Hubers plan to relaunch 2 stores
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 15, 2010
SOUTHAMPTON, Pa. —
The brothers behind the former Oskar Huber Furniture, which merged with a competitor in 2008 and later filed for bankruptcy and shut down, plan to be back in business at two of their six former stores this spring.
Brothers Bob, Ron and Don Huber, along with their wives, formed a new company called Rising Sun Partners to open the former 35,000-square-foot flagship store in Southampton, a northern suburb of Philadelphia, and the 18,000-square-foot store in Ship Bottom, N.J., just north of Atlantic City. The brothers will again lead the operation as co-presidents.
Rising Sun is named after the street on which their grandfather, Oskar Huber Sr., opened his first store back 1927. The stores will reopen as Oskar Huber Furniture & Design, a name the family retained as it reorganized under bankruptcy protection.
The stores are the two that the Huber family owned rather than leased. Those locations had the longest history and had been the most successful, Bob Huber said.
“We're aggressively targeting early April for the Ship Bottom opening because it's a seasonal area where a lot of people come in for Memorial Day weekend and stay for the summer,” he said. The Hubers plan to open in Southampton in early May.
Suppliers will include Sealy, Ekornes, Rowe, Stanley, Lexington, Natuzzi and La-Z-Boy companies England, Hammary and American Drew. The mix includes former and new suppliers — but the new ones largely replace former suppliers that are out of business, Huber said.
He added that the family received “really good support from vendors. It has been gratifying to see they want to help us.”
Price points will be in the middle to upper-middle range with fabric sofas retailing between $999 and $1,999, for instance.
“We're focused on better quality and special-order opportunities,” Huber said. “It's really the same as where we were before. We're going back to fill what we see as a void in the marketplace at this niche.”
In early 2008, Oskar Huber and competitor D&D Home Furnishings merged to form DD Huber Furniture & Design, citing this as a way to combine the best of both chains and projecting combined sales that year of $55 million.
In court documents, though, DD Huber cited a weak economy for a drop in sales that, combined with skyrocketing inventory costs, dragged the company down. In October 2008, the court approved going-out-of-business sales at its nine stores that were led by Planned Furniture Promotions and wrapped up in March 2009.
Both Huber and the Garber family, which ran D&D, say there is no ill will between them. They talk regularly, former D&D CEO Dave Garber said, and Huber said the merger was done with the best intentions, although it was ill-timed.
The Garbers, with new family leadership, have reopened D&D's former flagship location, but under a new name — Valley Furniture & Mattress — and outside of the bankruptcy reorganization process (see story on p4).
Huber said there are no plans to expand beyond the initial two stores. He declined to disclose the investment or a projected sales figure, but said, “We've projected sales at a significantly lower number than where we were previously to be conservative.” At their peak about four years ago, the two stores each were doing about $5 million to $7 million in annual sales.
“Oskar Huber enjoyed a fine reputation in the communities they served for many years,” said Ron Teglas, director of credit for Lexington Home Brands, one of Huber's suppliers that is supporting the business again. “I feel there has been a segment of consumers that was not being reached in their trading area, and that they will be excited to see this brand re-emerge.”
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