Rosenberg, investors to open Boyles stores

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, October 29, 2012

HICKORY, N.C. - An investment group backed by Gene Rosenberg has formed a joint venture with the owners of the Boyles Furniture name, creating a new company to open multiple mid-priced to high-end Boyles Furniture & Rugs stores.
     Rosenberg is co-founder of sales and liquidation specialist Planned Furniture Promotions and Top 100 company Bob's Discount Furniture.
     According to a release, the investment group, led by PFP Senior Vice President Mark Bannon, formed the venture with Alex and Chad Hendricks, who owned the name of Boyles, a former Top 100 company
     The new Boyles Brand Holdings, with offices in North Carolina and Connecticut, "plans to leverage the nationally known Boyles brand to create a powerful retail presence in the mid to high-end furniture sector," the company said, rebuilding a segment of the industry hit hard during the recession.
     Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the new investment team, with the Hendricks on board, now owns Boyles - including the 30,000-squarefoot Boyles store that opened in Merinos Home Furnishings showroom in Mooresville, N.C. earlier this year.
     The new company said it "has begun executing plans to open multiple Boyles Furniture & Rugs stores. In addition, the group plans other initiatives including offering a complete turn-key retail solution to current or prospective retailers throughout the country."
     Bannon said he could not disclose expected locations or other details about the stores, except to say the average size will be between 20,000 and 40,000 square feet and that one showroom will be open within two months and another by earlier 2013.
     He said the investor group sees Boyles as a new vehicle for existing retailers, who have been struggling but don't necessarily want to close their doors.
     "We see an opportunity to license the Boyles Brand or joint venture with retailers to have the brand be a solution, to breathe life back into their business," he said.
     Transitioning retailers from existing stores into the Boyles format, as well as opening new locations, are part of the initial plans, Bannon added.
     The Hendricks brothers, sons of longtime Boyles owner Larry Hendricks, acquired the high-end brand following the retailer's bankruptcy, emergence and eventual shutdown in early 2011. They have been looking for the right opportunity to expand the name on a national level, the company said.
     The owners of the new Boyles Brand Holdings in addition to Bannon and the Hendricks are Gene Rosenberg, Paul Cohen, Burt Homonoff, Rob Rosenberg, Tom Liddell, Roy Hester and Jerry Cohen.