Bob's buys 3 HomeLife stores in metro Boston
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 18, 2002
MANCHESTER, Conn. — Bob's Discount Furniture has acquired three HomeLife Furniture locations in greater Boston in a move that will double the Top 100 company's store count in the metro area and bring it closer to the heart of the city.
Bob's acquired stores in Saugus and Stoughton, Mass., and Nashua, N.H., from the bankrupt HomeLife for about $10.2 million, and will pump about $2 million more into improvements before they open this summer and fall, said Bob Kaufman, president and partner in the business.
The acquisition will push Bob's store count back up to 19 from 16. Last year, it closed a handful of small, older stores in Connecticut and Massachusetts that no longer fit its merchandising and display strategy.
With the new stores, Bob's is adding about 117,000 square feet of display space, about 35,000 square feet at each Massachusetts store and 47,000 in Nashua.
"It's was sad what happened to HomeLife," Kaufman said. "But their misfortune obviously presented an opportunity."
Bob's had been planning to expand in the Boston area, but he said that without the HomeLife locations, the growth might have taken a little longer.
"The opportunity in Boston is huge," he said. "We're very excited to be entering in a bigger way with great stores and great locations. Our trucks go through (the new markets) to get to our existing stores, so it was a perfect fit for us."
Even with fewer stores and a tough economy last year, he said, the promotional to midpriced Bob's saw sales rise 21% to $135 million.
Kaufman said it's too difficult to project sales for the new stores — partly because the openings will be staggered — but estimated that total sales will be "north of $150 million" this year.
Store designs are in the works, and Kaufman said they will include ponds and a café, which have become standard for the company, and a variation on the small-town shops atmosphere Bob's introduced in Stamford, Conn., in 2000.
Key suppliers include Klaussner, Serta and Italian leather producer Soft Line.
Kaufman said the Boston metro market has been a strong one for Bob's since it entered the market in 2000 with its acquisition of four-store Hoffman Furniture from Michael and Don Hoffman.
Bob's reopened two of the Hoffman stores as Bob's Discount Furniture in Seabrook, N.H., and Lowell, Mass., closed the two smaller stores, then opened a third Bob's in Salem, N.H. Michael Hoffman, who joined Bob's as a partner in its Furniture North division, now runs the Boston-area stores.
Kaufman's other partners in the business are Gene Rosenberg, Stan Adelstein and Joe Goodman.
Bob's can serve the new stores from its distribution center in Taftville, Conn., which was expanded last year by 72,000 square feet to 367,000 square feet. Preliminary plans call for it to be expanded by another 75,000 to 150,000 square feet by March of 2003, Kaufman said.
Separately, the company recently completed a renovation of its flagship store in Manchester, Conn., expanding the showroom to more than 60,000 square feet from 24,000 square feet and adding a 12,000-square-foot mezzanine for corporate offices.
