Report: Restoration Hardware eyes late summer stock offering

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, July 17, 2012

CORTE MADERA, Calif . — Reuters is reporting that high-end lifestyle home furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware is eyeing a late summer return to the public stock market.

The Corte Madera, Calif.-based company, founded in 1980 by Stephen Gordon and taken public once before, is now owned by private equity firms Catterton Partners and Tower Three Partners LLC and Restoration's CEO Gary Friedman.

Catterton and Friedman took Restoration private in June 2008 as the company was struggling in the midst of a housing and home furnishings market crash.

The move to return to the public market would come about a year after the owners filed for a $150 million public offering. It also comes on the heels of reports that the housing market has picked up steam and home goods industry business is improving.