Roomful Express Furniture has 13 locations in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. It offers living room, bedroom, dining, entertainment and office furniture, as well as mattresses, accents such as curios and area rugs, and table lamps, floor lamps and accent lighting.

Premier Business Partners:

Ashley Furniture Simmons Bedding Co. La-Z-Boy

Eight years after changing its name and image, Roomful Express Furniture , based in Pittsburgh, has increased its yearly revenue by $45 million and is considered one of the top retail furniture companies in western Pennsylvania. “We more than doubled our business and we did it with one less store,” COO Paul Sanford notes.

Originally named Freight Liquidators, the company was founded in 1958. It began as a wholesaler for sewing machines used for upholstery, and in 1973, it began to sell furniture, following a customer’s suggestion. The furniture business grew in the ’80s and ’90s, but flattened at the end of the ’90s as Pittsburgh evolved and became high-tech.

Residents preferred better furniture and its name reflected a lack of quality, Sanford explains. In 2000, the company changed its name to Roomful Express Furniture, and currently has 13 locations in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. It offers living room, bedroom, dining, entertainment and office furniture, as well as mattresses, accents such as curios and area rugs, and table lamps, floor lamps and accent lighting.

The name change allowed the company to change its reputation in the marketplace, Sanford says. “It gave us a higher perception of quality,” he explains. “It gave us a unique position in the market. We were able to sell room packaging differently in the market. [For example] It allowed brand-name vendors to sell to us."

The company also renovated its stores’ design. “We redid the interior so it was less of a liquidator and focused more on fashion,” he explains. “It showcases the furniture much better."

The most successful aspect to the company’s facelift is its customer loyalty program, Sanford says. “We wanted to get away from the low-end and really service and take care of the customer,” he says.

The program seeks to improve delivery services. Last year, the company implemented a new program where a representative would call the customers while a delivery was taking place. “We would do the survey process at the point of delivery,” Sanford explains. “We want to be proactive in seeking out problems so the customers wouldn’t get frustrated. We want to make sure everything is OK even before the guy leaves.

“The first question we ask is are they comfortable speaking with us while the delivery people were there and if the delivery guys did something wrong,” he says. “If they say yes, that they don’t feel comfortable, we tell the delivery guys they are free to go and we call the customer back after he leaves.

“It was a huge thing for us,” he continues. “It really told the customers we care.”

The new process has had a positive response. “The customers were so surprised that we were interested [in their experience],” he recalls.
    
Industry Challenges
With the downturn in the housing market, as well as widespread mortgage problems and the spike in foreclosures, it was tough to get people to buy furniture in 2007, Sanford says. “The price of gas and diesel and oil also had a great effect,” he adds. “It drives up our cost in the short-term.

“With the economy being the way it is, our challenge [in 2008] is to be proactive in taking good care of our customers, and bucking this trend of higher cost and lower demand,” he says.

The market is also changing, he adds. For example, there are more single-brand stores in the industry because customers believe they can get the lowest price in a one-stop shopping environment. Roomful Express owns two Ashley Furniture stores and plans to follow that trend by opening more locations in 2009.
    
La-Z-Boy
Roomful Express opened three locations in 2007, and plans to open more in the Pittsburgh area in 2008 and 2009. It does not plan on expanding beyond the western Pennsylvania/eastern Ohio market. “[Over the years] a lot of players left the market [such as Wickes and Value City Furniture], so there is plenty of opportunity in the Pittsburgh area,” he says. “There is still some business that can be done.”

The company’s main advantage is that it is the largest La-Z-Boy dealer in the region. “[That line] is doing very well,” Sanford says. “We got into it midway last year. It did very well last year and we are expanding that line.”

Roomful Express also offers Lea’s Children’s Furniture products, which is affiliated with La-Z-Boy. The company plans to expand that line this year as well, he adds. “Our vision is to be consistent with the market and achieve stable growth,” Sanford says. “We want to really make our company the place customers think of first when they think of furniture. Along with growing stably and conservatively, we also want to make sure we are on top of the changes [in the industry] that are coming” such as being more Web-based.

Room Packages
One of the company’s most popular items is its room packages, Sanford says, which are assembled by the company’s interior designers. These are available for all spaces, such as living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms, and vary from five-piece to nine-piece sets. The packages sometimes incorporate pieces from different manufacturers, he adds. They are popular, he says, because it is cheaper than buying each piece separately. “Also, a lot of customers don’t want to think about what goes with what,” he says.

Focused on Training
The company has 440 employees and focuses heavily on training. It has a director of training, as well as a training department. It also operates five training centers in its stores and corporate facility, and its computer systems have databases that allow for hands-on training. “For sales associates, we just look for people who love to sell,” he says.