Breuners Ariz. to close
Business OK, but buyout offer too good
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 30, 2007
Scottsdale, Ariz. — Breuners Arizona is closing all four of its stores after 40 years in business.
CEO Mary Ann Levitt said the retailer, based here, received an unsolicited offer that "was so good we couldn't turn it down," from Scottsdale Healthcare for the flagship location.
The property includes a 120,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse at 1776 N. Scottsdale Road, and also adjacent land where the company operates a 10,000-square-foot youth specialty store.
"Because (the flagship store) was so central to what we are, we decided to close the other stores around it," Levitt said. The company's 30,000-square-foot showroom in Glendale, Ariz., and 13,000-square-foot store in Prescott, Ariz., also will close.
Daniel Lynch Sales will run the closing sale, beginning as a private event May 1 and opening to the public May 4, she said. The sales are expected to run two to three months.
Levitt would not provide sales projections or results for last year. She said the family-owned, upscale business has remained profitable and that sales were "OK" last year, but down from the year before.
Furniture/Today estimated Breuners Arizona sales at between $15 million and $19.9 million in 2005.
The business was started by Levitt's father, Norman Levitt, 40 years ago as Mayo's Home Furnishings. He later sold the operation to the former multi-state retail company Breuners, then bought it back in 1992. That's when Mary Ann Levitt took over as CEO.
The latter Levitt, who was the National Home Furnishings Assn.'s president in 2003, said the closing has nothing to do with the business climate.
"It's been a profitable business for the family all these years," she said. She added that she was saddened to be leaving the furniture industry, but could return at some point.
