Sev Ritchie Joins Ayr1

October 12, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on October 2008 Sev Ritchie has joined retail Web development company ayr1 as vice president of corporate affairs.

Ritchie, a furniture industry veteran, formerly ran FurnitureChannel/FurnitureFan.com, which consisted of 78 manufacturers and 780 retail clients. He introduced the first industry wide e-mail marketing program, and has a strong e-catalog background.

According to an announcement, ayr1 will benefit from Ritchie’s solid knowledge of the home furnishings and accessories business dynamic. He has spoken as an expert presenter at many major trade association, buying group and performance group events.

Ritchie and ayr1 President Len Conlan and CEO Ron Goswell will attend next week’s High Point market to develop relationships as ayr1 embarks upon a multifaceted growth strategy to build on the company’s position of hosting and creating thousands of retail Web sites, and executing thousands of home furnishings and home appliance strategic relationships with major brands.

All of the ayr1 presentations at High Point will be centered around the reduction in marketing spend for both manufacturers and retailers who are not already clients of ayr1. Ritchie has scheduled many high-level manufacturer meetings to introduce the confidential new series of initiatives from ayr1. In addition, ayr1 will be training 26 new furniture industry representatives to add to its United States and Canadian sales staff.

Ayr1 uses thousands of e-catalogs residing on a complex database that allows all of their retail clients to have their manufacturer’s catalog directly on their own Web site to avoid the risk of retail customers being linked-out to manufacturer Web sites, where they might be redirected through the dealer locator to other competitors. The ayr1 system also allows consumers to view and research every single product that an individual retailer has access to.