Room & Board opens in New York
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2005
New York — The new Room & Board store in the trendy SoHo section of Manhattan is merchandised for the Big Apple, says founder and President John Gabbert.
While the retailer is based in Minneapolis, Gabbert said it has long experience with New Yorkers' needs and preferences through its catalog and online programs. New York represents the biggest market of any city without a Room & Board store for the catalog, which accounts for 25% of the company's total revenue.
Some features of three-level SoHo store, which has roughly 35,000 square feet:
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Sofas in vignettes are presented in "smaller scale," although larger sizes also are featured and are available in each style.
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Kids furniture and furnishings are housed in a smaller space than in the company's Chicago store, "but we expect this to be a strong category here," said Gabbert.
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Accessories are presented dramatically, both in separate outposts as well as in vignettes throughout the store.
"We didn't really buy differently; it's more in the presentation," Gabbert said. The New York store follows the company's design credo: classic yet simple, with the Room & Board brand focusing on 20th and 21st century style and Retrospect centering on 17th to 19th century designs.
Compared with the chain's seven other stores in Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado and California, there's a little more Retrospect in SoHo to give it more of a "New York antique shop feeling," said Gabbert.
The company concentrates on American suppliers, including McCreary Modern and Shenandoah, plus "some small companies in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin," he said. "We feel their quality is more superior and we use native American woods — maple, walnut, ebony."
At the end of April, the company will open a 48,000-square-foot store in San Francisco — its first in the city — at 7th and Townsend. Both the store here and the one in San Francisco are in restored buildings, a former Knoll showroom and former warehouse, respectively.
Room & Board said it will move in May to a 194,000-square-foot distribution center in Rogers, Minn., that will greatly expand its warehouse space. The company now uses 100,000 square feet of its headquarters building in Minneapolis.
Rogers is just northeast of the city, and employees will transfer to the new facility.
The former warehouse space at the headquarters will be used for furniture selection and testing, and an expanded photo studio for catalog production.
Furniture/Today estimated the company's sales at $112 million in 2003, and Gabbert said sales rose about 20% in 2004. For 2005, he projects growth of about 30%, largely because of the addition of the New York and San Francisco stores.
"We are trying not to grow too fast," said Gabbert.
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