Ashley dealer growing
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 9, 2006
Olean, N.Y. — The Ashley Furniture HomeStores licensee in western New York state plans to open three more stores and a distribution center by early 2007 in a growth push expected to more than double annual sales.
Tim Quinn, co-owner and a managing partner in three dedicated Ashley stores, said a fourth 45,000-square-foot unit is under construction in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, and is expected to open July 1.
The company also has signed a lease for its first Rochester-area store, also 45,000 square feet, in the suburb of Henrietta.
That store and a 75,000-square-foot distribution center in Batavia, near Buffalo, which will support the expansion, are expected to open in August.
Quinn said the owners are looking to open a second Rochester store during the first quarter of next year.
Even without a second Rochester store, Quinn estimated sales for his Ashley HomeStores should grow to between $46 million and $50 million annually, up from about $22 million this past year for the three stores in Amherst, a Buffalo suburb; Olean, south of Buffalo; and Horseheads, 90 miles southeast of Rochester and the company's first Ashley store, opened six years ago.
Quinn said he and his partners have pursued a fairly conservative growth strategy until now, testing the Ashley format while continuing to operate the full-line Carpet Town Furniture stores.
"We have taken the time we needed to have all the elements in place to support and sustain this program," he said.
Carpet Town was established 39 years ago and grew to three stores in western New York, selling brands such as Ashley, Broyhill, Lane and Klaussner as well as floor coverings.
Quinn and his partners operned their first Ashley store in April 2000 and were "just ecstatic" about the results.
"We feel to be successful in the home furnishings business you need to team up and be vertically integrated with a manufacturer," he said. "You couldn't ask for a better partner," he said of Ashley.
The company opened a second Ashley store in November 2003 in Amherst. Then last year, it shut down its Carpet Town stores, converting the largest to a 57,000-square-foot Ashley store in Olean, with corporate offices and an attached Carpet Town store that now sells only floor coverings.
The two Ashley stores and distribution center opening this year involve an investment of over $11 million, Quinn said. The company got a $1.2 million low-interest loan from the Empire State Development organization for the warehouse in Batavia, and a $540,000 award from the Governor's Office for Small Cities initiative.
The distribution center will replace a smaller, 43,000-square-foot warehouse in Buffalo, which is not racked and has only five dock doors. The new facility will be racked to its 35-foot ceilings and will have 27 bay doors. It also will house some corporate functions. Quinn said he hopes the facility eventually will support all the company's Ashley stores.
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