Lacks Valley takes Lack's Store in Alice, Texas
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 6, 2011
PHARR, Texas — South Texas retailer Lacks Valley Stores has acquired the former Lack's Stores' 35,000-square-foot store in Alice, Texas, the latest of a handful of Lack's locations returning to the furniture industry.
The announcement comes less than three months after Lacks Valley, an expanding Top 100 company, announced plans to buy Whalen's San Benito, Texas, store. The two new showrooms will bring its store count up to 12.
"We look forward to providing Alice with the high-quality service and merchandise that our customers expect from us," said Al Moffitt, general manager of the Pharr, Texas-based chain. He added the new location "will be a good way to expand our business operations."
The company hopes to have the store stocked and reopened by May 25, after extensive interior remodeling, improvements to parking and the addition of a coffee bar and expanded bedding, electronics and appliances departments.
Moffitt wouldn't disclose the company's investment, but projected the store will add about $5 million in annual sales. The company's furniture, bedding and accessories sales reached an estimated $79.7 million in 2010, up from about $77 million in 2009.
Key suppliers will be the same as at its other stores, he said, including home furnishings vendors Fairmont Designs, Lane, La-Z-Boy, AICO, Natuzzi, Homelegance and Simmons, Restonic, Sealy and Stearns & Foster in bedding.
The store will employ 25 to 30 people and will offer nextday delivery out of its Alice warehouse. Moffitt said the company will hire many of the former Lack's employees, including the store manager, warehouse manager and several sales and customer service employees.
Lack's Stores - not associated with Lacks Valley - filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November and subsequently liquidated its 36 stores.
Since then, other furniture retailers have acquired some Lack's leases, including Seffner, Fla.-based Rooms To Go, which picked up locations in Corpus Christi and Midland, Texas; RoomStore of Richmond, Va., which took two San Antonio stores; and Houston-based Finger Furniture, which acquired a Lack's lease in Clute, Texas.
Lack's Valley stores are located on the Texas border from Laredo to Port Isabel. The company says its 140,000-squarefoot Lacks Furniture Galleria in McAllen, Texas, is the largest furniture store in the state.
Featured Company
-
Wright Labels
Bill and Tom Wright founded Wright of Thomasville in 1961 on the idea that printing was a creative medium and the belief that "a promise made is a promise kept." The Wright brothers focused their attention on providing exceptional printing for the... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
