Lane closing its eight Philadelphia-area stores

Closing sales to begin Oct. 23

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, October 10, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Lane Home Furnishings said Thursday it will shut down its eight dedicated stores in the greater Philadelphia market, citing a difficult time for the industry and a desire to move away from company-owned stores.

Store closing sales were to begin Oct. 23 and run into December, according to information from Lane parent Furniture Brands International and a letter from Jerry Wortham, Lane's director of dedicated distribution, to Philadelphia employees. Lynch Sales is running the liquidation.

The stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware were once operated by the Garber family, which also operated the former D&D Home Furnishings in the market. D&D merged with Oskar Huber Furniture earlier this year, and that combined operation filed for bankruptcy in September and is now in the process of liquidating.

The Garbers owned four of the Lane stores and operated the others under a management contract until they were sold and turned back to Lane earlier this year.

"Company-owned stores are really not consistent with our retail strategy for Lane or Broyhill," said John Hastings, spokesman for Lane parent Furniture Brands International. He added that Lane's focus is on its independent dealer network.

Hastings said there are no plans to replace the Philadelphia store with dealer-owned dedicated stores. "Were just going to use our existing dealer (base) to maintain our presence there," he said. With the closings, there will be 14 dedicated Lane stores left in the United States.

In the Oct. 9 letter to employees announcing the sale and closing, Wortham noted that "the furniture industry has been going through a very difficult period," and that after an evaluation, Lane decided to close the stores.

Hastings said the company wouldn't disclose projected sales from the liquidation.