by Turning 50 can be difficult, or it can be beautiful.
David Barish, chairman and CEO of Chair King Backyard Store and Fortunoff Backyard Store, would tell you it’s easily the latter, especially when you can win both Texas and the U.S. in one fell swoop.
The two store chains, Chair King in Texas and Fortunoff in New York, recently reached the milestone of 50 stores in a relatively brief time, achieving growth first through acquisition and then organically.
David Barish
David Barish’s father, Marvin Barish, bought Chair King, in business since 1950, from its founder in 1973. The younger Barish and his sister, Jacquelyn Barish, maintain the day-to-day business; while Jacquelyn’s children, Joseph Weisman and Michelle Weisman, are leading the continued expansion of both brands. Chair King, with 21 locations, became the largest outdoor furniture retailer in Texas.
Then, in February 2010, the iconic Fortunoff brand, in business since 1922, returned to the New York and New Jersey market after Barish and his family bought the controlling share of the business. In the first year, Barish opened seven Fortunoff Backyard locations and has expanded ever since. There are now 29 locations from Stamford, Connecticut to Wilmington, Delaware, making it the largest outdoor retailer in the U.S
“We’ve just opened a new store in Hedwig Village, a very high-end area of Houston, as well as new stores in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Bridgewater, New Jersey.,” Barish says. “We opened just in time for the prime spring and summer selling season and we look forward to great success.
To get there, the stores offer fine quality furniture at a better value than the competition, in goods made of wicker, cast aluminum or teak outdoor seating and dining options. The stores also offer a wide variety of backyard décor and accessories, ranging from pool floats to fire pits, patio heaters, drinkware, rugs and more
The stores have as their mission to make it easy for everyone to spend quality time in their backyard, with the best products and the best customer experience in the marketplace.
The challenge to expansion? Sometimes, it boils down to finding a place to expand.
“Finding good locations that are affordable to a furniture retailer is becoming a challenge as most markets are very tight in the 10,000-20,000 square feet size we require,” Barish says. “But we do have patience, and diligent real estate professionals working on our behalf who seem to find the right spots.”
Barish has new programs and sales tactics—along with ways to compete with online retailers, but he says that all that is proprietary information that he’s not willing to divulge.
He added that trend of full-line retailers offering outdoor hasn’t had any effect on his business that he can tell. He says that he does have some new and exciting plans for both this season and the future—but he isn’t willing to make any announcements until they come to fruition. Similarly, he does not have advice for those struggling to succeed.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but we are not in the business of helping others to succeed,” said Barish. “We are in the business of making sure we succeed, making a profitable return on our investment, and having fun doing so.”
But he is willing to lay out how his stores do succeed and how they set themselves apart from their competitors.
“Our size gives us the ability to buy what others cannot,” Barish says. “We are able to take advantage of large opportunity situations and offer better value to our customers. We are able to plan and make purchases well in advance of our needs in order to make sure we have sufficient inventory to satisfy our customer’s needs on-demand while our competitors can’t even tell customers when their product will arrive.”
