Furniture maker to open store
Advertiser Staff and News Services
One of the nation's largest furniture manufacturers will open its first factory-direct store in Hawai'i on Thursday as part of a rapid expansion in the United States and Canada.
Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. of Arcadia, Wis., said yesterday that an Ashley Furniture HomeStore — owned principally by Hawai'i investors — will open with more than 50,000 square feet in the Waikele Shopping Center.
The store employs more than 60 people.
The opening helps fill a gap left by HomeLife Furniture, which closed its stores nationwide last year, including at Sears in Ala Moana Center and the Sears distribution center in Pearl City.
Ashley Furniture is a midprice furniture maker that had more than $1 billion in sales last year. The company expanded into factory-direct retailing in 1997 by licensing its name to independently owned outlet stores that sell only its merchandise.
The Hawai'i store is the newest of more than 90 Ashley Furniture HomeStores. Ashley opened similar stores this year in Atlanta; Orlando, Fla.; Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Phoenix and Las Vegas. It has stores in Canada and in Japan.
Residential real estate development and sales are encouraging expansion of home furnishing retailers nationally and in Hawai'i, such as Ashley Furniture and Inspiration Furniture, which is building a $25 million interior design center on Kapi'olani Boulevard.
The new Ashley Furniture occupies a space vacant since 1998, when Foodland Super Market Ltd. closed its Sack 'n Save Foods.
Locally, Ashley Furniture supplies retailers including Z-Interiors and Furnitureland, affiliates of local furniture retailer C.S. Wo, as well as the Navy Exchange.
"Comparison shoppers will find Ashley HomeStore Hawai'i a winner," said George Norcross, chief executive of the Hawai'i store, in a statement yesterday.
The management team includes store manager Donald Okimoto, sales manager Gary Martin, warehouse manager Terrence Bega, visual merchandise manager Robin Maeda and customer service manager Natalie Okouchi.
