La-Z-Boy Canada adds 22nd store
By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, January 12, 2004
BARRIE, Ontario — La-Z-Boy Canada has opened its 22nd freestanding La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries store in this small city north of Toronto.
The father-son team of Tom and Shawn Reid owns the 15,500-square-foot store. Tom is a veteran furniture retailer who with his other son, Scott, owns Reid's Countrywide Home Furnishing in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
According to Mark Wiltshire, vice president of sales and marketing for La-Z-Boy Canada, one other store was opened in 2003 — in Nanaimo, British Columbia — and the location in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was converted to the new Store of the Future format.
In addition, the two La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries that were owned by The Brick, in the Toronto suburbs of Mississauga and Brampton, were sold to Tony Reis, who also owns the Burlington, Ontario, store. In coming years, Reis plans to open additional stores in western areas of metropolitan Toronto and in the Niagara Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the husband-and-wife team of Paul and Heather Hogeboom, who own the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries unit in London, Ontario, will develop stores for the eastern and northern sections of metro Toronto.
La-Z-Boy Canada's Wiltshire said he expects four new stores to open this year, two of which will be in the Toronto area. One in Windsor, Ontario, will open in a few weeks and the fourth will be somewhere in western Canada. At least three existing locations will be converted to the new format in 2004.
The new stores are organized in product or room galleries, including living rooms, family rooms, sleep sofas, leather and recliners. The furniture is displayed in vignettes complete with occasional and accent furnishings by La-Z-Boy companies and accessories such as lamps, rugs and wall art, all of which are for sale.
Each store is built around a design center, which includes a video catalog that lets consumers match fabrics to frames.
