Furniture First adds stores, elects new officers, board
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 23, 2007
High Point — The Furniture First buying group introduced new members and newly elected officers and board members at its annual meeting here during the spring market.
The five new members and stockholders in the member-owned cooperative are John Mikos, Mikos & Matt Furniture, Fort Dodge, Iowa; Don Lemieux, Naturwood Home Furnishings, Rancho Cordova, Calif.; Richard Dunhoff, Weiss Furniture, Latrobe, Pa.; Larry Mark, FWDG Furniture, Beaufort, S.C.; and Helen Horowitz, Suffern Furniture, Suffern, N.Y.
The additions bring Furniture First to 126 stockholders with nearly 300 stores and $1.3 billion in buying power, according to the group.
At the meeting, the group's first in the High Point Theater and sponsored by the High Point Market Authority, members re-elected these board members to two-year terms: Sam Fishbein, Kacey Fine Furniture, Denver; Ron Hatch, Hatch Furniture, Yankton, S.D.; Steve Rotman, Rotmans Furniture, Worcester, Mass.; and Jeff Winter, Discovery Furniture, Topeka, Kan.
Larry Kurpiewski of Commercial Home Furnishings, Boise, Idaho, was newly elected to the board.
The board elected officers to one-year terms. They are Rotman, chairman; Winter, vice chairman; Fishbein, treasurer; and Larry Smith, Smith Home Furnishings, Ponca City, Okla., secretary.
Continuing board members are Smith; Russ Blocker, Blocker's Furniture, Ocala, Fla.; Riley Griffiths, Riley's Furniture, Monroe, Ohio; Mike Kordik, Mike's Furniture, Joliet, Ill.; and Bob Wetmore, A&W Furniture, Redwood Falls, Minn.
Ed Berglund, Top Hat Furniture, Kearney, Neb., serves as a board adviser, and Bill Hartman continues as Furniture First president.
The group also honored the winners of its member interior design competition after receiving 130 photo entries of finished rooms designed by the stores' interior designers. Emily Davis, A&W Furniture, took the first place $500 award. Paula Routzahn and Debbie Rush, Routzahn's Furniture, Frederick, Md., won the $250 second place award, and Heather Bishop Palmer, Montgomery's Furniture, Madison, S.D., won the $100 third-place prize.
All entries will be featured on Furniture First's new consumer Web site, furniturefirst.com, when it launches in June
At the meeting, Furniture First thanked the Market Authority, the city of High Point and Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. for their efforts and help in organizing the group's market events. The group previously held its meeting at the Marriott Airport Hotel.
