Ashley once again leads single-source store networks
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, May 27, 2007
High Point — New No. 1 Ashley Furniture HomeStores and two bedding specialists helped the single-source store networks to an overall 9.6% sales increase beating the combined Top 100's 6.6% increase.
Without them, the results would have been less than spectacular, as four of the dedicated store networks posted sales decreases (compared to only one last year), another was basically flat and five had net decreases in their store count.
Sales up for 10 networks
Sales for the 10 networks increased to $6.75 billion from $6.16 billion for the same stores last year. That gave the companies a 12% share of all furniture store sales, up from 11% for the same stores last year. Their store count rose by a net 57 units, or 2.8%, thanks largely to Ashley, which added 77 stores and Select Comfort which tacked on 46 units.
But the store growth paled in comparison to last year's list of dedicated stores, which led all subcategories of the Top 100 with the addition of a net 127 stores.
The single-source network category includes manufacturer-dedicated stores regardless of ownership, (such as Ashley and Bassett Furniture Direct, which have a mix of company-owned and licensed stores), as well as the primarily franchised Norwalk — The Furniture Idea and vertically integrated Select Comfort.
Sofa Express in group
This year's group includes for the first time No. 40 Sofa Express and More!, the Klaussner-owned chain that over time has converted its assortment to the point that about 90% now is made or sourced by the parent company.
Late last year, Sofa Express closed about a third of its stores that were too small for its "and More" expanded format and less profitable, leading to a 26-store drop in the year-end unit count and contributing to an 8.5% drop-off in sales, the largest percentage decrease among the dedicated stores in the Top 100.
La-Z-Boy challenged
No. 9 La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries had a tough year, too, showing the largest dollar-volume decrease — down $37.5 million to $1.02 billion.
Others with sales declines were No. 15 Thomasville Home Furnishing Stores, down 3.8%, or $20 million to $510 million; and No. 71 Norwalk — The Furniture Idea, down less than 1% to $98.8 million.
No. 6 Ethan Allen was basically flat.
Ashley was the standout with a 32.8% increase in sales to $2.1 billion and the greatest net increase in dollar volume — up $519 million.
Select Comfort and No. 36 Serta-Exclusive Sleep Shops were next with 15% gains to $735 million and $241.6 million, respectively, though Serta Exclusive had the largest decrease in store count of any single-source network, dropping a net 41 units to 359 stores.
The only other single-source chain to post a sales increase better than the combined increase for the Top 100 was No. 42 Drexel Heritage, which grew 8.3%, or $15 million to $195 million and added a net five stores.
| Top single-source store networks | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranked by sales of furniture, bedding and accessories | ||||||
| Estimated furniture, bedding, accessory sales in $ millions | Number of units | |||||
| Rank | Company | 2006 | 2005 | Percent change 2005 to 2006 | 2006 | 2005 |
|
Source: Furniture/Today's Survey of Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores
|
||||||
| 1 | Ashley Furniture HomeStores | $2,100.0 | $1,581.0 | 32.8% | 296 | 219 |
| 6 | Ethan Allen | 1,198.1 | 1,197.9 | 0.0 | 273 | 279 |
| 9 | La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries | 1,021.1 | 1,058.6 | -3.5 | 306 | 308 |
| 12 | Select Comfort | 735.0 | 639.2 | 15.0 | 442 | 396 |
| 15 | Thomasville Home Furnishings Stores | 510.0 | 530.0 | -3.8 | 156 | 150 |
| 20 | Bassett Furniture Direct | 445.0 | 440.0 | 1.1 | 132 | 129 |
| 36 | Serta-Exclusive Sleep Shops | 241.6 | 210.0 | 15.0 | 359 | 400 |
| 40 | Sofa Express and More! | 206.9 | 226.0 | -8.5 | 47 | 73 |
| 42 | Drexel Heritage | 195.0 | 180.0 | 8.3 | 49 | 44 |
| 71 | Norwalk - The Furniture Idea | 98.8 | 99.1 | -0.3 | 60 | 65 |
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