Ashley king of the retail hill ... for now
Carole Sloan, Senior contributing editor -- Furniture Today, August 31, 2008
Who woulda thunk it? This promotional furniture manufacturer set somewhere in the north woods of the United States now is the nation's largest retailer of furniture and bedding.
As Ashley Furniture refined its retail concept, it first moved on to Furniture/Today's Top 25 Retail Giants list in 2004 in the No. 17 slot based on its 2003 sales of $594 million. Now just four years later, it has edged past Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with more than 3,000 stores, as the country's largest retailer of furniture and bedding with just 353 stores.
Along the way, Ashley has honed its approach to growth by redefining its retail concept year after year and added such products as accessories, rugs, decorative throws and pillows and decorative bedding. Its home textiles sales, in fact, rank the retailer among the Top 50 of Home Textiles Today, this paper's sister publication.
And interestingly, Furniture/Today's Top 25 ranking has become more diversified by retail channels. This year's ranking, reported in the Aug. 25 issue, included three bedding specialty stores, two of them newcomers to the list.
But what many people don't realize is that Ashley Furniture HomeStores also claims to be the largest retailer of Sealy bedding in the country.
We remember the stir that ranking Wal-Mart in the No. 1 slot just a few short years back caused in our industry. Now the world's largest retailer has been deposed by the industry's largest furniture retailer, a manufacturer-led chain owned mainly by dealers — and that should cause a few eyebrow raisings as well.
With a couple more stores, Ikea could well threaten both for the No. 1 slot. The Swedish megastore moved up from No. 14 in 2004 with 21 stores to No. 5 based on its 2007 sales with 31 stores. And it's still opening new U.S. stores.
Who knows what might happen next year.
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