Stacy Leasing Former Robb & Stucky Store in Texas

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, September 29, 2011

PLANO, Texas - Dallas-based Stacy Furniture is leasing the 112,400-square-foot former Robb & Stucky location here and is continuing its expansion into high-end price points following the collapse of competitors at the upper end of the market.
     The store at North Dallas Parkway and Legacy Drive, slated to soft open Nov. 1, will be the retailer's fifth location (including an outlet) in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and its third large-footprint store, said Stacy President Dorian Stacy Sims.
     The family-operated retailer signed an 18-month lease on the property and expects the new store to help rebuild the company's annual sales to more than $50 million - or back to pre-recession levels, she said.
     Stacy has gradually broadened its appeal and price point range since the high-end Gabberts pulled out of the market in 2006, she added. That's when Stacy opened its 15,000-square-foot Dorian's Interior Design studio in Fort Worth, hiring a number of former Gabberts designers.
     Earlier this year, the high end took another hit here and in other markets with the bankruptcy filing and subsequent closing of Fort Myers, Fla.-based Robb & Stucky. Stacy has hired about six former Robb & Stucky employees so far, Sims said.
     It recently changed its corporate name and store names in Grapevine and Allen, Texas, from Stacy Furniture & Accessories to Stacy Furniture & Design to better reflect the broadening of its assortment to include both midpriced and high-end goods. Dorian's is now Stacy Furniture & Design Studio.
     The retailer also operates a 26,000-square-foot Stacy Furniture Outlet at its distribution and customer pick-up center in Flower Mound, Texas.
     In the Plano store, the retailer will carry the same lineup as at its other full-line stores, including the higher-end lines it began adding about two months ago to what had been primarily midpriced larger showrooms, Sims said.
     Key suppliers include Bernhardt, Hooker, Lane, Henredon, Hancock & Moore, Sherrill, Century, Universal, Mayo, Klaussner and Lea in furniture and Restonic, Simmons and Tempur-Pedic in bedding.
     Stacy's three existing full-line stores each have about 90,000 square feet of selling space or slightly more. All the stores offer design services.
    While Stacy's move to include more high-end goods is driven in part by loss of competitors in the market, the retailer also will keep offering midpriced goods - selling $500 sofas from Klaussner but also a $10,000 Henredon bed, Sims said.
     "We feel like we're (making the changes) very slowly and very strategically to give our customers a broader assortment without totally changing who we are," she said.
     Sims said the former Robb & Stucky store "is a beautiful facility and will not cost us much to reconfigure to Stacy Furniture." The retailer's investment in floor sample, meanwhile, will be more than $1 million.