Morris Furniture Co. Inc.
Business: The company owns and operates Morris Home Furnishings, Ashley Furniture HomeStores and Midwest Clearance Outlet stores.
Established: 1947
Top executive: Larry Klaben, president and chief executive
Employees: 305
Annual sales: Did not disclose.
DAYTON — Larry Klaben, president and chief executive of Morris Furniture Co. Inc., says a showroom planned for Springdale should raise company sales to pre-recession levels.
On July 8, the Fairborn-based company announced plans to open a 72,000-square-foot Morris Home Furnishings showroom in suburban Cincinnati next to the Ashley Furniture HomeStore it already operates. The project, which carries an estimated $3 million price tag, marks the first time since the company’s founding in 1947 that the Morris nameplate has ventured outside Dayton.
While the company doesn’t share annual sales figures, Klaben said the new showroom within its first year of operation will give Morris a bump in sales of up to 15 percent.
Morris executives were attracted to Cincinnati in part because that area has emerged from the recession in decent shape, in part because of the diverse types of industries found there, Klaben said.
“By going outside the area and expanding, it brings new business to us,” Klaben said.
Conversely, if the company added another store in Dayton right now, it likely would cannibalize sales from other Morris and Ashley stores, he said.
“This is a major step for us and we’ve done all our homework to prove that this is going to be a home run for us,” he said.
The move will mark the company’s first store opening since before the recession, Klaben said.
He considers it one of the company’s biggest moves since it opened its Wilmington Pike showroom in 2000, shortly after Klaben acquired the company.
The Cincinnati store will be housed in the former Roberds Grand, a furniture superstore opened in 1996 by Roberds Inc. West Carrollton-based Roberds went out of business in 2000. In 2004, Morris opened its Ashley Furniture shop in part of that building.
Klaben said he remains optimistic that the furniture market will continue to improve this year and into next year.
“I definitely feel it has bottomed out and has started to improve,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7317 or ttresslar@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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