Shuttered furniture store's new co-owner is a familiar face

By Jim Jordan
The advance is young and in spite of the current bearish grip on the overall market, LXK is on a mission to fill that gap and that point is roughly 12 percent higher.Longtime customers of Norwalk, The Furniture Idea will see a familiar face when the Hamburg Place store reopens July 8 under new ownership.

Kellie Clarke, who managed Norwalk’s Lexington outlet for 10 years before leaving four years ago, has bought the franchise in partnership with Tawana Palmer of Winchester.

The store was closed unexpectedly in April by the previous franchise owner, leaving 82 unfilled orders that Norwalk Furniture Corp. is now working to complete.

Clarke said she was at the Kentucky Derby when she ran into a furniture sales representative she hadn’t seen since her Norwalk days. ‘Why don’t you buy that store?’ the sales rep asked, and the idea took root.

She and Palmer formed K&T Interiors Inc. and bought the franchise.

Customers are still loyal to Norwalk, Clarke said. She was working at the store last week and ‘we had eight customers come in,’ she said. ‘We weren’t even open.’

Unbridled branding

No doubt you’ve read that Alltech paid $10 million last week to put its name on what is now the Alltech FEI Games Kentucky 2017.

As he prepared to present the check, Alltech President Pearse Lyons reeled off a series of ‘firsts’ for the 2017 games: first time the games will be held outside Europe, first time they will be held in Kentucky, first time they will be branded and …

‘This is the first time I will ever give a check for $10 million to anyone.’

Why do it?

‘Perhaps,’ Lyons smiled, ‘I got caught up a little in that unbridled spirit.’

Sticker shock

As he awaited the start of the first Pedals and Blooms Festival bicycle race recently, Joe Bowen predicted that the competition would be an eye-opener for non-bicycle riders in the Stanton-Beattyville-Red River Gorge areas where the 80-mile race was being held.

Bowen, 63, had just returned to Stanton after his second 14,000-mile crossing of the United States. He noted that the competitors are serious athletes with bicycles that are ‘precision-built’ for each rider.

Their bicycles often cost $4,000 to $6,000 or more, he said.

‘This community has never seen bicycles like this,’ Bowen said as he nodded toward the pack of racers. ‘This is almost culture shock.’

Up, up, up for Lexmark?

Lexmark International’s shares have made some nice gains lately, notes Jack Rothstein in his column The Guru’s Corner at Wealthcast.com.

‘This is a leading stock this year, up over 20 percent thus far,’ he wrote last week.

The Lexington company saw its shares top out at $97.50 in June 2004 before beginning a slide that included a one-day drop in September to $43.50 from $60.50. It has since rebounded to about $55 a share.

‘The advance is young and in spite of the current bearish grip on the overall market, LXK is on a mission to fill that gap and that point is roughly 12 percent higher,’ Rothstein says.

He advises investors to wait for a ‘pullback’ and buy Lexmark between $52.50 and $53 a share. ‘Place the stop at $50.75 for a trade,’ Rothstein says.

He didn’t say when he expects the pullback to begin. The way this stock is moving, it might be a while.