Vystar to Acquire Rotmans Furniture

July 23, 2019  by Laurie Northington in Acquisition, Industry   

Rotmans is the largest furniture and flooring store in New England and one of the largest independent furniture retailers in the U.S., encompassing 200,000 square feet in Worcester, Mass., and employing 150 people. It was founded and has been under the leadership of the Rotman family for the past 50 years. In 2018, Rotmans had gross revenue of approximately $30 million.

Vystar has acquired a controlling interest in Rotmans for $2,030,000, comprised of 25% cash over 4-8 years and 75% in notes convertible into shares. Vystar desires to uplist to NASDAQ and expects any conversion of the notes into shares to take place after that event. All stock will be restricted.

“Rotmans Furniture will add approximately $30 million to Vystar’s top line revenue and enable Vystar to capitalize on the infrastructure already in place for accounting, retail sales facilities and staff, customer service, warehousing, and delivery,” stated Steve Rotman, CEO of Vystar and CEO of Rotmans. “Additionally, it will offer significant marketing and advertising opportunities for all of Vystar’s brands to Rotmans' thousands of existing customers.  The acquisition is expected to dramatically increase Vystar shareholder value and liquidity.”  

Rotmans and Vystar are eyeing a number of initiatives relating to environmentally friendly product development and distribution that will utilize the access to the capital markets afforded by this proposed transaction.  With the recently announced acquisition of Fluid Energy Solutions (FES), Vystar anticipates accessing capital to complete R&D to adapt Fluid Energy Solutions technology to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency and decrease cost and size of Vystar’s RxAir air purification systems, as well as pursue applications in multiple industries for the FES technology. 

 

“Rotmans has been a fixture in New England for more than 50 years and we expect to continue our proud tradition of customer service and broadest selection of quality home furnishings under the Rotmans name for many more,” said Rotman. “This transaction in no way will impact the Rotmans store name. We expect store operations to continue as they currently exist for the foreseeable future. It is simply a financial transaction that will enable Vystar and Rotmans' to jointly pursue initiatives above and beyond what they are currently capable of doing separately.  Based on the synergies from Rotmans soft launch of Vystar’s new Vytex Cloud “bed-in-a-box” collection in Rotmans’ bedding department, we believe there is tremendous opportunity by combining forces.” 

As CEO of both Rotmans and Vystar, Steve Rotman will provide continuity of management and customer-focused values for Rotmans.