Hendricks to sell 10 Thomasville stores

Manufacturer acquiring units in Carolinas, Florida

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, September 4, 2008

CONOVER, N.C. - Hendricks Furniture Group will sell its 10 remaining Thomasville Home Furnishings stores to Thomasville this month, bringing a close to the chain's plans to operate dedicated Thomasville and Drexel Heritage stores.

The deal on the stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Destin, Fla., and the Atlanta market is expected to close about Sept. 19, said Thomasville Furniture Inds. President Ed Teplitz. Terms of the deal and the sales volume of the stores were not disclosed.

"We wanted to focus our resources on growing and developing our other brands,
Boyles in North and South Carolina and Norris Furniture and Interiors in Southwest Florida," said Chad Hendricks, vice president of advertising and marketing for the upscale, full-line Hendricks.

Hendricks sold four other Thomasville stores in Florida to Thomasville parent Furniture Brands International and closed three in Florida and Georgia earlier this year. With the latest sale, Hendricks' store count will decline from 32 units at the end of last year to 14 when the deal is done.

Hendricks is No. 36 on Furniture/Today's Top 100 with estimated sales of $235 million in 2007.

The Conover, N.C.-based retailer announced an expanded alliance with Furniture Brands in 2003, saying it planned to open 20 Thomasville stores within two years in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. The retailer also became the largest Drexel Heritage dealer with six stores in North Carolina, Fort Myers, Fla., and Greenville, S.C., although it later backed out of that business as well.

Mickey Holliman, then chairman and CEO of Furniture Brands, held up Hendricks as an example of a retailer that was boosting its commitment to partnering with two of its key brands to open dedicated stores.

Furniture Brands has since backed down from an aggressive rollout of dedicated stores and taken back several units from various dealers. The company doesn't disclose how many stores it owns, but in its latest financial report, FBI said it had acquired 19 stores from seven dealers in the first six months of this year.

Hendricks got out of the Drexel store business in 2006, selling some stores to Furniture Brands and converting others to the Boyles Distinctive Furniture format.

Both Thomasville and Hendricks said the parting is amicable and they praised each other's operations.

"Thomasville has been a good partner and we think they have a wonderful brand," Hendricks said. "It's just a decision we made to focus on Boyles and Norris."

"The Thomasville brand is very strong, the product is great, the stores are well located," Teplitz said. "We're looking forward to taking on the stores, taking on the employees and growing the business."