Shanks has only Henredon store ... for now
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, November 18, 2001
HOUSTON — HOUSTON — Louis Shanks of Texas will open a 12,000-square-foot Henredon Gallery store here, further appealing to well-heeled consumers with a big presentation of its top line.
It will be the only free-standing Henredon store anywhere — although if it's successful, it might lead to others.
The store, expected to open in mid-January, will be next to the existing Louis Shanks store at Farm Road 1960 and Interstate 45, one of the retailer's three units in the Houston market.
The two stores will be connected so consumers can walk between them comfortably in bad weather, said Amor Forwood, Shanks' chief executive officer.
"I'm taking my No. 1 vendor, which is the No. 1 high-end product line in the country, and I'm putting it in the No. 1 area of my No. 1 market," Forwood said. He said the area northwest of Houston where the store will be located is the strongest in the market for high-end home development.
The new store is projected to do about $5 million to $6 million a year, said Mike Forwood, president of Austin, Texas-based Louis Shanks.
Moving Henredon to its own store will free up about 5,000 square feet in the main store next door, making room for a full-fledged Century gallery.
The new unit will have its own design center and will present a broad spectrum of the Henredon line, including the popular Ralph Lauren collection. It also will focus on service and product knowledge, said Mike Forwood.
"We're sending our salespeople from the store to Henredon to do hardcore sales training. We're going to be Henredon specialists," he said. "The Henredon customer, for the most part, is the country club set, and they expect to be catered to differently than the regular customers. They're used to being pampered."
"We're really excited about it," said Mike Dugan, Henredon president and CEO. "I think the upper-end consumer enjoys shopping in an environment like that. The editing has been done for them in advance and they don't have to sort through hundreds of room settings of furniture that isn't to their liking."
Dugan said Louis Shanks initiated the store and there are no current plans to roll out other Henredon stores. But he said other dealers will probably watch how it does.
"Certainly, if it is successful, we would not keep it a secret," he said.
Mike Forwood also said that if the store works well, "we certainly would entertain" opening more in other Shanks markets.
As with many furniture retailers, business this year for Louis Shanks has been challenging, although Forwood said he has seen a pickup since Sept. 11.
"It has been better than it is today, but it's also been worse," he said. "We've made adjustments in overhead and costs and we're operating at a profitable level right now."
Louis Shanks ranked 70th on Furniture/Today's latest survey of Top 100 U.S. furniture stores with estimated furniture, bedding and accessory sales of $76 million in its fiscal year ended March 31.
It has stores in Austin, Houston and San Antonio and plans to open a 200,000-square-foot store and warehouse in the Dallas market.
Originally set for next fall, the expected completion date in Dallas has slipped a few months to the spring of 2003.
| Louis Shanks of Texas will target upscale consumers with the nation's only Henredon gallery store, which the retailer will open early in 2002 next to one of its Houston stores. |
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