Raymour & Flanigan opens first Manhattan store today
Smaller footprint presents a challenge
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 25, 2007
NEW YORK — Raymour & Flanigan is opening its first Manhattan store today as it continues to penetrate the metro New York market.
The 15,000-square-foot store on 23rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is one of two former Moda Furniture leases recently acquired by the Top 100 company. The other will open later in the New York borough of Queens, confirmed Neil Goldberg, Raymour president and CEO.
The more than 70-store Liverpool, N.Y.-based retailer began expanding into the New York metro market about two and half years ago when it acquired two former Huffman Koos leases in Woodbridge, N.J., and Carle Place, Long Island. With the Manhattan store, it now operates 13 in the market.
Goldberg said the new store will create some challenges for the company, since it’s much smaller than Raymour’s average unit.
“We’re going to learn from our mistakes,” he said. “We’re going to attempt to display the store with what we perceive to be the best product in our core lineup for the Manhattan customer and modify the lineup as we go forward.”
He declined to disclose projected sales.
Fast-growing Raymour & Flanigan is No. 11 on Furniture/Today’s survey of Top 100 U.S. furniture stores with estimated furniture, bedding and accessories sales last year of $780.6 million at 70 stores, up more than 19% from $655.5 million at 59 stores the year before.
