As the city and surrounding communities began to rebuild, demand for furniture swelled to levels above what Hurwitz Mintz was able to provide shortly after the cleanup began. Nevertheless, the company was able to make arrangements to help it meet customers' demands.

After Hurricane Katrina, long-time New Orleans furniture retailer Hurwitz Mintz found itself in the same condition as the rest of the city: battered but hopeful to pick up the pieces and start again.

In the time since the storm hit the city, Hurwitz Mintz has rebuilt, refocused on the suburbs and adjusted to a new order that has resulted after much of its competition bottomed out after the hurricane.

Owner, President and CEO Mitchell Mintz says the company has been a part of the New Orleans area since 1923, and will continue to be there as long as the city is. The company has had to make significant adjustments to nearly every aspect of its business, but Mintz says Hurwitz Mintz will continue to provide customers with the same quality service and products.

Company Longevity
"We started off in the French Quarter with my grandfather, Morris Mintz, and Joseph Hurwitz in 1923," Mintz says. Over time, the company became known for its high-end furniture and doubled in size.

By the 1970s, Hurwitz Mintz had opened a second store with a warehouse, and a third location in the suburbs of New Orleans by 1999.

In the wake of Katrina, the company closed its other stores and focused on its Metairie, La., location, which features more than 80,000 square feet of display space.

After the Rain
Mintz says he was with his family in Texas when Katrina struck the area, and many of the company's employees ended up staying elsewhere during the aftermath. For nearly six weeks, no one could enter the stores, but Mintz says the company stayed focused on recovering what it could and rebuilding.

Working from Dallas, Mintz coordinated the recovery efforts, which included close friends in the contracting business as well as many of the stores' employees. "We just got everyone involved, and our employees care a lot," Mintz says. The work wasn't easy - four feet of water filled the first floor of the building, rendering all of the merchandise there worthless.

"We needed a Bobcat to pick up all of the furniture and carry it out," Mintz says. "The loss was enormous. All the furniture on the first floor needed to be thrown out." On the labor front, many of the company's employees were unable to return to New Orleans, because their homes had been washed away. Hurwitz Mintz had to hire a new batch of employees to maintain its level of service, but many of them were unskilled and required a lot of attention and training from the company to bring them up to speed.

Mintz says the company has yet to reach the level of service it had before the hurricane, but its employees are doing as much as they can to make sure customers are satisfied.

"Our drivers will do just about anything to satisfy our customers," he says. "We'll usually try to do whatever we can to try and satisfy them."

Keeping Up With Demand
As the city and surrounding communities began to rebuild, demand for furniture swelled to levels above what Hurwitz Mintz was able to provide shortly after the cleanup began. Nevertheless, the company was able to make arrangements to help it meet customers' demands.

"This past year, we had more demand than we could handle, and we went out and leased a warehouse space and hired an outside delivery service," Mintz says. Katrina also had a significant impact on the rest of the city's furniture market. A national chain bought out the area's other major retailer after the storm, and Mintz claims the chain's focus on lower-end merchandise has left a bad taste in many customers' mouths.

In light of the city's situation and the changes to the marketplace, Hurwitz Mintz has had to change its approach and product mix. "We really have to watch our mix and adjust to make sure we're not catering to the pre-Katrina population," Mintz says.

Although the store started out focusing on high-end furniture, Hurwitz Mintz has changed to focus on a range of merchandise from mid-range to high-end furniture. On the other hand, Mintz says, the company's national competition in the region tends to focus on low-end to mid-range products.

He says the company also has had to deal in higher volume than before Katrina to keep revenues at the same level. The difference between Hurtwitz Mintz's product mix and the products offered by the national competition gives the company an advantage because it fills a need the competition cannot, Mintz says.

Looking Forward
Despite the challenges presented by Katrina and the subsequent recovery efforts, Mintz says that Hurwitz Mintz will continue to be a part of New Orleans. The qualities that give the company an edge are clear, he says.

"It's definitely our reputation for quality and also service," Mintz adds. Conditions in New Orleans are still not as good as they should be, he says, but the company hopes federal reconstruction efforts will bring residents back to the city and give them the ability to refurnish their homes.

"If you go to New Orleans, there's very little improvement from a few months after Katrina," he says. "It really depends on the environment. In this environment, we don't know where we're going." The company will continue to adjust according to how the area's needs change in the future.

Mintz says he can't tell what the future will bring for the city of New Orleans, but he says Hurwitz Mintz will be involved. The company will always be focused on "fulfilling the need in New Orleans as far as its furnishing needs," he says.