The local retailer has struggled with industry downturn
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By GREGORY J. GILLIGAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Bloom Brothers Furniture, which has struggled in the past 18 months like many in the furniture industry, has decided to close up shop.
The furniture chain has begun going-out-of-business sales at its four locations — one each in Henrico County, Chesterfield County, Colonial Heights and Virginia Beach.
The stores should close in about 90 days, said Larry Bloom, the retailer’s president and owner. About $10 million to $15 million in inventory will be sold at discount prices, he said.
“My love and passion is still in this industry,” Bloom said yesterday. “Is it a difficult decision to make? It sure is. It is upsetting. But this is the right decision . . . for our customers, our vendors.”
He wants to make sure he honors contracts with customers and vendors.
“I have a good reputation in the industry and with our customer base,” Bloom said. “I would never want to harm that. I wanted to make sure to liquidate responsibly.”
Sales at Bloom Brothers fell more than 20 percent last year compared with 2012, when sales began to slip, he said.
At the same time, expenses have increased and profit margins on the sale of furniture have declined.
The company lost money last year — Bloom declined to say how much — and continues to do so in the first half of 2014. The chain posted a slight profit in 2012 but started to see a downturn in the fourth quarter of that year.
Business has been strained in recent years as the economy has tumbled, Bloom said. The housing market has slowed, interest rates have risen, and energy prices have increased.
The problems at Bloom Brothers mirror the malaise in the furniture industry, where an increasing number of home-furnishings retailers are going out of business, said Wallace W. Epperson Jr., a furniture-industry analyst with Richmond-based Mann, Armistead & Epperson.
“It has been a devastating period for our industry,” Epperson said yesterday.
But rather than wait a year or so until it is too late, Bloom said he decided to shut down his stores now when his assets exceed his liabilities.
“We probably don’t have the type of staying power to absorb the losses like other companies might have,” he said. “If I had gone two more years and things hadn’t changed, that would have been it. People drag things out. I didn’t want to drag this out.”
Epperson said Bloom is making the right move by getting out of the business now. “I think he really wants to do what is right. He’s not trying to take advantage of his suppliers.”
Bloom’s great-grandfather opened the family furniture business in Petersburg in 1918 as The Oak store.
Bloom changed the name in the early 1990s. He changed the concept to a low-margin, high-volume sales operation in late 1996 when he opened a store near Southpark Mall in Colonial Heights.
He opened his second store, this time in Virginia Beach, in 2000.
In 2003, he greatly expanded his operations by opening stores on Midlothian Turnpike near Chesterfield Towne Center and on West Broad Street near Gaskins Road.
His rapid growth earned him a spot in early 2012 on the Rising 25, an annual list of the region’s private businesses with the fastest revenue growth. The Rising 25 is sponsored by KPMG, the Greater Richmond Chamber and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Bloom Brothers employs about 130 people at its four stores and corporate offices.
Contact Gregory J. Gilligan at (804) 649-6379 or ggilligan@timesdispatch.com.
