Cresent closing two-store furniture retail division
Importer Cresent Fine Furniture not affected
Tom Russell -- Furniture Today, 11/11/2008 7:53:37 AM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Cresent Home Furnishings is closing its two retail stores in downtown Nashville and Brentwood, Tenn.The closure marks the end of a 61-year-old retail operation run by owners and managers of Cresent Enterprises, which also is the parent of case goods importer Cresent Fine Furniture.
The closing doesn't affect Gallatin, Tenn.-based Cresent Fine Furniture, which will continue to import solid wood case goods.
Cresent opened its first store in Gallatin in 1947 as a wholesale operation. It then opened a retail store in downtown Nashville in 1959. Today that store has about 40,000 square feet. It opened a second, 50,000-square-feet store in 2003 in Brentwood, a Nashville suburb.
The company decided to close the stores in response to a soft retail environment, said Taylor Condra, director of operations for Cresent Enterprises.
"Sales have been trending down for a couple of years at the retail division, but they fell off a cliff in the last couple of months," he said. "It's become the softest retail environment anybody can remember."
Condra, who is the grandson of one of company founders, Charles R. Tomkins Jr., declined to give specific sales figures for the two stores.
He said the closing ratio of the stores is about average, but that traffic has declined.
"Our traffic has been off in staggering numbers in the last two years," he said, adding, "It's just a matter of not having enough people coming through the door to give you enough top line sales to give you a chance."
The company's retail operation first sold furniture produced by Cresent. In the 1990s, it expanded to other name brands including Stickley, Hooker, Vanguard, Hickory Chair, American Leather, Clayton Marcus, Fairfield Chair, Lane and Jamison Bedding.
The company will have store closing sales starting Nov. 21. The closing is expected to affect 30 employees.
