Miskelly Furniture converts Ashley store to full-line
Will add other brands, higher price points
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 17, 2010
MADISON, Miss. — Miskelly Furniture is converting its 40,000-square-foot Ashley Furniture HomeStore here to a full-line Miskelly store, citing a need for more efficiencies and higher-end product in this Jackson, Miss., suburb.
Oscar Miskelly, a partner in the four-store Top 100 company with brothers Chip and Tommy Miskelly, said the store - which opened nearly two years ago as a HomeStore - will grand open as Miskelly Furniture this weekend.
He called it a "small transition," noting that the majority of goods in the store will still be from Ashley.
"But we needed more operations and advertising efficiencies and a little higher-end goods for that market as well," he said. "We were doing OK with the store, but that customer wants a little better-end goods and a little more varied selection."
Madison, a northern suburb of Jackson, is an affluent market and was ranked No. 8 a few years ago on a list of "The 100 Best Places to Raise a Family," by Best Life magazine.
With the change, Miskelly has brought in furniture from Flexsteel, Bernhardt, Thomasville and Jonathan Louis, among others. Upholstery pieces now include a fabric sectional from Jonathan Louis for $2,500, for example, and a leather sectional from Bernhardt for $3,500 - prices it wasn't reaching with Ashley. Jonathan Louis is a new supplier for Miskelly while Flexsteel, Bernhardt and Thomasville are carried at the retailer's flagship store in Pearl, Miss., south of Jackson.
Miskelly wouldn't disclose sales but said the Ashley store has been profitable, and that Ashley remains the company's No. 1 supplier.
However, with the new lineup and an improving business climate (May was the retailer's best month in two years, he said), Miskelly projects the converted store's sales will increase 15% to 20% this year.
Separately, the retailer has acquired a building that will become part of its Pearl campus, housing a 15,000-square-foot clearance center expected to open in August. That will give Miskelly three stores there - the main 110,000-square-foot showroom, the clearance center and a RoomStore by Miskelly.
It also will open its second SleepStore by Miskelly in greater Jackson this fall. The first opened in January 2009 in Ridgeland, Miss., not far from the converted store.
Miskelly is No. 88 on the Top 100 with estimated sales last year of $45.7 million, down about 9% from the previous year.
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