Art Van Furniture marking 50th anniversary with big parties at three stores

Supermodel Cindy Crawford to attend Oct. 1 event in Warren, Mich.

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, September 14, 2009

WARREN, Mich. — Art Van Furniture is wrapping up its 50th anniversary celebration by hosting giant parties at three of its 31 Michigan stores next month.

The biggest is set for Oct. 1 at the Top 100 retailer's flagship store here and will include entertainment from iL CIRCo, a performance troupe; a 14-piece band; and special guests, including former supermodel Cindy Crawford.

Art Van will hold similar 50th anniversary gala events at its store in Flint, Mich., on Oct. 4 and in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 28. The company is underwriting all costs of the parties, which it won't disclose. All proceeds from the ticket sales to attend - starting at $100 a person - will go to selected charities.

In addition, a local television station in each of the three markets is giving the company a free block of time, from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., to air a live event from the stores on the three party nights. The broadcast will include interviews and a retrospective of Art Van's milestones.

The three store events are expected to raise more than $500,000 for several charities -the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center and the Neuroscience Institute at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit; the special care nursery at Genesys Regional Medical Center and cancer patient transportation vans at St. Mary's of Michigan Foundation in Flint; and the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital Foundation in Grand Rapids.

Art Van is expecting some 2,800 people to attend the events - 1,200 alone at the flagship store party. Attendees will include key suppliers and retailer friends from throughout the United States and Canada that Chairman Art Van Elslander has made during his 50 years in business.

Guests at all three events will receive a gift box of Sanders chocolates, and one box at each event will contain a "golden ticket" for a $2,500 shopping spree.

The events are a culmination of a months-long anniversary celebration that has featured many charitable giveaways, including donations of 500 mattresses to shelters, 50 bedroom groups to chronically ill children, and a $1 million charity event benefiting 50 nonprofit organizations in the state.

Van Elslander said he has been touched by the letters he's received from many of his industry friends, congratulating him on the milestone. They're all going into a special book he's compiled for the event.

While celebrating Art Van's history in Michigan, growing to become the dominant furniture store in the state, this year also is ushering in a new era for a company that Van Elslander said is determined to continue changing with the times.

This year, the retailer opened its first Art Van Pure Sleep bedding store, and more such units are planned. And later this year it will open a 27,000-square-foot full-line store in the Grand Rapids suburb of Granville.

Van Elslander said Pure Sleep is off to an "excellent start," and that the retailer overall is doing well this year, with sales slightly ahead of 2008. Art Van ranked No. 17 on Furniture/Today's Top 100 with estimated furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $440 million in 2008, off 6.4% from the previous year.

"I think it's a wonderful time for people to really take their personal inventory - in terms of manpower and how they operate their business and evaluate their systems and everything it takes to do business in 2010," Van Elslander said. He added that the business climate and the consumer have changed dramatically in the past 10 years and that "the people unwilling to make these changes" will fail.

Art Van, he said, is leaving no stone unturned - probing everything from operations and performance measures to its presence on the Internet.

"We're looking at everything, including our advertising," he said. "The way we did it (a few years ago) is ‘yesterday.' " For example, he said, "no, no, no" advertising is out.

And while the retailer is looking for someone to fill the CEO slot with the recent departure of Marshall Whaling, Van Elslander said he has no plans to step away from the business he loves so much.

When things were very good, he said, "I, like a lot of others, became a little bored." But today, the industry is in unchartered waters, he said.

"I don't think anybody has a compass. As a result, it's more challenging, and I really enjoy playing the game better that way."