Loves Furniture consolidating footprint again

WARREN, Mich. — Loves Furniture & Mattresses will close a dozen stores early next year, consolidating its footprint down to 13 stores primarily in its core Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich., markets.

The move follows the announcement last week that Loves was transitioning out of seven locations, including five in Pennsylvania picked up by Levin Furniture.

The now 25-store Loves had been testing an outlet concept at the 12 closing locations, but because of the pandemic and related supply chain restraints, “we can’t get goods quick enough to replenish that model, said Mack Peters, the industry veteran named Loves’ new CEO earlier this month. The outlet format allowed customers to buy off the floor and conveyed a “See it, Buy it, Love it tonight,” message, Peters said.

The latest consolidation move will nearly halve Loves’ store count to 13, but Peters told Home News Now, the remaining stores, with one exception, are larger showrooms doing most of the business and, “We’ll still maintain well over 60% of our volume, maybe even more.”

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He also didn’t want to characterize the upcoming closings as permanent. The retailer will continue to test an outlet concept at the smaller store in Warren, not far from its flagship, and if it’s successful, Loves may choose to reopen some of the stores targeted for closing, once the supply chain picture improves, Peters said.

Sales and liquidations specialist Planned Furniture Promotions has been hired to run “Consolidation Sales” beginning in early January in Niles, Ohio, and in Waterford, Port Huron, Livonia, Burton, Saginaw, Bay City, Muskegon, Petoskey, Boardman, Hermitage and Dearborn, Mich. PFP Senior Vice President Tom Liddell estimated the sales would run 60 to 120 days, depending on the location.

Loves’ remaining locations will be primarily in greater Detroit and Grand Rapids, but it’s also keeping its Toledo, Ohio, store and a recently opened showroom in Jackson Mich., south of Lansing.

“We’re basically narrowing our footprint of stores to service those (13) better and to fill them up with merchandise,” Peters said, noting supply constraints have persisted.

“We can’t get goods like everybody else,” he said, adding, for instance, that he was on the phone with one resource Thursday, who quoted August deliveries at the earliest.

Loves Furniture is owned by private equity firm U.S. Assets and was born out of former Art Van Furniture and related brand stores following the Michigan-based retailer’s bankruptcy filing earlier this year. Over the summer and into the fall Loves grew to 32 locations, but eventually ran into its own troubles resulting from the pandemic and related supply issues, the company has said. 

Last week, when Loves announced it would sell off seven locations, Peters said it was still evaluating what its final store count would be.

“We still are dedicated to the Michigan market and will go forward with these (13) stores,” Peters said Thursday. In an earlier interview with HNN, after being named CEO, Peters said the company was dropping its aggressive growth strategy to “concentrate on our core values, our core stores and move forward” but still recognized the opportunity in a market he said has been underserved since Art Van folded.

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