent summers working in the front office and delivering furniture. His first title was warehouse manager and delivery supervisor, a position Al Maynard knew his son deserved given his many years of on-the-job experience. Soon after, Maynard’s opened a second store in nearby Piedmont, and Al made Rex manager of the original Belton store. Rex Maynard was all of 24, and his father proved a patient boss.

“My dad was calling the shots. He was the president. I would have hated to be in that position without him,” says Maynard. “But he did allow me to make my own decisions and mistakes—and hopefully learn from them.”

The business had its ups and downs. Maynard’s Colonial Shop in Highlands, N.C., where the family had a second home, opened in 1960 and closed in 1969. It specialized in furniture, antiques and gifts. Maynard’s Porch, Pool & Leather Furniture opened in Greenville in 1982 and closed three years later. Maynard’s Country Manor, 10 miles south of Greenville, opened in 1971 and was sold to a partner in 1977, the year that Rex Maynard became president of the company. He bought it back in 2000, and it is now their Piedmont store.

Al Maynard died in 1993—a pillar in the industry and the community.

Rex Maynard describes his own salesmanship as a diluted version of his father’s.

“He could sell anything to anyone, though he wouldn’t. He wasn’t a hot shot,” Rex Maynard said. “My strength is more organizational.” Still, Al Maynard had prepared his son to become not only the president of Maynard’s, but its public face. Before he died, Al Maynard had Rex star in Maynard’s commercials. Today, Rex Maynard periodically asks his advertising agency whether his father’s “Hello, nice people,” is still the way to begin every Maynard’s spot. “Isn’t it too cornpone?” he wants to know. The answer is always a definitive “no.” Build on your tradition, the agency folks advise.

But some things have changed over the years at Maynard’s. In recent years, the store has not been able to ignore the great influx of less expensive imports. Maynard’s kept the quality high, but did make adjustments, increasing its share of imported pieces.

“One of our biggest vendors is Hooker and they’ve closed all their American factories,” said Rex Maynard. “We’re selling all that from China but from people like Hooker, which has a better quality product and an American presence. I wouldn’t consider buying from a manufacturer with no American presence.”

“We enjoy doing business when we can with family-owned companies like Jamison and Hooker,” Maynard continues. “It’s nice to know that if I needed to, I could pick up the phone and talk to (Harden CEO) Greg Harden.”

Maynard’s sells a lot of Harden, but Hooker is its biggest supplier. Rex Maynard also extols Canadian Durham—“a solid wood, wonderful quality line,” as he puts it. He also likes offering American-made Saloom for casual dining groups and the ability to chose a finish. Cochran dining sets allow Maynard customers the customization the family believes sets its store apart.

In the leather department, Bradington-Young is its biggest line, though Maynard’s also sells plenty of Woodmark. And though Maynard isn’t crazy about La-Z-Boy’s other offerings, he’s keen on the brand’s trademark recliners. “For the most part, their stationary is a little under where we want to be as far as price, look and design. We tried (once or twice), but we’ve been much more successful with recliners,” he said.

When it comes to bedding, at Maynard’s its Jamison and only Jamison—for the past 20 years. The family-owned Tennessee company is just the sort with which the Maynards like to do business. “Family-owned” means a lot to the Maynards, who have already turned the company into a three-generation legacy.

Rex Maynard has two sons and two daughters, three of whom followed in his footsteps to his alma mater, Wofford College. He suspected that at least one of them—his younger son Blake—would follow him into the furniture business. But he didn’t expect that Alderman Maynard, who had chosen to work elsewhere during his summers home from college, would want to pursue the family business. But when Alderman graduated from Wofford, he asked his father to go fishing. That meant, the father knew, that Alderman had something important to say.

“I want to go into the family business,” the son revealed.

“It was music to my ears,” says Rex Maynard.