Breuners set to replace, upgrade big store near San Jose
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 29, 2004
CAMPBELL, Calif. — CAMPBELL, Calif. — Breuners will open a 73,000-square-foot store here next year, replacing an existing unit just yards away with a higher-profile, updated version.
Construction on the three-level store, south of San Francisco near San Jose, will begin in April. The current Breuners store on East Hamilton Avenue will be torn down after the new one opens, making room for parking between the new showroom and a Kohl's department store.
Breuners is expected to soft open the store late this year or early next year, then grand open before the planned Kohl's opening next spring.
"The move is a win-win situation for us because we retain the same great location but gain a brand new, modern facility," said Joe Reddington, chairman and CEO of Breuners parent Breuners Home Furnishings Corp., based in Lancaster, Pa.
Reddington said the existing store is old and difficult to renovate. The new store, with roughly the same display space as the existing one-level showroom, will have higher visibility with its three levels. Big windows will draw attention to the furniture, and the Kohl's should help draw increased traffic, he said.
Reddington wouldn't disclose BHFC's investment in the leased location or project sales, but noted the existing store, despite its limitations, is BHFC's highest-volume unit among its 10 Sacramento Valley and Bay Area Breuners stores.
The new store is expected to be a top performer chainwide, he said.
A Top 100 company, BHFC has 46 stores under three banners — Breuners in the West and Good's Furniture and Huffman Koos in the Northeast. Its furniture, bedding and accessory sales last year dipped to about $325 million from an estimated $361.8 million in 2002, hurt in part by severe winter weather that shut down East Coast stores.
But Reddington said more recent business points to a dramatic reversal. Sales have been up four months in a row, and same-store sales were up by double digits in January and February. While consumer confidence nationally faded in February, Reddington said BHFC didn't experience it.
"We've felt a little more customer buoyancy out there," he said, perhaps a sign the upscale segment of the industry is recovering.
The new Campbell store will be the first on the West Coast to display Breuners' lineup largely by lifestyle, a direction BHFC has been refining since it opened its Woodbridge, N.J., Huffman Koos over two years ago.
Back then, the new design incorporated lifestyle and category displays, but Reddington said the Campbell store will reflect BHFC's greater current emphasis on lifestyle over category, with a spotlight on contemporary styles that have been hot for the company everywhere.
Key suppliers include Broyhill, Lane and J. Royale, a hot vendor now with sofas retailing from $1,200 to $1,500. Others include Klaussner, Flexsteel, Century and Universal; Elite, Natale and DeCoro for leather upholstery; Shermag, Precedent and Bauhaus for contemporary merchandise; and Sealy and Simmons in bedding.
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