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DANIEL LUBNER SHARES CLIVE DANIEL HOME'S WINNING STRATEGIES
Daniel Lubner, CEO, shares insights on Clive Daniel's total home philosophy, the importance of area rugs, design professionals and the retailer's proprietary new room visualization technology.
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NAPLES, FL -- Descended from a South African carpenter, Daniel Lubner proudly proclaims himself as a "fourth-generation furniture guy." Generation No. 3, his father, is the "Clive" in their eponymous Florida total home destination stores, Clive Daniel Home.
Launching in Naples, Florida, in November 2011 with an 87,000-foot showroom, Clive Daniel Home specializes in interior design services and high-end home furnishings and area rugs. A second, 70,000-square-foot, location in Boca Raton opened in January 2016 and CEO Lubner says that he might open another showroom or two in the years to come.
Clive Daniel Home's first store, pictured above, opened in Naples, Florida, in late 2011 with a 87,000 square foot space.
The showrooms are a physical embodiment of Clive Daniel's interior design business and include a full case goods department, upholstery, flooring, kitchens and closets, and even home automation. While intended to be a studio for design clients, items can be purchased or ordered off the floor.
The showrooms also cater to independent designers, whom Lubner says are actually one of the company's biggest demographics. "They're bringing their clients to us because of our buying power, our logistics, and vast inventory, whether it's off the shelf or custom orders," he says.
Clive Lubner, chairman of Clive Daniel Home, with stores in Naples and Boca Raton, Florida.
Artfully Curated Rug Selection
About five percent of Clive Daniel's total volume is area rugs. The rug department thrives under the watchful eye of lead rug merchant Moeen Mehri, or Mr. Moeen as the staff and clientele refer to him. Mehri is a third-generation carpet professional and has particular expertise in Persian rugs. "He has curated this selection, which is truly second to none," says Lubner. "He goes to a dozen shows a year."
Lead rug merchant Moeen Mehri of Clive Daniel Home, where rugs are a vital component of total home offerings.
The company works with a select handful of suppliers and tends to order one-of-a-kind pieces over programmed goods. Lubner estimates that at any given time, there are over 1,000 rugs in stock.
Rugs are incorporated into virtually every vignette on the showrooms' floors, while the selection can also be viewed in rug galleries. Several hanging racks showcase options, but, "the quality of our rugs show better on stacks," says Lubner. Dedicated staff members are on hand to flip the rugs for shoppers.
The presence of area rugs throughout the store underscores the emphasis that Lubner places on this component of home furnishings.
"If I'm giving a coaching session for designers on our team, I start with the rug every time," says Lubner. "So many rugs are very unique, with unique colors and patterns. So it's much easier to start with the rug, rather than trying to find a rug that goes with the color scheme you've established."
Traditional rugs, for which Lubner has seen an increased demand in the past few years, are the backbone of the business, and transitional rugs also emphasized. Contemporary options are represented as well and, antique rugs are an important and significant part of the company's business. Lubner relates that a current design project is an avant-garde house, and during a visit to the showroom, the clients fell in love with an antique tree-of-life rug that they wanted to use as wall art.
"We've all gotten very attached to this particular carpet," says Daniel. "It'll be hard to let it go, but it will play beautifully in their home."
Traditional area rugs are among the top sellers at Clive Daniel Home showrooms in Naples and Boca Raton, Florida.
Locals like to quip that Naples is the "fourth-home capital of the United States," so Lubner reports that much of his clientele are only part-time residents of the area. "This allows us to provide services to their primary residences, whether that be New York, Nevada or Naples," he says. "We truly ship around the world, and I've worked on every continent with the exception of Antarctica."
Proprietary Visualization Technology
It's the global nature of Clive Daniel that inspired Lubner to incorporate a new visualization technology into his offerings. The showrooms already have CAD stations that help designers and clients visualize how a room might look once it's furnished, but Lubner wanted to develop a way to interact with clients around the world.
A sophisticated living room in Naples, Florida, featuring coastal colors.
One day he noticed his son playing a video game that showed the inside of an apartment. As Lubner watched, his son changed the furniture and other décor within the virtual home. "The realism of the game was so amazing, I knew we needed to create something similar," says Lubner. He sought the services of a video game production house to create a digital experience where the user can change all the elements of a room with the touch of a button. Among the elements that can be changed are rugs, fabrics, furniture finishes, and even the time of day, lighting, and perspective.
Industry insiders tell RugNews.com this experience differs from existing CAD technology because its level of interactivity goes far beyond the fly-through of a static image that a CAD allows. "You can use your remote control to walk around the space at a leisurely pace," describes Lubner. "You can even move things around or change the channel on the television."
The technology, which runs off an Xbox console, is now operational in both of the Clive Daniel Home showrooms. Before it's released on a larger scale, the production team needs to create more products and finishes to be incorporated into the spaces, as well as design more unit types and floor plans to use as the foundations. "We're taking our time with it, letting the client demand predicate and dictate what direction we're going to take," says Lubner.
A master bedroom created by the Clive Daniel Home interior design staff.
Already, the Clive Daniel Home Virtual Reality program is getting a warm response from interior designers and their clients, as well as from developers who find that it helps prospective homeowners visualize the properties.
Hospitality Design and CDH2
Two more business groups round out the Clive Daniel Home empire: A separate division specializing in hospitality design and the CDH2 Designer Outlet. The hospitality design division has its origins in a similar business Lubner had put together before opening Clive Daniel. During the recession, Lubner had found that residential design business was flagging, but the lengthy process of hospitality design allowed the company to stay afloat even in strained economic times. The hospitality business is as global as its residential business; the company works throughout the Caribbean and is about to do an installation at a hotel in Croatia.
Finally, CDH2 Designer Outlet, also in Naples, is open to consumers and designers alike and stocks custom pieces that ended up being not used in projects, rather than scratch-and-dent or clearinghouse for discontinued floor samples. "When a client orders something and they don't like it, or it's not what they expected, we're gracious with them and make sure they're completely satisfied," says Lubner. "If it means we have to take something back, we'll send that to our designer outlet." The products, he adds, "are true custom pieces at a great value that can satisfy that independent designer's immediate gratification needs."