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FBI acquires 11 T'ville stores

By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 27, 2008

St. Louis — Furniture Brands International acquired 11 Thomasville Home Furnishings stores from four dealers this past quarter, bringing its company-owned count to 23.

The manufacturing and importer acquired four Thomasville stores in South Florida from Hendricks Furniture Group; two in the Kansas City market from Stuart Smoler; two in Dallas from a dealer getting out of the Thomasville business (a third store there was closed); and three in Chicago from Ron Emanuel, who also has left the business.

Hendricks still operates Thomasville stores and Smoler still has a Thomasville store in Omaha, Neb., said Dan Stone, vice president of strategy and business development for Furniture Brands.

Terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.

Asked if Furniture Brands bought back the stores out of necessity because dealers wanted to exit or because Furniture Brands pursued the acquisitions, Stone said "a little bit of both." He added that the purchases were "opportunistic."

Stone said Furniture Brands is always looking to help dealers grow their operations, but if retailers want to leave and the stores are in an important market, Furniture Brands has looked to acquire the stores. It did that with Thomasville stores owned by Becker Furniture in greater Minneapolis, and last year with four Washington, D.C.-area stores when Thomasville Stores of New Jersey and Virginia decided to concentrate on building its New Jersey presence.

In FBI's first-quarter earnings release, Vice Chairman and CEO Ralph Scozzafava said, "Succeeding as a Thomasville retailer is a key element of our strategic plan, and our performance to date is promising.

"During the first quarter, those Thomasville stores we have owned for more than a year showed a same-store sales increase of more than 2% over the prior year."

Thomasville had a total of 146 dedicated stores, primarily dealer-owned units, in its network as of March 31.

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Furniture Brands acquires 11 more Thomasville stores

Apr 22, 2008

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