Kittle's sharpens image, store
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, November 16, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS — Kittle's took advantage of the grand reopening of its storm-damaged flagship store in this metro area by not only giving the showroom a facelift but by repositioning the company's image.
Its new personality: the go-to furniture store for increasingly value-conscious consumers.
This past summer, winds from a severe thunderstorm lifted the roof of Kittle's 135,000-square-foot Castleton, Ind., store and headquarters, broke a water main and flooded the showroom. In late September, the 14-store Top 100 company unveiled a more than $4 million remodel, along with a new “Kittle's — For Everyone, For Less,” company-wide merchandising and marketing campaign.
The results have been great, said Eric Easter, president and chief operating officer. He said Kittle's has posted double-digit sales increases from August — before the work was completed — through October. November also is off to a “huge” start, he added.
“We've occupied a niche of better furniture in our marketplace for many years, and we have an incredibly strong market share in that segment,” Easter said. “But as everyone knows, the better furniture niche is smaller than it was.”
With the weak economy, “everyone is stepping down, interested in saving more money and being more value-conscious than they've ever been,” he said. “But they still want selection, and no one can offer more selection than we can in any category.”
In the Castleton store, Kittle's largest, the company has made significant changes in its assortment, expanding into promotional goods and adding more furniture at middle price points in nearly all categories. Easter said the retailer isn't abandoning its more upscale offerings from the likes of Century, Henredon and Drexel Heritage, but now it is appealing to a much broader consumer base with the same kind of quality, service and selection it is known for.
In upholstery, Kittle's stepped down one price point to $499 with eight frames. It also expanded at the $599 price point, moving to nine frames (from just one before the remodel) and to 11 sofas at $699, from two before.
More than half of Kittle's sofa offering is still at $999 or more, showing its commitment to upscale goods. But the additions make Kittles “approachable to more people,” Easter said.
The company has made the shift in all stores in the Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, metro areas, except for its Ethan Allen and Thomasville stores and its two room package specialty stores. Displays have been arranged so that the new lower prices make an impact as soon as consumers enter.
The other stores are smaller and can't carry as many SKUs as Castleton, but the proportion of promotional to midpriced to high-end is the same everywhere.
“And we did it pretty much within the vendor structure we have,” Easter said.
Kittle's is carrying a broader mix from key suppliers including Klaussner, Corinthian, Broyhill, Samuel Lawrence, Franklin, Jofran, Homelegance, Jackson, Stratford and HTL.
In the Castleton complex, the retailer took about half the space dedicated to its Design Studio — about 7,000 square feet — and converted it to an attached Leather for Less store, with its own entrance from the parking lot and product from HTL, Lane, Klaussner, Broyhill, Hancock & Moore, Bradington-Young, Elite, Bernhardt and others.
Asked how the more promotional and value-oriented approach differs from the retailer's two existing Kittle's Rooms Express stores in the Indianapolis market, Easter said that while there is some overlap in price points, the strategy is different. Rooms Express, he said, is a room package specialty store with a different product lineup that dips below $399 sofas, and a different marketing thrust with an “Easy to Shop, Easy to Save” tagline.
Despite continuing tough business conditions, consumer response to the changes has been very good, Easter said, adding, “We've certainly been gaining market share.”
“That storm cloud definitely had a silver lining,” said Kittle's Chairman Jim Kittle. “We heard nothing but positives about our new direction from our customers over Labor Day weekend. In fact, it was the biggest Labor Day event in our history, even though we were still under construction. Now that it's complete, it is really something to see.”
Kittle's is No. 78 on Furniture/Today's Top 100, with estimated sales last year of $72.1 million.
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