Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
December 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Closings on December 29, 2010
Carl Harz Fine Furniture, Elmer, N.J., will close its furniture retail operation, the Vineland Daily Journal reported Tuesday.
fter 62 years, the store will close at the end of January in the wake of a recession that put a lot of independent furniture stores out of business.
"We went through other recessions but never felt it this bad," said Joe Harzin the report. "When the housing people stopped building, that was it."
Sales have slumped from $10 million in 2006 to an estimated $4 million this year.
"I didn't react to the economy quick enough," Harz said. "I kept waiting for things to get better, and I didn't cut back on personnel as fast as I should have."
Along with its own inventory, Carl Harz is liquidating goods from other stores as well.
Carl Harz's 30,000-square-foot showroom and 16,000-square-foot warehouse will go on the market after the liquidation sale.
December 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on December 29, 2010
South Bend, Ind., furniture retailer Graffis Furniturea faces an uncertain future due to a highway project, the South Bend Tribune reported Monday.
The high-end store on U.S. 31 faces a forced move as the Indiana Department of Transportation upgrades that stretch of the road to a limited-access highway.
Store owners Tom and Judy VanDerHeyden, however, don't know when the state will buy the property or where they'll move the operation.
"We are completely in the dark," Tom VanDerHeyden said in the Tribune report. "Really, you can't make any decisions until they come and talk to you. I'm trying to keep six families working, and it's hard when you don't know what's ahead of you."
Several other businesses along the corridor face similar questions.
VanDerHeyden told the paper he's ready for the store's future to get out of limbo.
"There is a lot of commercial property available right now, so there are some good spots for us to look at," he said. "This is an opportune time to find a new store and get things going."
December 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on December 29, 2010
Furniture retail giant Ikea is building excitement for its new Centennial, Col., store with a countdown, the Denver Business Journal reported Tuesday.
The blog page ColoradoIKEAfans has just the thing for shoppers who want to keep track of the progress of the states hotly anticipated, first IKEA furniture store, now under construction in Centennial.
The website for Ikea's first Colorado store has two clocks, one counting down the weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds until the opening, if it occurs on or after Sept. 23; while the other shows a similar countdown to opening , if it's on or before Dec. 20.
The 415,000-square-foot Colorado Ikea is under construction on the west side of Interstate 25 near the 1.6 million-square-foot Park Meadows mall in Lone Tree.
December 27,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Acquisition on December 28, 2010
Rent-to-own retailer Rent-A-Center (NASDAQ-NGS: RCII) announced it acquired consumer finance provider The Rental Store last week.
Plano, Texas-based Rent-A-Center acquired The Rental Store for $75.5 million, primarily with cash on hand, on a debt free basis, using a portion of the purchase price to pay off all of TRS' existing debt.
The Rental Store is a leading provider of consumer lease-purchase financing through third-party retail furniture and electronics retailers, operating approximately 145 kiosk locations.
"We are very excited about adding TRS to our RAC Acceptance business which we believe significantly accelerates the expansion of this growth initiative and increases our opportunities for further growth in this area," said Rent-A-Center Chairman and CEO Mark E. Speese. "In addition, given our track record of successfully integrating acquisitions, we believe this transaction will create additional value for our stockholders, adding approximately $100 million in revenue and $15 million in operating income next year."
In addition, Rent-A-Center announced that it has sold a majority of its customer accounts at approximately 207 financial services store locations. The company also announced it will close seven financial services store locations in Montana on Dec. 31 as a result of state law changes enacted in the November general election. The guidance for fiscal year 2011 previously provided by the company in its earnings release dated Oct. 25 included approximately $72 million in revenue and $11 million in operating income attributable to its financial services business.
"As we transition our financial services operations, we are pleased to have additional resources to deploy against the exciting growth initiatives outlined at our Investor Day conference in November," Speese added. "We believe the acquisition of TRS demonstrates our commitment to fully realizing the strategic opportunities available to us today."
Rent-A-Center currently operates approximately 3,000 company-owned stores nationwide and in Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. The stores generally offer major consumer electronics, appliances, computers and furniture and accessories under flexible rental purchase agreements that generally allow the customer to obtain ownership of the merchandise at the conclusion of an agreed upon rental period. ColorTyme Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, is a national franchiser of approximately 200 rent-to-own stores operating under the trade name of "ColorTyme."
December 27,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on December 28, 2010
An employee of Daleville Furniture Outlet was stabbed during a robbery at the Indiana furniture store, the Muncie Star Press reported Tuesday.
Two men entered the 27-year-old store Monday morning and beat and stabbed an employee before taking money from the cash register. The employee is expected to make a full recovery.
"In all those years, we've never, ever been robbed--ever," Owner Roger Richert said in the report. "There's just no money at a furniture store. Just about everybody's paying with their Visa or MasterCard."
Richert also owns furniture outlet stores in Richmond, Muncie, Anderson and New Castle.