Robb & Stucky enters southeast Florida
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, November 11, 2002
Boca Raton, Fla. — Robb & Stucky will open an 80,000-square-foot store here next year, entering the southeast Florida market with its brand of upscale furniture retailing while offering more non-furniture categories then ever.
The Top 100 chain will lease the two-level former Jacobson's department store building in Mizner Park, a high-end shopping village on Federal Highway between Glades and Palmetto Park roads.
"We're going to take the best of all the things we do and we're going to enhance that even more," said Fred Berk, president of the 13-store, Fort Myers, Fla.-based chain.
The property is being renovated and should be ready to open by the end of the first quarter, Berk said. He would not disclose Robb & Stucky's investment or the projected sales from the new store.
Robb & Stucky will introduce non-furniture line extensions that it doesn't currently offer, from high-end linens and tabletop to high-end bath fixtures. The former Jacobson's included a hair salon, and Berk said Robb & Stucky is considering maintaining that.
The move into new categories reflects the retailer's efforts to boost revenues and margins. Berk said business this year has been difficult, as it has for other high-end furniture retailers.
"A lot of (the line-extension effort) is being prompted by our concerns over declining pricing on product and the erosion of margins," he said.
If all goes well, Robb & Stucky could roll out the new categories to its other stores in Florida, Texas and Arizona, he said.
The store here will be somewhat smaller than its four super-stores — which average about 100,000 square feet — forcing the retailer to be even more creative in pulling off its trademark eclectic lifestyle displays while incorporating new categories.
In furniture, Berk said the store will have a full complement of the upscale brands it currently carries, plus others he wouldn't name. Key suppliers will include Henredon, Century, Ferguson Copeland, Stanley, Baker, E.J. Victor, American Leather, and Chatham & Wells and Spring Air in bedding.
While Robb & Stucky will be entering a competitive high-end furniture market with the likes of Carls, Baer's and others, Berk doesn't anticipate serious distribution issues.
"Carls and free-standing designers Hilda Flack (Interiors), Fran Murphy (Interiors) — these are good people," he said. "We feel the competitive nature of the marketplace will be very good for us."
Ranked No. 28 on Furniture/Today's list of Top 100 U.S. furniture stores, Robb & Stucky generated $222 million in furniture, bedding and accessory sales last year, up slightly from the year before. Berk said the company is shooting for about the same sales this year or a sight increase.
