Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Mike Kordik Joins Furniture First in New Stage of Career
July 18,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
As Mike’s Furniture in Joliet, Il winds down their retirement sale, the store’s namesake, Mike Kordik, has moved to a new stage in his career on the staff of Furniture First.
Kordik operated his family store with his brother, Bill Kordik, for more than 45 years. Mike, whose store joined Furniture First in 2001, served on the board of directors from 2003 to 2016, including a term as board chairman. The motivation for a change came after family members in the business expressed a desire to retire.
“I call joining Furniture First my Christmas miracle,” joked Kordik. “I became a Furniture First on Christmas Eve 2001. I had an idea of how much the rebates would help my bottom line, but that was just the start of the impact my membership had on my business.”
“I’ve learned so much from the other members of the Performance 1st group I was in. These are sharp retailers, and we made each other even sharper when in the group meetings we committed to goals and took steps to realize them.”
Kordik was a member of the first members-only store owners’ performance group at Furniture First. When a second group launched in 2017, Mike Kordik was hired as an independent facilitator. A third performance group soon followed.
Mike will now be heading up all three store owners’ performance groups with plans to add a fourth in the near future. In addition to overseeing Performance Groups, Kordik will be the in-house sales lead for Furniture First’s sales analytics package, Tools 2B First, a proprietary version of Tools 2 Win.
“It’s unique to have an employee know so much about us on day-one,” said Andrew Kauffman, CEO of Furniture First. “Our staff is excited to take advantage of Mike’s perspective from the other side of the fence.”
Kordik will be attending the up-coming Las Vegas Market in his new role and will be meeting with prospective members as well as current members in the lobby of building A where the buying group will share a corner of the Snap Finance booth.
Furniture First is a cooperative national home furnishings and mattress buying group serving full line independent retailers with sales over $2 million. Collectively, the group sells $3 billion at retail with their approved merchandise programs in the 527 member storefronts.
Furniture First will open their new showroom at 336 South Main Street in High Point, North Carolina during the October High Point Market. The new four-story property in the heart of the High Point Market district will house Furniture First on the first two floors, and tenants TD Retail and Knorr Marketing on the third floor.
Vaughn Bassett will move into the fourth floor in April 2024. 5400 +/- of showroom space remains available for lease on the third floor. For more information on Furniture First Membership, please visit www.JoinFurnitureFirst.com or call 800-411-3477.