HOM will open three new stores

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, November 12, 2012

A rendering shows the roughly 130,000-square-foot HOM Furniture and Dock 86 stores that will open in late spring in Rogers, Minn.COON RAPIDS, Minn. - HOM Furniture will open three new stores in two complexes next spring, including one in Rogers, Minn., that features its second Dock 86 four-day-a-week, bargain-oriented format.
     In Rogers, The Top 100 company is redeveloping a 130,000-square-foot former Lowes store, and in Onalaska, Wis., the retailer will open a 70,000-square-foot HOM store.
     In Rogers, just northwest of metro Minneapolis along Interstate 94, HOM will dedicate 78,000 square feet to its full line flagship brand, and the remaining space to Dock 86.
     The HOM format features store-within-a-store departments for Seasonal Concepts - its outdoor furniture business - Sleep Express, and World Floor & Rugs, a newly expanded flooring department selling carpeting, tile, vinyl, wood flooring and granite counter tops in addition to area rugs.
     The store also will feature gallery presentations for Uptown Urban Furnishings - HOM's take on the type of home furnishing found at lifestyle specialty retailers such at Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel and West Elm - and Amish Craftsman.
     In Onalaska, just east of LaCrosse, Wis., at Interstate 90 and Highway 16, HOM purchased a former Gander Mountain store and will build out the location, more than doubling its size to 70,000 square feet for its store-within-a-store retail format. Flooring, however, will not be offered at this location.
     The Rogers facility is expected to cannibalize some of HOM's business in the greater Minneapolis market, but with two large stores on one campus, the retailer still expect to add about $20 million in sales to its top line, said Rod Johansen, HOM president and CEO.
     Onalaska will be a new market for the retailer, and the company is looking for annual sales of about $10 million there, he said. Because HOM owns its own real estates and will conduct extensive remodels of the properties, the combined investment in the projects is significant - in excess of $15 million, Johansen added.
     HOM is No. 33 on Furniture/Today's Top 100 with estimated 2011 furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $205.5 million at 18 stores. Johansen said the company expects to finish this year with a roughly 7% sales increase. In addition to HOM and Dock 86, the retailer also operates the high-end, three store Gabberts Design Studio & Fine Furniture.
     In both Rogers and Onalaska, HOM is introducing a new, more contemporary storefront with cleaner lines and squared-off shapes that the retailer eventually will bring to its other HOM locations Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin and North Dakota.
     The new Dock 86 is playing off the success of the first 74,000-square-foot unit that opened in Little Canada, Minn., in February 2010. There, sales increases have been running in the double digits, Johansen said.
     The warehouse-like format of Dock 86 "eliminates additional costs of other furniture retailers and passes the savings onto the consumer," the retailer said in a release.
     "Operating only during the busiest four days of the week when most furniture customers shop, not building fancy showrooms, and producing low budget commercials helps keep overhead and prices low," said Jerry Underwood, HOM's marketing director.
     Products include large-volume canceled orders, closeouts and showroom samples.