Art Van's New Head of Flooring Michael Duchaine Has Big Plans for Area Rugs

In fact, Duchaine, who joined Art Van Furniture in April, came on board the regional retail chain just a few weeks after it announced it had been acquired by Boston-private equity investor Thomas H. Lee Partners to grow the company (read full story). In the works are new store openings in the Midwest and in the Chicago area, and franchising as well, with the goal of Art Van Furniture topping $1 billion in sales for the first time by the spring of 2018.

 

Duchaine, as head of Art Van Flooring, will oversee not only the company's 15 in-store flooring galleries and two stand-alone flooring stores, but also Art Van Furniture's area rug category. Today, area rugs are part of the assortment for the Midwest company's freestanding flooring locations and are used throughout its Art Van Furniture stores as part of its room vignettes. 

A retail flooring veteran, Duchaine joined Art Van Furniture after serving as vice president and head of stores' merchandising for hard surface retailer Floor and Décor. Prior to that, he spent more than 20 years at Home Depot, during which he was buying area rugs for the home improvement behemoth.

Duchaine is wasting no time getting started in improving his group's profit margins. Already he is streamlining some back-office operations into the Art Van fold rather than keeping them distinct. He has moved draperies and window treatments out of the flooring department and had those duties taken over by the stores' designers. 

 

The hard surface offering is going to be grown to include tiles, such as wood-plank styles and mosaic tiles. Duchaine is also busy rethinking how the company selects its assortment of area rugs and merchandises them -- not only in the furniture division but in the flooring galleries and stand-alone locations as well. 

RugNews.com sits down with Duchaine in his first public interview and gets the details on his plans for the flooring category in general, and for area rugs in particular.

 

 

MD: My primary duties are to improve the business, and drive sales revenue to make the business more profitable. Up until now, Art Van Flooring has really been handled as a separate business operation from Art Van Furniture in terms of merchandising and support functions. As the vice president of the flooring division, I am integrating some of the back office and operational functions that are currently used in Art Van Furniture so that both divisions are functioning like the same company. Obviously, the merchandising functions will remain separate as the concept of selling furniture and flooring differ.

 

 

 

MD: We are seeing business shift dramatically to hard surface flooring. A high percentage of customers buying hard surfaces purchase area rugs -- more than 70 percent. Over half of customers that buy a hard surface floor will buy an area rug for either fashion, looks or comfort. At Art Van Flooring, we think it is important to show the customer that the design elements of the flooring in their home are just as important as the furniture they are sitting on, creating a whole room design from the floor up. Today we are seeing a complete change in the business from, let's say, three years ago. We know that area rugs are a fashion business and design and trends change, so this is one area that we will focus on growing by making rugs easier for our customers to shop.

 

 

 

MD: We carry every style of carpet and hard surfaces such as wood, solid luxe vinyl, vinyl, laminates, and our plans are to quickly move into tile and mosaics (and various backsplashes). Additionally, we also sell granite counter tops, so our direction will be expanding to other hard surfaces as we see the design aspect connecting to area rugs and again the whole room design.

 

 

MD:  Art Van Flooring has tremendous opportunities but right now our revenue is not where it needs to be. Currently, our revenue is below 10 percent, and that is not a number the company is satisfied with, and neither am I. With the company's market share in furniture, we could easily be 20 percent of Art Van company sales.  When the customer shops Art Van Flooring, we want to inspire them to see beyond the hard surface and begin to make the connection with flooring to area rugs, to solid surfaces and flooring design trends. Now that our flooring division has that vision in mind, we will grow the business quickly to include tile, as well as including fashion trends like wood plank styles and stone looks.  

 

 

MD: Area rugs sales really come down to fashion and price: As some customers look at brands ranging from $99-$299, you will also have those customers that spend quite a bit more for area rug fashion. So there is no question that we will continue selling area rugs. Galleries and vignettes are extremely important in this industry, whether its Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Home gallery or Art Van's Urban Home, but we need to be considering how to cross-sell. We are introducing technology into the stores, which will show multiple rugs in one setting for instance.

Also, our stores are looking at modifying our fixtures to best display area rugs for the customer's ease of shopping. Our plan is to update our showrooms and fixtures to something sleek and new for our customer.  We want to provide the customer with the best possible shopping experience so that when they leave our showroom, they know they have just designed a room they will feel comfortable and at home in and it was built by Art Van Flooring.

 

 

MD: I have been meeting with all the suppliers and know the players. We are open today to doing business with anybody. We are looking for different types of designs and innovations -- things that put us on the cutting edge. Proper product assortment and merchandising is an integral part of what is going to propel Art Van Furniture into the future. 

We will consistently review the market trends and as our customer's needs change, so will our product assortments. While we see our relationships continue with companies mentioned earlier -- and we know that we have some of the best rug designs and manufacturers keeping us on the front edge of design -- we also know that our mix is not as cohesive as we would like. Once we unify that, it will open up some new opportunities to look through the entire assortment and line structure. 

 

 

MD: Currently, the total SKUs available are from 3,500 to 4,000, including from our shop-at- home.

 

MD: One trend we are starting to see is pairing area rugs with wall-to-wall carpet. As part of being up on the latest trends, while performing my competitive shops I tend to go to model homes to see the latest looks designers are offering. Area rugs define spaces and create a room within a room, whether they are placed on hard surface or wall to wall carpet.  

 

MD: We will grow in space over time...as sales increase, space will increase. We have performed some studies on what the ideal space for Art Van Flooring should be. We have to work with what we have today and grow within that space.  As the business grows, so too will our allotted space. That being said, our smallest flooring gallery is 1,200 square feet and our largest is a 12,000 square foot stand-alone store.  We see 3,500-4,000 square feet as the ideal, as we would like to see stock inventory, but the most important thing right now is to be profitable in the space that we currently occupy. 

 

 

MD: We are a work in progress, and we are building a new online platform to make it easier to shop rugs online. We have lots of opportunity and it is a definite area of growth for our business. With technology changing, we are changing the way we do business, too. 

We want to create a new experience for the Art Van Flooring customer, so that no matter the shape, size, or color, for example, the technology we plan on incorporating into our business platform will help create the perfect shop at home experience for our customer. Whether you are an Art Van Flooring shop at home customer or visit one of our showrooms, we want to expand and improve the way we do business to make the experience as customer-friendly as possible. We will be testing some new technology and merchandising concepts in our Art Van corporate office plaza store and our 14 Mile Road freestanding store.