Women sweep Art Van Furniture employee honors

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 23, 2011

Ruth Sinawi, Art Van Furniture’s Salesperson of the Year, gets a hug from company Chairman Art Van Elslander.

WARREN, Mich. — Employee of the year honors for 2011 at Art Van Furniture here went to women during the Top 100 company's Top Performers Conference held Nov. 17 in Novi, Mich.

Laura Virgo

Nancy Cruttenden

Ruth Sinawi of Art Van's Novi store, was Top Salesperson of the Year with delivered sales of $1.9 million each year for the past two years. Sinawi has booked the best performance of any Art Van salesperson for 15 consecutive years, the company said.

Laura Virgo was named Store Manager of the Year. Virgo has been a store manager in metro Detroit since January 2010, and her store has reported two consecutive years of increases in delivered business.

Cheryl Cruttenden is Sales Manager of the Year. Her Novi location reported one of the retailer's largest increases in written business and had the greatest closing ratio improvement.

Furniture/Today reported earlier that motion upholstery buyer Nancy Christiansen was named Art Van's Buyer of the Year for the second consecutive year.