Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Rothman Owner to Become Largest Art Van Franchisee
November 2,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Industry 
Rothman Furniture & Mattress, the St. Louis-based retailer that unexpectedly announced it was closing in September, said five of its locations will be converted to Art Van Furniture stores as part of a franchise agreement that will bring seven Art Van locations to the St. Louis market.
Art Van Furniture President Kim Yost said the new agreement will make Rothman Furniture President Jay Steinback the company’s largest franchisee, further expanding Art Van’s Midwest footprint.
“We are bringing together two of our industry’s most successful furniture families in an unprecedented partnership,” said Yost. “Together we can provide our customers tremendous synergy and an even deeper commitment to our communities.”
Steinback, a third-generation owner of the family-owned and operated Rothman Furniture & Mattress, said, “Our partnership with Art Van Furniture allows our family’s 90-year-old legacy of providing quality furniture and service to live on in the St. Louis community.”
The Rothman locations included in the franchise agreement are in Affton, Bridgeton, Richmond Heights, and O’Fallon, Mo., as well as Fairview Heights, Ill. The agreement includes the conversion of the Magnolia Home Gallery by Rothman in Richmond Heights into a 4,500 square-foot Art Van Design Studio with interior design services.
Additional Art Van locations will be determined later, Yost said.
Steinback said metro St. Louis customers will benefit from Art Van Furniture’s dominant buying power, warehousing and delivery capabilities.
Art Van Furniture carries popular name brands such as La-Z-Boy, Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, and Cindy Crawford Home. The new stores will also include Art Van PureSleep, which features sleep products from Sealy, Beautyrest, Stearns & Foster, Tempur-Pedic, Serta, Sleep to Live, King Koil, Reverie and Puretech.
The store conversions are expected to be finished in the first quarter of 2018.
Rothman currently is conducting liquidation sales at its stores, and Steinback said he has offered jobs at the converted stores to the vast majority of his existing employees.