Former Raymour exec founds store design firm
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 6, 2003
Baldwinsville, N.Y. — Raymour & Flanigan veteran Rick Paice has formed Design Center Associates, an interior and exterior store design business here.
The company will handle everything from merchandising to interior layouts, total interior remodelings and new store development.
Paice, formerly vice president of store development for Liverpool, N.Y.-based retailer Raymour & Flanigan, worked for the Top 100 store for 27 years. He started as a sales associate, moved into store management, then into the corporate offices in 1987 as assistant to the vice president of sales.
He became vice president of merchandising in the early 1990s and, as part of the executive team, helped coordinate the merger of the then-separate Raymour and Flanigan chains. He was named vice president of store development in 1996.
Paice left Raymour in July and began developing his new business. Design Center Associates is working with outside sources McKnight Architects and Auburn Custom Millwork. Its clients include Barbara Jean's Furniture of North Rose, N.Y., and Scholet Furniture of Oneonta, N.Y.
At Raymour & Flanigan, Paice has been replaced by Jim Knittle, who joined the retailer in August as director of design.
