Jedlowski plans 4 more Ashley stores
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 29, 2005
Scottsdale, Ariz. — Michael Jedlowski, whose network of 12 Ashley Furniture HomeStores already is Top 100 worthy, will open four more stores through the first quarter of next year in a bid to grow to $300 million in sales or more by the end of 2006.
Jedlowski's Southwestern Furniture, the largest licensee of Ashley stores, will open its third Las Vegas-area and San Diego stores by the end of this year.
A fourth Atlanta store and a sixth unit in its home Phoenix market are set for the first quarter of next year, for a total of 16 units. All stores will be 40,000 to 60,000 square feet.
The growth should propel Southwestern Furniture well into Furniture/Today's Top 100 store ranking. The chain did about $145 million in sales this past year, said Jedlowski, a veteran retailer and a former president of Ashley's Millennium division. (If an estimate had been available, Southwestern would have ranked No. 50 on this year's Top 100.)
This year, Jedlowski expects sales to reach $200 million. And next year, with four more stores, sales should hit $300 million to $350 million, he said.
"Our growth has been spectacular," Jedlowski said. He believes all four of his markets — Las Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix and Atlanta — will be able to support still more stores after the pending additions, although there are no immediate plans.
In Las Vegas, a 40,000-square-foot showroom is planned for the Centennial Gateway shopping center near Interstates 215 and U.S. Highway 95.
Expansion in Las Vegas makes good sense, he said. The desert community has led his other markets in same-store sales gains, with the two locations up about 29% this year. The Henderson, Nev., store is the company's best performer with same-store sales up 45% this year, Jedlowski said.
That's a far cry from a few years ago, when Ashley came calling on its former Millennium president to rescue two stores in the market that were failing under a previous licensee.
Jedlowski acquired the Las Vegas stores in July 2000 and finished the year with $2 million in sales. (Henderson opened a year later and one of the original Las Vegas stores eventually closed). By September 2001, the stores were profitable and running well enough for him to expand to the Phoenix market, opening his first store in Scottsdale, Ariz., and moving his headquarters there, too.
"I always called the Las Vegas stores the mother of all the other stores," he said. "Those stores built the rest of the company."
In 2002, Jedlowski took on another problem city for Ashley, Atlanta. He brought a team from his organization to help the struggling Ashley licensee, but ended up buying the two stores and turning them to a profit the next month.
How did he succeed where others had not?
"I believed," he said. "I believed in the brand. I believed in the concept. I believed that they could be and should be successful."
Jedlowski, who now runs the hottest group of stores within the hottest dedicated store network these days, said he also believes in the vision of Ashley's top executives Ron Wanek and Todd Wanek, and their focus on operational excellence. Just like Ashley the manufacturer, Jedlowski's retail operation concentrates as much on back-end execution as it does on store display, marketing and other front-end details.
Each of his four markets is supported by a distribution center. By the middle of next year, he plans to open a 116,000-square-foot distribution center in Las Vegas, more than twice the size of the two warehouses he uses there today. In Phoenix, by the end of 2006, the company will more than double its distribution capacity by moving to a 285,000-square-foot facility.
The company also is shopping for land for new distribution centers in San Diego and Atlanta.
"We're growing our company because my people want to grow," Jedlowski said. "Ron (Wanek) once told me when you get good people and you train them to grow, then take that growth away, they get unhappy and disenfranchised.
"My store managers want to be general managers. My warehouse people want to be warehouse managers."
Ashley Chairman Ron Wanek said Jedlowski's Southwestern Furniture has probably been Ashley's largest dedicated-store dealer for the past four years.
"He understands all aspects of the business and he's a good leader," Wanek said. "He gets in there and he works with people. He's very good on the human side."
Indeed, Jedlowski gives his 1,200 employees a lot of credit for the company's success.
"We've got a great company," he said, adding that Ashley and his own operation are among the most operationally efficient companies he has ever dealt with. "And we've just got people who truly believe in what they do every day.
"Nowhere in the industry will you find more committed, educated and personable people to help you with your selection and design."
Jedlowski, 42, got his start in retail as a salesperson for Art Van in the Detroit market. He later moved to Texas, where he became the No. 1 salesperson at Levitz before moving through its merchandising department.
From there, Jedlowski joined Houston-based Finger Furniture as case goods buyer. He was named senior vice president at the former Smith's Home Furnishings of Wilsonville, Ore., before joining Ashley as Millennium president in 1995. He moved on to other retail ventures in 1997.
Wanek said Jedlowski's retail background and his Ashley experience made him an ideal candidate for the Las Vegas challenge.
The Ashley HomeStores network is on track to grow to 200 stores this year from 153 at the end of 2004, Wanek said, though he declined to disclose projected sales. Ranked No. 8 on Furniture/Today's Top 100, Ashley's HomeStores have been the fastest-growing name in the Top 100 for three consecutive years, with 2004 sales climbing more than 52% from a year earlier to $913 million.
