Ballenger opens upscale store
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, July 31, 2006
Edmond, Okla. — Charles Ballenger wanted to open his new Ballengers store here with products that would be different from other retailers in the market, and that would draw customers to "lifestyle" furniture depicting travel and adventure.
The veteran retailer turned to Highland House and the manufacturer's "shops" concept, which showcases groups of furniture based on locations in Europe — England, France, Italy and, most recently, Scandinavia.
Ballengers is in a new, upscale, 10 million-square-foot shopping center built by Ballenger and his brother to attract like-minded tenants, including upscale restaurants, fine clothing stores and specialty shops.
After 30 years in the business, Ballenger wanted to stock his store with merchandise that would attract affluent homeowners from this north Oklahoma City suburb, where houses run from $500,000 to $1.5 million and McMansions are common.
"The decision to establish a store that would feature this kind of merchandise was reached after quite a bit of review," he said. "For over two years, I've watch Tom (Staats, Highland House's president) and what he's putting together. It's a tightly focused group. Tom has put a lot of study into what he's done."
The 16,000-square-foot Ballengers, which recently had a soft opening, is among a growing number of retailers that, amid a sea of sameness, is looking for something different that's easily understood by consumers. Perhaps more important is that it must be highly salable.
Highland House, the Century Furniture division long known as a traditional furniture company, took that direction nearly 10 years ago when it introduced Cotswold Cottage, a romantic group reminiscent of an English manor.
That struck a chord with consumers, and spawned Rue de Provence, a cottage-style French offering with colorful fabrics and antique finishes; Le Cinque Terre, inspired by the coastal Italian villages of the same name; and the latest, Scandinavian Simplicity, a clean contemporary group introduced in April.
All include case goods, upholstery and occasional, and are grouped under the banner of European Excursions. Each market, a few new pieces typically are added to each group, but the aim is to keep the groups tightly focused, with each piece carefully selected.
Highland House's shops concept is catching on with a number of retailers, who like the Excursions story and its niche in the marketplace.
Luke Depuis, who describes himself as a designer and entrepreneur, owns Home Comfort on Lake Winnipesauke in Center Harbor, N.H., and says he's had success mixing the eclectic Excursion pieces with real antiques.
"Highland House really 'gets it' with the charm factor, and this is just the type of charm I go out of my way to find for my customers," he said. "This kind of furniture helps me connect with my customers. People want a connection with home as a safe haven like never before. I want to help them find this connection, and I get that with Highland House."
Home Comfort recently opened a separate, 8,000-square-foot building, on two levels, which features a design center and contains a number of vignettes put together in the same manner Highland House recommends for its shops, which range from 800 to 1,200 square feet.
American Home Showplace in Dalton, Ga., went full size with a 1,200-square-foot Highland House presentation. Owner John Holcomb describes it as "the total package, a lifestyle the consumer can understand and fully appreciate."
Holcomb also refers to the "charm" of the collection, which, for American Home Showplace, is mostly Cotswold Cottage, with settees, sofas and chairs mixed with selected case pieces from Le Cinque Terre.
Dan Johnson, owner of Scott Randall Inc., a 40,000-square-foot showroom in Houston, had Ron Curlee, Highland House's director of visual merchandising, come to Texas to help in the selection of colors, fabrics and the various pieces they would feature in their 800-square-foot shop, which opened Feb. 20.
The store repainted walls — light greens, robin's egg blues, neutrals and khaki — and added wood floors and decorative touches to create the ambiance of the villages of Cinque Terre. Scott Randall caters to designers involved primarily in residential designs and model homes, and the shop area is the first thing they see when they enter the store.
The case goods are finished in fruitwood and an offwhite painted finish, plus trompe l'oeil painted accents — which, for Johnson, are the best feature of the collection. He said the single biggest hit so far is the Cinque Terre dining table with dining-height bench and chairs.
So far, Ballengers is considered the flagship retailer for European Excursions, with the most space devoted to Excursions, almost 5,000 square feet housing the entire collection, including the Scandinavian group.
The new store allows Ballenger to "return from whence we came," he said. Ballenger has been a dealer for Henredon and Drexel Heritage but, tired of big-box merchandising and deflation caused by Chinese imports, left the upscale market for a midpriced to promotional store he recently closed. In his new store, he aims to provide high-quality merchandise and white-glove customer service.
Ballenger expects half his business will be custom order, and he's counting on vendors, which include King Hickory, Rowe, A.R.T. and Sealy, for quick delivery to minimize his inventory. One reason Ballenger selected Excursions is its limited number of pieces, which allows for attention to design quality and avoids the "shotgun approach" of presenting products to the market.
"We're going to be very selective and try to represent a niche," he said. "Some manufacturers have 70 to 80 SKUs in one pattern. That's simply not necessary."
Talkback
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Their customer service is horrible. My mother referred me there because she had spent in the...
- 2008-05-05 15:50:03 -
Smart move Charlie....
- 2008-02-14 11:31:12
