Clint Engel — Furniture Today,
SARASOTA, Fla. — Bacon’s Furniture is converting its Drexel Heritage store here to a best-seller, multi-line


store, citing consumer demand for more Florida looks and categories Drexel didn’t cover.

The midpriced to upscale Bacon’s is adding to the nearly 19,500-square-foot showroom goods from suppliers including Lexington Home Brands, Stanley, Braxton Culler, Fine Furniture Design and Marketing, Rowe and Lane. It is adding motion upholstery and home office categories to the mix.

“We needed some light finishes (and more tropical looks) and didn’t have that with Drexel, so we had to pick it up somewhere else,” said Bill Bacon, president and CEO of four-store Bacon’s.

While it’s no longer a dedicated store, Drexel Heritage remains part of the mix.

The retailer, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, also operates a 105,000-square-foot flagship Bacon’s Furniture Galleries in Port Charlotte, Fla., with an attached Lane Home Furnishings store and a 15,000-square-foot Thomasville Home Furnishings store in Sarasota.

With fierce competition and challenging business conditions due largely to Florida’s suffering housing market, Bacon said he is forced to do more container business to offer “extreme value to the customer,” something he’ll continue to do with Furniture Brands International — which owns Drexel Heritage — and other sources.

Other retailers in recent months also have turned back Furniture Brands dedicated stores to the company, or have changed the format.

Earlier this year, FBI acquired 11 dedicated Broyhill, Lane and Thomasville stores in the St. Louis area from dealer Steve Kloss. Thomasville Stores of New Jersey and Virginia sold its four Virginia stores to Furniture Brands, deciding to focus on growth and expansion in New Jersey.

Late last year, Hendricks Furniture Group sold three Drexel Heritage stores in North Carolina to Furniture Brands and converted two others in Raleigh, N.C., and Greenville, S.C. to its full-line Boyles format.