FlexSteel Gears Up for Growth, Making Key Investments for the Future 

January 23, 2023  by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry   

“Flexsteel’s been around for almost 130 years,” says Jerry Dittmer, Flexsteel President & CEO, “And the investments we’re making now will ensure our continued success moving forward.” Dittmer emphasized that Flexsteel is one of the few large, national manufacturers in North America without their own brand stores.

“We sell Flexsteel exclusively through our great retail partners, and we are strategically committed to this business model. Expanding our investments for this channel, including dedicated resources, is critical to enabling continued growth and our long-term success.”
 

While there are many investments underway, the driving factor for each decision was improving the customer experience.

“Last year, we completed a very thorough Voice of the Customer research project. We’ve implemented many changes in response to our customers’ feedback during that event. Now that we’ve completed several ‘just do it’ items, we’re moving onto the larger, more strategic opportunities”, said David Crimmins, vice president of sales and product.

These key investments include:

- Adding a new Retail Sales, Vice President to focus exclusively on driving growth in the retail channel.

- Expanding our sales team by more than 10% to allow for more intimate relationships between our sales professionals and retailers.

- Partnering with Salesforce, Inc. for customer relationship management software focused on improving communication and service levels between our customers, customer service, and sales teams.

- Continued enhancements to Flexsteel University offering quick, impactful training to Retail Sales Associates from live events remote settings.

- Omni-channel enablement for our independent retailers. In addition to introducing hundreds of retailers to the homestyles brand and business model, Flexsteel is also making significant investments in digital content.
According to David Crimmins, “We believe that when a retail buyer makes the decision at Market to add our product to their floor, they shouldn’t have to worry about also getting that product on the website. Our aim is to deliver the digital assets at the same time we deliver physical product.”

- Flexsteel is returning to Las Vegas Market with a newly signed, multi-year showroom lease.

In addition to these tangible investments, Flexsteel also announced significant organizational changes implemented to ensure the company and its employees remain agile and responsive to ever changing market conditions.

Tim Newlin has been promoted to Vice President – Strategic Business Development. In his new role, Tim will leverage his experience and intimate knowledge of the furniture industry to accelerate innovation that expands Flexsteel’s business models, brands, products and channels and to build organizational capabilities aimed at attracting new segments of consumers.

David Crimmins expands his responsibilities to Vice President – Sales and Product. David will have leadership responsibility for sales across all channels, and product management, development and engineering.

Brian DesBiens has been promoted to Retail Sales, Vice President. Brian has been with Flexsteel for four years and has most recently served as Regional Vice President of Sales – North Central. In this new role, Brian will lead our retail sales team and be dedicated to developing and executing our strategies in the independent retail channel.

Marissa Tavarozzi has been promoted to eCommerce Sales Manager and will lead all sales initiatives for Flexsteel Industries’ online homestyles brand. Marissa will continue driving omni-channel capabilities allowing our traditional Flexsteel customers to expand into eCommerce with our turnkey, dropship solutions.

These latest moves reinforce Flexsteel’s commitment and focus on growth through investments in product innovation and new enhancements for the retail channel.

In the last few months alone, Flexsteel has launched a new brand (Charisma™), introduced two new innovative product groups in new categories (flex™ – modular seating and Zecliner™ – sleep solutions), expanded production capabilities, and maintained dependable inventory levels, all while offering some of the most competitive lead-times in the industry.

By leveraging the combined strength of the independent retail channel and Flexsteel brand, it’s evident Flexsteel Industries, Inc. is positioning for big things and continue growth well into the future.