Kathwari: 'We're proceeding according to plan'
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, November 11, 2001
Danbury, Conn. — A challenging year in the furniture industry won't derail Ethan Allen's expansion efforts.
"We are proceeding according to plan," said Farooq Kathwari, chairman and chief executive officer. "We opened 17 new stores, not relocations, in the last fiscal year. We'll open 10 to 15 stores next year, including our first store in China and a few stores in the United Kingdom."
Kathwari was pleased with dealer attitudes and attendance at the dealer convention here. "We have almost as much attendance as last year," he said. "I was concerned when the attorney general made the warnings (about possible new terrorist attacks)."
Ethan Allen's ongoing challenge, he said, is to develop store environments that focus on how consumers live.
"How do we implement the branding of the store? We don't develop suites and collections; we look at lifestyles," he said.
The headquarters store where dealers examined new product reflected that approach. Vignettes such as "Urban Country Man" mixed existing collections with accessories, fabrics and accents designed to appeal to specific consumer lifestyles.
A video shown during the convention's opening session illustrated what Kathwari wants Ethan Allen retailers to do. Among several consumers featured in the presentation was a man who had written a letter to Kathwari about his experience with the company.
A friend had referred the man to Ethan Allen. He told the sales associate he wasn't going to buy anything, but she let him look around the store, and approached him later after seeing what interested him.
"She asked him, 'I know what you like, but what are your dreams?' " Kathwari said. "He said nobody had ever asked him that before."
The customer said he still didn't plan to buy, but then learned the associate could make a house call.
"He ended up making a purchase of more than $17,000," Kathwari said. "That is what our business is about — taking customers like those and turning them into clients."
| Ethan Allen's Farooq Kathwari, left, with Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, accepts a Connecticut Retail Merchants Assn. award naming Ethan Allen its 2001 Retailer of the Year. Rowland spoke at the association's annual luncheon. |
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