Clint Engel — Furniture Today,
Plans to create franchises in all 50 states

AT THE MARKET — The owner of Passaic, N.J.-based retailer Moda Furniture plans to revive the name of the defunct Huffman Koos chain in the Northeast through galleries in its stores.

And that’s just the first step.

“My ultimate plan is to create franchises of Huffman Koos and Breuners locations in all 50 states,” said Moda CEO and founder Anthony Mehran, who, through a separate company from the seven-store Moda, acquired the rights to both names as well as their Internet domains out of bankruptcy last year.

Mehran is developing a full line of product for the Huffman Koos and Breuners brands in China, Vietnam and Italy, and plans to show them in High Point in October (he’s shopping for showroom space here), or possibly in July at the Las Vegas Market.

By fall, he expects to have 10,000-square-foot Huffman Koos galleries up and running in all Moda stores, which are in New York and New Jersey.

“It’s in its infancy,” said Mehran, reached here this week. His initial focus is on developing bedroom, dining room and living room furniture at the upper end of Moda’s price spectrum, and creating stores within stores.
“Moda is eclectic contemporary to traditional,” he said. “Huffman Koos will be contemporary to traditional, with opulent touches and no shortcuts. At the same time, the prices are going to be extremely affordable.”
Mehran said he’s also here visiting Huffman Koos’ former suppliers, working on re-establishing links for future product.

A lifelong resident of the Northeast, Mehran said he’s confident of the value of the Huffman Koos name, despite any tarnish that may have come from the July 2004 Chapter 11 filing of parent Breuners Home Furnishings Corp., and the subsequent closing of all stores.

He estimated, based on a percentage of sales, that in the past 20 years, Huffman Koos spent more than $400 million advertising in its Northeastern markets. Throw in Breuners on the West Coast and it could be argued that the combined advertising reached $1 billion over the same period.

Mehran added that since the store closings, no one has really stepped in to fill the void for better product in his territories. The former retailer’s Web site also gets regular hits from consumers looking for the stores.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity and I’m very confident it’s going to work,” he said.

That’s why Mehran was willing to pay $255,000 for the rights to both names last year, outbidding the former Levitz Home Furnishings Inc., which followed BHFC into bankruptcy shortly afterward.

“Huffman Koos had a magical name in that marketplace,” said Jeff Cook, President and CEO of Magnussen Home, a Moda supplier. “It would be great for someone to take that over and live up to what that name meant.”

Mehran will use the Huffman Koos galleries in Moda to prove it can work as a store-within-a-store program and give other retailers confidence to jump on board, he said.  He’s looking for sales of $400 to $500 per square foot or $4 million to $5 million per gallery.

“We’re going to pave the way for them,” he said. “We’re going to look for dealers who want to partner with us and put galleries together,” from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet.

He said it is too early to say whether the wholesale side of the business would involve franchising, licensing arrangements or some other form of partnering with retailers.

He said he has already had interest in the gallery program from other retailers.

Asked if he had any plans to open stand-alone Huffman Koos stores in the Northeast, Mehran said it’s “a definite possibility.”

He would not disclose annual sales for Moda, which he founded in 1996. The retailer operates stores in Paramus, Fairfield, Passaic and Patterson, N.J., and Manhattan, Elmhurst and East Middletown, N.Y.