New home furnishings retailer Loves Furniture plans to open its doors for business later this summer.
ROYAL OAK, Mich. -- Loves Furniture expects to open 18 former Art Van Furniture stores by later this summer, and has launched a website and social media campaign to keep shoppers posted.
Loves Furniture, now helmed by CEO Matthew Damiani, who served as vice president, enterprise operations & customer experience at Art Van from March 2019 to March 2020, acquired 28 former Art Van properties in May. The new Loves Furniture stores will offer a large selection of furniture, home accessories, including rugs, and mattresses across a range of price points to appeal to every budget, but will also include "higher-quality furniture."
“We’re investing millions in revamping those store locations," Damiani said, told the Detroit Free Press. "When customers walk into the store, they are going to know it’s a different experience -- that it’s a Loves Furniture store.
“We’re trying to offer a more customer-centric experience. What we’ve tried to do is remove everything that consumers hated about old traditional furniture shopping, like high-pressure sales or unclear pricing," he stated.
Matthew Diamini, the former VP, enterprise operations & customer
experience at Art Van, was named CEO of Loves Furniture.
The company's new website, which currently offers a store locator service and some of the services and brands that will be offered, will eventually make pre-shopping easier and allow customers to make appointments with in-store staff.
A bedroom vignette featured on the Loves Furniture website.
Among the recently hired, executives at Loves Furniture are:
-- Jennifer McGran-Sinha, SVP merchandising of furniture, mattress, home and decor at Love's Furniture, and the former senior vice president merchandising, for Art Van & Levin, and Wolf Furniture
-- Lisa Street, buyer, Loves Furniture, formerly Art Van Furniture director of product development
-- Mia McMurray, senior merchandise buyer, Loves Furniture, formerly a divisional product buyer, upholstery, Jerome's Furniture, San Diego, California
-- Chris Meier, director of visual merchandising/design at Love
-- Leah Zanetti, director of store environments at Love's Furniture, formerly creative director, store environments & strategic partnerships at Art Van Furnitures Furniture, formerly director of visual merchandising, Art Van Furniture
-- Cayley Mosca, e-commerce product manager at Love’s Furniture, formerly omni-channel product manager, Art Van Furniture.
-- Heather Granade, social media marketing manager at Loves Furniture, formerly a social media consultant and content creator, Marielle Marketing, Royal Oak
-- Dawn Harthun, vendor strategy, quality, transportation, trade compliance, and company systems, formerly director of transportation, Art Van Furniture
-- Jacqueline Landry, e-commerce buyer, Loves Furniture, formerly -e-commerce buyer, mattresses, Art Van Furniture
A living room vignette featured on the new Loves Furniture website.
Loves Furniture was named after company founder Jeff Love, the CEO of U.S. Assets, which acquired the Art Van properties for $6.9 million following Art Van Furniture's bankruptcy liquidation.
About US Assets
U.S. Assets Inc was formed in 2014 to invest in and assist existing and new companies grow. Whether through fresh capital, increased liquidity or monetization of existing assets, U.S. Assets seeks investments with owners and management of value-added companies. The company typically invests in the lower and middle markets with companies generating between $5M and $50M EBITDA.
The company considers a wide range of businesses for investment with a preference for "old world" industries with reliable cash flows. This includes retail, light manufacturing, health care services, veterinarian services and restaurants. Other industries being sought include commercial insurance, wholesale food production and logistics.
Loves Furniture acquired several Art Van furniture stores and will rework the signage on those stores.