Art Van Furniture

Last updated
Art Van Furniture Inc.
Type Private
Industry Furniture retail
Founded Eastpointe, Michigan 1959;64 years ago (1959) (Art Van)
FounderArchie "Art" Van Elslander
DefunctMarch 5, 2020;3 years ago (2020-03-05)
Fate Chapter 11 bankruptcy; Liquidation
Headquarters Warren, Michigan, U.S.
ProductsFurniture
Number of employees
3,700
Website www.artvan.com   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Art Van Furniture Inc. was an American furniture retail store chain, with stores across the Midwestern United States. Founded in 1959, the company was headquartered in Warren, Michigan, and claimed to be the largest furniture retailer in the Midwest at its peak. [1] In 2020, the company filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its stores. [2]

Contents

History

Art Van Furniture store, Ann Arbor, MI, 2010 Art Van Ann Arbor.JPG
Art Van Furniture store, Ann Arbor, MI, 2010

Archie "Art" Van Elslander founded Art Van in 1959, opening his first store in a 4,000 square-foot space at 10 Mile Road and Gratiot Avenue in East Detroit. [3] He expanded to three stores in that same year, and a fourth store opened in 1960. His first employee was not hired until this time. [4] Art Vans Furniture, as it was then known, opened with mostly modern and Danish-style furniture. [5]

By 1963, Van Elslander owned seven stores and had taken on some partners, including his brother, Bob Van Elslander, Don Fox and Bob McEachin. [6] The following year, three of those stores were sold off, however Van Elslander expanded the chain in the 1970s and in 1973 the company purchased its headquarters in Warren, Michigan. Around that time, the company had fifteen stores in its chain. In the late 1970s, the company opened several warehouses and a corporate training department. In 1977, the company opened stores outside of the Detroit area, in Flint and Lansing, Michigan. [7]

In 1980, the company issued its first credit card, and in 1985 the company opened clearance centers attached to many of their stores, offering overstocked merchandise at a discount.

Acquisitions & expansion beyond Michigan

In 2009, Art Van introduced PureSleep, a brand of in-store departments and standalone stores offering mattresses. A year later in 2010, the company acquired Brewbaker's Furniture, and converted its two stores in northern Michigan into Art Van locations. [8]

Art Van acquired Howell, Michigan-based Mattress World in 2011, converting many of that chain's locations to PureSleep stores. [9]

Art Van expanded outside Michigan for the first time in July 2013, with a new store in Orland Park, Illinois. [10] Later that year, the chain also entered Ohio, opening a store near Toledo in September. [11]

The company expanded into Iowa in 2016, with franchised stores in Cedar Falls and Coralville. [12]

In March 2017, Art Van was acquired by private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) for $617 million (~$678 million in 2021). [13] Later that year, the company acquired Pennsylvania-based chains Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture. [14] [15]

Art Van expanded into Missouri in 2018, with four franchised stores in the St. Louis area. These were former locations of Rothman's Furniture, a local chain that went out of business in early 2017. [16]

The chain opened its flagship store in Canton, Michigan on February 1, 2018. [17]

Bankruptcy

On March 5, 2020, Art Van announced the closure of all of its company-owned stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy four days later. [18] [19] During the liquidation sale, a store in Warren, Michigan dealt with massive, unruly crowds, and was ordered by police to close early. [20] The timing of the company's bankruptcy meant liquidation sales were cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the case was converted to Chapter 7 bankruptcy by April. [21] [22]

Levin Furniture's stores were reacquired by former owner Robert Levin during bankruptcy proceedings, and were reopened under his ownership later in 2020. [23] After the closure, THL initially reneged on its promise of severance pay, which led to former employees taking action and lobbying THL investors to force the company to create a 'Hardship Fund' for former employees. [24]

Loves Furniture & Mattresses

Loves Furniture & Mattresses
Type Private
Industry Furniture retail
FoundedMay 2020;3 years ago (2020-05)
DefunctJuly 27, 2021;2 years ago (2021-07-27)
Fate Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Headquarters Warren, Michigan, U.S.
Number of locations
27 (2020)
ProductsFurniture
Website www.artvan.com   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

In May 2020, 24 Art Van stores and three Wolf stores were acquired by Texas-based private equity firm U.S. Assets, and reopened later that year under the name Loves Furniture & Mattresses, named after U.S. Assets founder and CEO Jim Love. [13]

In December 2020, Loves announced the closure of 13 locations, [25] and sold three Pennsylvania stores to Levin Furniture. [26] By January 2021, Loves had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and announced that all of its stores would close permanently. [27] The last Loves stores closed on July 27, 2021.

Most former Art Van and Loves locations are now occupied by other furniture retailers. Gardner-White, the chain's largest competitor in Metro Detroit, acquired Art Van's former headquarters, plus the flagship store in Canton. [28] [29] Many others became Value City Furniture stores, allowing that chain to expand their presence in the Detroit area.

Stores

At its peak, the company operated 141 stores located in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri and a full service e-commerce website. [30] The company also had franchised stores located in the Midwest. [31] In all, the company had nearly 200 stores. [32] Art Van also produced a mail catalog of its furniture offerings. [33]

Vacant Art Van PureSleep store, Warren, MI, 2021 Vacant Art Van PureSleep - Warren, MI.jpg
Vacant Art Van PureSleep store, Warren, MI, 2021

PureSleep

PureSleep was a brand used for the mattress departments in Art Van stores, as well as standalone small-format mattress stores. The first PureSleep store opened in Canton, Michigan in July 2009, and by 2020, there were 60 PureSleep stores, plus a PureSleep department in every full-line Art Van location. [34] [35]

As part of Art Van's bankruptcy filing, all remaining standalone PureSleep locations closed permanently on March 16, 2020. [35]

Scott Shuptrine

Scott Shuptrine was a small chain of high-end furniture stores located primarily in Metro Detroit, acquired by the Van Elslander family in 1986. [36] The chain had two stores in Metro Detroit, and a third in Petoskey, when it was shut down by Art Van in October 2002. [36]

The brand was brought back in 2010 as Scott Shuptrine Interiors, a store-within-a-store in select Art Van locations. [37] [38] The company also opened one standalone Scott Shuptrine Interiors store, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in 2015. [39] All of these closed in 2020.

Paul's TV

Art Van partnered with California-based electronics retailer Paul's TV in 2010 to open store-within-a-store locations in select Art Van stores. Eighteen locations were opened, however all were closed down by 2015. [40]

Marketing

In 2015, the company paid out $2.5 million (~$2.83 million in 2021) dollars in free furniture to 3000 customers after a promotion that gave away the purchases of customers if it snowed three inches each in the cities of Toledo, Fort Wayne, and Chicago. [41] [42] In 2016, Art Van replaced its regional Super Bowl advertisements in the Detroit and Grand Rapids areas with a thank you message for donors of water to Flint, Michigan, which the company had solicited through its charitable programs. [43] [44]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kmart</span> U.S. big box retailer and subsidiary of Transform Holdco LLC

Kmart Corporation is an American retail company that owns a chain of big-box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was incorporated in 1899 as S. S. Kresge Corporation and renamed Kmart Corporation in 1977. The first store with the Kmart name opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. At its peak in 1994, Kmart operated 2,486 stores globally, including 2,323 discount stores and Super Kmart Center locations in the United States. As of April 16, 2022, that number was down to nine, including just three in the continental United States. From 2005 through 2019, Kmart was a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation. Since 2019, Kmart has been a subsidiary of Transform SR Brands LLC, a privately held company that was formed in 2019 to acquire assets from Sears Holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carson's</span> American department store chain

Carson Pirie Scott & Co. is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. Sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but still operated under the Carson name, the entire Bon-Ton collection of stores, including Carson's, went into bankruptcy and closed in 2018. Bon-Ton's intellectual property was quickly sold while in bankruptcy, and the new owners reopened shortly afterwards as a BrandX virtual retailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Lakes Crossing Outlets</span> An enclosed shopping mall in the city of Auburn Hills, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, formerly Great Lakes Crossing, is a shopping mall in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The site of the mall was originally to have been occupied by a different mall called Auburn Mills, which was never built due to financial issues of its intended developer, Western Development Corporation. Great Lakes Crossing was built on the site and opened in 1998. Constructed and owned by Taubman Centers, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets is the largest outlet mall in the state of Michigan. It features 185 stores, with anchor stores including Burlington, Bass Pro Shops, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls; other notable attractions include a 1,000-seat food court, a 25-screen AMC Star movie theater, Round1, Legoland Discovery Center, and Sea Life Michigan.

Fretter was an electronics and major appliance retailer based in Detroit, founded in the 1950s by Oliver "Ollie" Fretter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northland Center</span> Shopping mall in Southfield, Michigan

Northland Center was a shopping mall on an approximately 159-acre (64 ha) site located near the intersection of M-10 and Greenfield Road in Southfield, Michigan, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Construction began in 1952 and the mall opened on March 22, 1954. Northland was a milestone for regional shopping centers in the United States. Designed by Victor Gruen, the mall initially included a four-level Hudson's with a ring of stores surrounding it. As originally built, it was an open air pedestrian mall with arrayed structures. The mall was enclosed in 1975 and expanded several times in its history. Additions included five other department store anchors: J. C. Penney in 1975, MainStreet in 1985, and TJ Maxx, Target, and Montgomery Ward in the 1990s. Managed by Spinoso Real Estate Group, Northland Center featured approximately 100 stores. Macy's, the last anchor, closed on March 22, 2015, exactly 61 years to the date of the mall's opening.

Sanders Chocolates is an American chocolate company established by Fred Sanders on June 17, 1875. According to company history, by the mid-20th century, the company operated 57 retail stores in the Great Lakes region, featuring counter service offering candy, fudge toppings, baked goods, light lunches and an assortment of desserts. Sanders is known for its bumpy cake and hot fudge cream puffs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymour & Flanigan</span> American retail chain

Raymour & Flanigan is a family-owned American furniture retail chain, based in the Northeastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deerbrook Mall (Illinois)</span> Shopping mall in Deerfield, Illinois

Deerbrook Mall is a shopping mall in Deerfield, Illinois. Located on 47.45 acres, its anchor stores are The Dump Furniture Outlet, Office Depot, Hobby Lobby, Jewel Osco, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Former anchors include Best Buy, Bally Total Fitness, Old Country Buffet, Blockbuster Video, GameStop, OfficeMax, Sports Authority, TJ Maxx, Venture, Wonder, The Great Indoors, and Art Van Furniture. The mall is located on Waukegan Road, north of the Edens Spur and south of Lake Cook Road. The mall is a low priority for its developer, as its website has not been updated since 2018, as seen in the website's property map.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Mall</span> Shopping mall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The South Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located on Lehigh Street south of Interstate 78 exit 57 near Allentown's southern border with Salisbury Township and Emmaus in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.

Sleepy's was a retail mattress chain with over 1,000 stores, primarily situated in the northeastern United States. The company was founded in New York City in 1931. Sleepy's was acquired by Mattress Firm in December 2015 and all stores were rebranded under the Mattress Firm name on January 1, 2017, but the website continued as an online retailer until 2018. Mattress Firm now uses the Sleepy's name for their private label mattresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley HomeStore</span> American furniture store chain

Ashley Home Stores Ltd. is an American furniture store chain that sells Ashley Furniture products. Opened in 1997, the chain comprises over 2000 locations worldwide. The chain has both corporate and independently licensed and operated furniture stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Village of Rochester Hills</span> Shopping mall in Michigan, United States

The Village of Rochester Hills is a lifestyle center located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit. Built in 2002, the center replaced a former enclosed shopping mall called Meadowbrook Village Mall. The Village of Rochester Hills features the traditional retailers Von Maur and Whole Foods Market, in addition to prominent specialty retailers such as Williams Sonoma, Talbot's, Banana Republic, Chico's, J.Jill, and Pottery Barn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levin Furniture</span> American furniture retailer

Levin Furniture is a furniture and mattress retailer with 28 stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattress World of Michigan</span> Retail chain

Mattress World, Inc. orMattress World of Michigan was a mattress retail chain in Michigan and Indiana in the Midwestern United States. Its headquarters were in Genoa Township, Michigan. Stores were usually freestanding and located in bedroom communities instead of big box store corridors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattress Firm</span> American mattress retailer

Mattress Firm Inc. is an American mattress store chain founded on July 4, 1986. The headquarters of the company is located in Houston, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio Valley Mall</span> Shopping mall in Ohio, United States

Ohio Valley Mall is a one-story enclosed shopping mall in Richland Township, outside St. Clairsville, Ohio. It was opened in 1978 and was developed by the Youngstown, Ohio-based Cafaro Company, which continues to own and manage it. The mall currently has four open anchor stores which are Boscov's, Dunham's Sports, Marshalls, and Michaels. It contains more than 100 stores and services. The mall currently has two vacant anchor stores which were once Macy's and Sears.

Wolf Furniture was a furniture retailer operating eighteen showrooms throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia under the Wolf Furniture and Gardiner Wolf Furniture store names.

American Freight Furniture, Mattress, Appliance, or American Freight, is an American retail furniture chain. The company's history dates to 1968, when Sears established a surplus store in Kansas City, Missouri, which later became Sears Outlet; and 1994 when Steve Belford established American Freight Furniture & Mattress in Lima, Ohio.

References

  1. ↑ "Contact Us." Art Van. Retrieved on November 7, 2013. "Art Van Furniture 6500 14 Mile Road Warren, MI 48092"
  2. ↑ Art Van closing its stores CNN, 5 March 2020
  3. ↑ "Art Van Elslander Reflects on His Chicago Favorites". Michigan Avenue Magazine. May 18, 2016.
  4. ↑ Janet Holt-Johnstone (July 9, 2014). "Retail Success Story: Art Van Furniture". Furniture World Magazine.
  5. ↑ Noah Barnes (February 26, 2016). "Art Van Furniture in the Midwest". Ocean Post.
  6. ↑ John Presta (April 27, 2013). "Governor Quinn announces retailer 'Art Van Furniture' expands into Chicago area". Chicago City Hall Examiner
  7. ↑ Janet Holt-Johnstone (July 9, 2014). "Retail Success Story: Art Van Furniture". Furniture World Magazine.
  8. ↑ "Brewbaker's sold to Art Van". Presque Isle County Advance. 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  9. ↑ "Art Van Furniture acquires Mattress World in Michigan retail deal". AnnArbor.com. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  10. ↑ Art Van Furniture (19 July 2013). "Art Van Furniture Debuts First Chicagoland Store in Orland Park, Illinois". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2022-03-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ↑ "Big turnout for Art Van opening". The Blade. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  12. ↑ "Art Van Furniture Celebrates Expansion Into Iowa With First Two Franchises In The State". Furniture World Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  13. 1 2 King, R. J. (2020-05-12). "Loves Furniture Acquires and Will Reopen 17 Art Van Furniture Stores in Michigan, Part of 27-store Deal for $6.7M". DBusiness Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  14. ↑ Art Van Furniture. "Art Van Furniture Acquires Levin and Wolf Furniture". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  15. ↑ Dakota, Michael (5 March 2020). "Former Levin Furniture owner buying back his business to rescue 1,200 jobs, keep stores open". WOIO. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  16. ↑ Art Van Furniture. "Art Van Furniture Announces Franchise Partnership with St. Louis Retail Owner, Jay Steinback, of Rothman Furniture & Mattress". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  17. ↑ Clem, Darrell. "Art Van party marks opening of 'stunning' new store". Observer and Eccentric Newspapers and Hometown Weeklies. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  18. ↑ Reindl, JC (2020-03-05). "Art Van Furniture to close its stores, begin liquidation sales". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  19. ↑ Reindl, J. C. "Art Van Furniture files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, could still face liquidation". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  20. ↑ "Police order Art Van Furniture store to close early". WDIV. 2020-03-07. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  21. ↑ Rahal, Sarah. "Art Van closes stores, lays off nearly all employees due to COVID-19". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  22. ↑ Krebs, Rose. "COVID-19 Crisis Leads Art Van Furniture To Convert To Ch. 7". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  23. ↑ "Levin Furniture is Back and Reopening Stores". Pittsburgh Magazine. 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  24. ↑ "Bankruptcy Claimed Their Jobs, and Now They're Out for Payback". Bloomberg.com. 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  25. ↑ Williams, Candice. "Loves Furniture will close 13 stores, including 10 in Michigan". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  26. ↑ Napsha, Joe (2020-12-08). "Levin to buy back 5 stores from Michigan firm, rebuild furniture chain". TribLIVE.com. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  27. ↑ Reindl, J. C. "Loves Furniture files for bankruptcy, may seek new owner for remaining stores". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  28. ↑ Reindl, J. C. "Gardner White to move its headquarters into former Art Van Furniture building". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  29. ↑ Veselenak, David (2021-08-07). "Gardner-White moves into storefront formerly occupied by Art Van in Canton". Observer and Eccentric Newspapers and Hometown Weeklies. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  30. ↑ "Art Van Furniture opens new location on Coliseum Boulevard". Wane. February 8, 2014.
  31. ↑ Sherri Welch (July 12, 2015). "Art Van Furniture says $1 billion in sales within reach". Crains Detroit.
  32. ↑ "Modern Designs Usher in Classic, Dapper Style to Art Van Furniture's 2016 Spring Style Catalog". Chicago Tribune. April 13, 2016.
  33. ↑ "Art Van Spring Catalog and Free Furniture Frenzy". Fox 2. April 16, 2016.
  34. ↑ "Art Van opens third PureSleep store in Michigan". Furniture Today. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  35. 1 2 "All Pure Sleep store locations to close, inventory moving into remaining Art Van stores". WXYZ. 2020-03-15. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  36. 1 2 "High-end Shuptrine will fold". Furniture Today. 2002-10-07. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  37. ↑ Shandra Martinez | smartinez@mlive. com (2010-09-18). "Art Van relaunches high-end furniture division". mlive. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  38. ↑ "Art Van Furniture Store Directory". Art Van Furniture. Archived from the original on 2020-03-29.
  39. ↑ Kraus, Laurel (2020-03-19). "Scott Shuptrine to leave Village amid Art Van closure - Grosse Pointe News". Grosse Pointe News. Archived from the original on 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  40. ↑ Reindl, J. C. "Art Van pulls plug on Paul's TV". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  41. ↑ Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (February 3, 2015). "Art Van bets against snow, buyers win big". Detroit News.
  42. ↑ "ART VAN FURNITURE 'LET IT SNOW' WINNERS TO BE REFUNDED MILLIONS IN PURCHASES". ABC 7. March 22, 2015.
  43. ↑ Bill Shea (February 5, 2016). "Art Van replaces regional Super Bowl TV ads with thanks for Flint water donors". Crain's Detroit.
  44. ↑ "Modern Furniture Store". Tuesday, 16 March 2021
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.