Knoxville Wholesale Furniture adds Ashley store
Previous licensee went out of business
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 18, 2009
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville Wholesale Furniture has added a fourth store here with the takeover of an Ashley Furniture HomeStores location.The 41,000-square-foot store, which closed earlier this year after its previous licensee went out of business, has reopened and will begin an official grand opening promotion this weekend, said Tim Harris, president and owner of Knoxville Wholesale.
He wouldn't disclose the terms of the deal, but told the Knoxville News Sentinel he had invested about $1 million to lease the location and will buy it if it does well.
"We were already doing major business with Ashley, but this was an opportunity to grab some market share," Harris said.
He said the store is in the Turkey Creek area of west Knoxville, "probably the best location" in the city in a busy retail shopping corridor.
Harris projected the store will do $8 million to $10 million on an annualized basis and will help push Knoxville Wholesale Furniture's market share in the city to the 40% to 50% range by the end of the year.
"We're going to run it a little differently," Harris said, adding that the store will use Knoxville Wholesale's in-stock model rather than the typical Ashley model, which doesn't require retailers to carry much inventory. The retailer will inventory Ashley goods for the store in its 130,000-square-foot distribution center, which is attached to a 93,000-square-foot store the retailer opened earlier this year.
"We think that will increase sales 20% to 30% over the normal Ashley model," Harris said.
"Were ready to go," he said. "The store looks beautiful and we're glad to add it to our family of stores."
Knoxville Wholesale Furniture is listed in Furniture/Today's Beyond the Top 100 report, to be published Monday, with estimated sales last year of $27 million.
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