A new, free-standing Ashley Furniture HomeStore is scheduled to open by late August on a 4.4-acre site on Capital Circle Southeast, just north of Apalachee Parkway.

The 45,000-square-foot building will “have its own identity and own presence,” and it will be a “significant improvement” to the current 30,000-square-foot Ashley store, located in a nearby shopping center, said Russell Price, president of Price Commercial. The company is developing the project for owner Russell Turner.

“Ashley’s product selection has been growing, and we just haven’t been able to show it in the existing store,” said Turner, who also owns the Turner’s Fine Furniture stores in Tallahassee and Thomasville, Turner’s Fine Furniture Outlet in Tallahassee and other Ashley locations in the southeast. Read more »

A Wisconsin furniture maker is trying to set things right for customers of a Joplin store that went out of business this month without filling paid orders.

Complaints from customers about the sudden closing of the local Ashley Furniture Homestore prompted an investigation by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon’s office.

The store, like all Ashley retailers around the country, was owned and operated independent of Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., the manufacturer based in Arcadia, Wis. Read more »

U.S. furniture making is in a funk. Employment is down, factories have been shuttered and the sales of industry leaders have been sluggish.

Over the last six years, one analyst estimates, some 280 manufacturing plants have closed. About 95,000 jobs – 33% of the original total – have been lost.

In 2000, according to investment banking firm Mann, Armistead & Epperson Ltd., the three biggest manufacturers collectively posted $5.2 billion in U.S. sales. By 2005, their total sales had shrunk to $4.9 billion.

Then there’s Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. In 2000, the upstart manufacturer based in little Arcadia, ranked fourth in sales, with far less than half the revenue of leader La-Z-Boy Inc.

Today, Ashley is No. 1, with a bullet. Read more »

An Ashley Furniture Home Store is scheduled to open in April at Southridge Centre.

The store will sell living room, dining room and bedroom furniture and a wide range of accessories from rugs to comforters, said owner Bob Young. “We will have the largest assortment of accessories of any store in the state,” he said.

Young said he will have 50 employees — about 30 in the store and 20 in a distribution center in the Rock Branch Regional Industrial Park near Poca.

Customers who pick out furniture and accessories at the store can take the accessories with them and either pick up the furniture or have it delivered within two to three weeks, Young said. Read more »

Morris Furniture Co. Inc. plans to open a store in Springfield under the Ashley Furniture HomeStore nameplate, the company said Thursday.

The 30,000-square-foot showroom, slated for the Bechtle Crossing shopping center, marks the company’s first Springfield store. When it opens in April, it will be Morris’ sixth Ashley Furniture showroom. The company already has Ashley stores in Miamisburg, Beavercreek, Cincinnati, Columbus and Crescent Springs, Ky. Read more »

The state Office of Consumer Protection has opened an investigation into the closure of Ashley Furniture last Friday, the agency’s executive director said yesterday.

Steve Levins said his office received about 20 calls from Ashley customers Monday and yesterday, mostly seeking complaint forms.

The store closed suddenly, leaving only a note posted on its doors and a recorded greeting on its phone line indicating it was closing due to “unfortunate economic circumstances.”

However, customers and creditors are now encountering full mailboxes at the phone numbers the store offers on its recorded greeting, so they unable to leave messages as directed.

The store was operated by a licensee, Hawaii-based A Furniture Homestore LLC, whose principals have been unavailable for comment. Read more »

Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. recently announced plans to build a 35,000-square-foot showroom at 1351 Earl Rudder Freeway next to Varsity Ford Lincoln Mercury dealership in College Station.

The business plans to open around Jan. 15. The furniture store was founded in Wisconsin in 1945 and has expanded to six states. The company manufactures dining, living and bedroom furniture.

Ashley Furniture HomeStore suddenly closed the doors of its 50,000-square-foot Waikele showroom for good yesterday, citing unfortunate economic circumstances.

The store is going out of business and will send letters to customers and creditors notifying them of their options, according to a recorded telephone greeting.

Customer letters will be mailed over the weekend, while creditor letters will be mailed Nov. 20, the message said. Customers and creditors who do not receive their letters in a timely fashion are asked to call 792-0053 and leave a message.

The store expects to reopen in two weeks for a forced liquidation sale that will be followed eventually by an auction of unsold inventory, fixtures, trucks and other items. McClain Auctions is assisting in the liquidation.

Neither Ashley principals Michael Cutler or George Norcross, nor the store’s General Manager John MacDonald could be reached for comment by press time. Management at Waikele Center also could not be reached. Read more »

Second furniture store in strip mall expected to create 60 new jobs in area

A new furniture store will be locating in Columbus Park Crossing next summer.

Ashley Furniture Homestore will open on Whittlesey Boulevard next to the hhgregg store, the developer said Friday.

“We are excited to bring this first-class furniture component to an already dynamic regional hub of retail opportunity,” said Stella E. Shulman, executive vice president of The Jordan Co. “It will complement the mix of existing stores, offering something for everyone. Columbus Park is attracting people from the neighborhood, from throughout Columbus, and from all across West Georgia and East Alabama.”

It will be the second furniture store in Columbus Park Crossing. The La-Z-Boy Galleries was in the first phase of construction in 2002. Read more »

Plans are in the works for a 60,000- to 70,000-square-foot expansion of Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.’s Whitehall plant that isn’t likely to increase employment, city officials say. They hope the company eventually decides on a second, larger expansion that could add hundreds of jobs.

The Whitehall City Council will vote Tuesday on creating a tax incremental financing district, which would finance infrastructure improvements for Ashley plant expansion, and other future improvements elsewhere within the approximately 800-acre TIF district.

In February, Whitehall officials said Ashley was considering adding more than 200,000 square feet to its 74,000-square-foot Whitehall furniture factory. They said the plant has about 350 employees, and could add 400 employees with the expansion. Read more »