2 Boston-area retailers on grow in Nashua
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, September 3, 2001
NASHUA, N.H. — Two big furniture stores in this Boston suburb have changed owners.
Bernie & Phyl's Furniture, a fast-growing Top 100 chain, has acquired a 41,000-square-foot showroom from Ed Kaufman and family, the former owners of Merrimack Wayside Furniture. Bernie & Phyl's, based in Norton, Mass., intends to expand the building to 86,000 square feet.
Just down the Daniel Webster Highway, Furniture World, a three-location retailer based in Salem, N.H., has moved into a former Levitz, converting 77,000 square feet to display with additional space set aside for storage.
The updated stores will be close neighbors of Jordan's Furniture, one of the regional superstore chains owned by Berkshire Hathaway, adding vitality to an already-busy furniture row.
For Bernie & Phyl's, Nashua will be its sixth store and its first outside Massachusetts, although Nashua is still in the Boston media market. The company, which specializes in promotional price points, will open the store this month and expand it over the next year.
"Nashua is part of our trading area and it's part of our advertising coverage," said Bernie Rubin, president. "It makes a lot of sense for us to be there. We've been wanting to add another superstore, and this location is the perfect complement to our existing stores."
Furniture World, a member of the Furniture 1st buying group, opened the Nashua location a couple of months after it closed a store in Portsmouth, N.H. The company operates a clearance center in Windham, N.H., as well as its headquarters store in Salem and the Nashua site.
Both companies come to Nashua on a positive roll.
Mark Bedrick, president of the 25-year-old Furniture World, did not disclose sales figures but said the business has been enjoying double-digit growth.
Rubin said his business, which ranked 93rd in the 2001 Furniture/Today Top 100 furniture stores with furniture, bedding and accessory sales of $54.1 million, has been on a similar track.
