Colegrove: Realizing the vision at Aspen
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, October 16, 2005
Phoenix — Since joining the Aspen Furniture organization in October 2001, Bill Colegrove has helped take the onetime home office, entertainment and occasional furniture specialist to the next level with new product categories and new customers. Aspen now imports an array of occasional, case goods and leather upholstery, and continues to manufacture at its plant here.
Colegrove is general manager of Furniture Values International, the distributor for Aspen. On the eve of the High Point market, he sat down with Furniture/Today Editor-in-Chief Ray Allegrezza to talk about Aspen's past, present and future.
Q: What first brought you to Aspen?
Colegrove: I initially met Rick and Bob MacMillan, the owners of Aspen Furniture, when they sold the company in 1998. Initially, I was an advisor responsible for helping them package the sale to a private equity group. When they came back in to look at the company in 2001, not as shareholders but as creditors, they asked if I could help with the due diligence process. We began working on that in July of 2001, purchased the assets in October of that year and I've been here ever since.
What was it about Aspen that prompted you to join the company?
I saw the raw ingredients for growth. I also saw the opportunity to align with the MacMillans, who had already been successful in the furniture industry. I've been a CFO and CEO and my love in life is building companies that have a worthy purpose. I enjoy marrying vision with people who really know their business. It made for a winning combination and I have not been disappointed.
What were your initial reactions after joining?
What I realized more than anything else was how little I knew about the furniture business and just how much there was to learn. I asked a lot of questions and listened intently to get a good reading of Aspen's initial positioning.
What did you perceive to be Aspen's biggest opportunities and how did you pursue them?
The company had earned a good reputation for being a strong home office and home entertainment supplier. That, at the time, was truly our core competency. The industry gave us credit for that. The industry also gave us credit for a quality product that was being produced in our Arizona facility. We were also beginning to get credit for our then-fledgling import division in those categories.
What were your largest challenges and what did you do to minimize them?
The biggest challenge was to get everyone at Aspen, the employees and reps, to think and act like a team. Additionally, we had to get them to believe that they were capable of becoming consistent winners. The reality was that they had been in a crash-and-burn situation, so part of my focus was to transform the culture from one that had been full of obstacles to one that was centered on success. I knew that if we were capable of believing that internally, we had the ability to convince the market of those same capabilities.
How did you manage to facilitate that change?
Actually, the marketplace really did a lot of the heavy lifting. At markets such as High Point, our people saw firsthand how the retailers embraced our products. That confirmed that we had the ammunition to compete. As Colegrove the orders came in and filled the pipeline, our team knew that we were on the right path. Now, we had to support great product with great service, delivery and support, which we've tried to do.
You mentioned your team. Can you briefly tell me a bit about the team and what it brings to the party?
The team at Aspen starts with the strong dealer base that has been accumulated over Aspen's 20-year history, which we inherited when we bought the company four years ago. Their continued loyalty and trust in our company and our products during the time of ownership transition will never be forgotten.
Secondly, the key vendors and strategic partners, including our overseas factory partners, cooperated willingly and allowed us to work very closely with them. Together we figured out innovative ways to do things differently and to build competitive products that we have been able to pass through to our dealers.
And lastly, I am most grateful to the owners and employees of Aspen, and our dedicated sales representatives, that continue to showcase their talents, skills and careers toward this new vision that we have mutually set for our company. Truly, it's been one of the greatest privileges of my career to be a part of such a well-rounded, talented and capable team.
Where is Aspen today?
I think Aspen is beginning to shed its reputation of simply being a regional supplier of furniture. We are also shedding the image of being a West Coast niche player, which at one point we were. Now, we can perform on a much larger stage and compete on a platform that includes much more than just niche products.
Is Aspen creating a new business model? If so, what is it?
Yes, we are trying to. My sense is that leaders in the industry are creating fusion in the sense of blending furniture talent with non-furniture talent as we have tried to do at Aspen. There has been recognition within our industry, and certainly at Aspen, that successful furniture suppliers in the future will be three-dimensional entities that will compete heavily in the power of its product, the power of its process, along with the power of its people.
Historically, our industry elevated product only as king, sometimes at the expense of process or people. In my opinion, successful suppliers and manufacturers in the future will have proven products, processes and people. Further, as part of the process, the successful company will support the product with logistics and delivery systems to get the furniture to the customer quicker, better, faster and at the best possible price. This type of company will also be an easy company to do business with. While we've not perfected every aspect of this vision, we see this as essential and are working toward that goal.
Tell us about your blended strategy.
With each passing day, the stigma of imports continues to fade away. Where these goods were once looked at skeptically, then as necessary evils, the right imports are now seen as providing immense values. We've invested heavily overseas and have built a mirror image, departmentally, of our organization here in the States. At the same time, we continue to preserve and stress the unique selling proposition that our domestic factory offers. For example, for customers who want large entertainment centers, armoires and other items that have a lot of cubes, we can be very competitive by making them domestically. Also, we can provide customers who want a custom finish with more options domestically than we can from our offshore facilities.
What does Aspen need to do to execute its vision?
We need to continue to be successful in terms of expanding categories that Aspen is competitive in. Since our beginnings in home office, we've also added leather upholstery. At this market, we will be showing six full bedroom collections, and we have a strong assortment of casual dining goods waiting in the wings. Along with new products, we need to continue to demonstrate our competitiveness so that retailers begin giving us credit for being the full-line, national provider that we believe we are capable of becoming. We need to do that day by day, buyer by buyer and product category by product category.
Where will Aspen be five years from now?
Following on the previous question, if we are truly successful in earning the business with our retailers, we see the Aspen brand carrying greater equity in the market. Five years from now, we plan on having the Aspen brand promise well received and understood by both retailers and consumers. It will take hard work and good fortune, but we think it is possible. The playing field is global and this is a great time to be in the furniture business.
What is your mission statement?
To be a top 25 provider of quality, full-line furniture that is thoughtfully designed. Our goal is to allow that process to make aspects of the human experience, such as working, playing and relaxing, possible for all our consumers.
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