By Robert Gold
DANBURY — Presentation matters in the world of interior design.
That’s why officials at Ethan Allen Interiors call the recent remodeling at their Danbury store a big deal despite no change in the building’s actual size.
Products like fabrics and wallpaper no longer lie in drawers within the design center. Extra tables for designers and customers are dotted throughout the building. A room was added where customers can visualize their home’s new design via computer.
“It makes it very visual and very easy to see” products, said Farah Kathwari, style director at Ethan Allen, referring to the changes this fall.
About 3,500 square feet are used for the design center, roughly twice as much as before the remodeling. The rest of the nearly 23,000-square-foot building is used for the store.
The store section underwent plenty of changes too, as the company created “lifestyle projections.” That mixes various product lines and styles into a room design.
The new presentation is more realistic, Kathwari said, because people often decorate their homes with products from different lines and designs. The Danbury renovations will serve as a model for all new Ethan Allen stores, company officials said. It’s also looking at ways to incorporate the changes into existing design centers, which total about 300.
The company typically adds 10 to 15 new stores every year.
The move makes sense, said Ray Allegrezza, editor-in-chief of the home furniture industry newspaper Furniture Today.
While many furniture companies focus their advertising on price or a specific product, Allegrezza said Danbury-based Ethan Allen focuses on the overall design experience.
“They realize the designers hold the key to unlocking the consumer’s heart, their imagination, and guess what, their wallet,” he said.
Ethan Allen posted record sales of nearly $1.1 billion for its fiscal year that ended June 30, a 12.4 percent jump from the previous year.
In the first quarter of its latest year, however, sales dropped 3.5 percent from the same period the previous year to $242.8 million.
Farooq Kathwari, the company’s CEO, attributed slower business partially to the recent elections. The political ads took space and attention away from retailers, he said.
“We’ve already seen positive trends in traffic” since the Nov. 7 elections, Farooq Kathwari said.
Laura Champine, an analyst for Morgan Keegan & Company Inc, who follows Ethan Allen, said the industry overall is struggling.
“I think the industry faces a downturn in the cycle driven by higher interest rates,” she said.
Farooq Kathwari said the company’s long-term strategy includes an increased focus on strong design staff.
Within the past two years, it added a two-week training program for design consultants, which total more than 3,000 nationwide.
And with the new design centers, they’ll have even greater contact with customers.
“We focus on one business,” he said. “We want to be the best in what we do.”
Contact Robert Gold
at rgold@newstimes.com
or at (203) 731-3350
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