Finger back in business
Houston retailer opens remodeled store
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 1, 2010
HOUSTON —
Rodney Finger has reopened the flagship Finger Furniture store here a year after debt problems and the weak economy temporarily forced him out of the retail business.
Finger, who had sold his remaining Ashley Furniture HomeStores a year ago, has soft-opened a three-level, 200,000-square-foot remodeled Finger Furniture showroom on Gulf Freeway.
It's part of a 600,000-square-foot complex — once the site of a minor league baseball stadium — that also includes a 50,000-square-foot “Bargain Basement” clearance center and 250,000-square-foot warehouse.
Finger expects to grand-open the location in April and employ up to 50 people by the end of June.
The store, which is open while crews finish reconstruction work, features a mix of contemporary, traditional, country and transitional goods, as well as bedding and more than 2,000 area rugs.
The price spectrum ranges from promotional to the lower high-end — just like the previous Finger — and the store also features an Urban Leather custom leather upholstery store-within-the-store owned by Tracy Weeks. Urban Leather has an on-site production area in the warehouse where customers can watch the furniture being built.
Other features include a 10-foot aquarium, big-screen televisions on which consumers can watch games or movies, a children's play area and a sports memorabilia museum.
Finger hesitated to offer an annual sales projection because of the unsteady economy, but added, “I would be very happy with $20-$25 million. Having no debt and a cost structure as low as it is, it's not going to take nearly as much business as it used to, to make it work.”
A fourth-generation Houstonian, who had worked in the business with his father and grandfather, Rodney Finger is making his way back into retail after a rough patch.
In 2005 Finger Furniture, the former Top 100 company led by Rodney's father, the late Robert Finger, launched an aggressive growth campaign, taking on a heavy debt load.
In October 2006, Finger announced a multimillion-dollar expansion plan, projecting it would double its sales with the opening of up to a dozen Ashley stores, three large Finger showrooms and a new distribution center and headquarters in a Houston suburb.
In August of 2008, after opening one new Finger store and four Ashley stores, the company announced it would liquidate its four Finger showrooms and convert entirely to Ashley HomeStores.
But in March 2009, Finger sold its six-unit HomeStore business to Hill Country Furniture Partners, which also operates Ashley stores in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, and in the Seattle area. That ended — temporarily, as it turns out — more than 80 years of a Finger furniture retailing presence in Houston.
The Hill Country deal did not include the Gulf Freeway property, where the new store is opening.
“I would say debt and the lack of credit killed us,” Rodney Finger said. “The credit situation in our industry was just terrible.” He said the retailer's credit line was cut significantly by factor CIT, whose parent company was having its own problems and ultimately reorganized under bankruptcy protection.
He said Finger has been able to cut its debt by 90%, he said. The company never filed for bankruptcy protection.
“We fought hard and made some very tough decisions in order to protect and preserve the Finger Furniture name,” he said. “We maintained our Gulf Freeway location because we knew one day we'd be back.”
He said he loves the business and his community and added, “The only response to getting knocked down is to get back up.”
“I have spent the last two and a half years ensuring the various stakeholders of Finger Furniture Co. were treated fairly,” he said. “Now it is time to begin again.”
He said the company is well capitalized, and that support suppliers and the response from customers during the soft opening Feb. 19 were “overwhelming.”
Finger said the store drew a large crowd on opening day without advertising. He had customers “literally crying on my shoulder,” he said, happy for the return and praising the improvements to the building, which had been severely damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. He said vendors were equally impressed by all the work.
“I can't say enough or thank our vendors enough for what they've done for us,” he said. “Without their support, we wouldn't have been able to make this happen.”
Key suppliers include Klaussner, Palliser, Standard, Najarian, Millenia, Albany, Steve Silver, Golden Oak, Whalen, Affordable, USA Premium Leather and Soflex, all vendors that have supported Finger in the past.
In bedding, sources include Restonic, Sealy, Stearns & Foster, Boyd and a private label from local producer Noah.
One new vendor is Brazilian solid wood bedroom producer Rotta, which Finger said is a quality line that holds a lot of promise.
While the store doesn't currently sell Ashley furniture, Finger said he has nothing but respect for Ashley leaders Ron and Todd Wanek, adding, “I did everything in my power to protect Ashley's name brand in Houston.”
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