SAFAVIEH ACQUIRES FIRST
EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTION CENTER

Port Washington, NY—Safavieh has announced the acquisition of its first European warehouse. The facility is centrally located in Belgium, five miles from the port of Antwerp, according to Arash Yaraghi, Safavieh principal.

“This is a strategic move that will dramatically increase the speed with which we drop ship Safavieh products directly to European consumers. Our volume with European retailers has increased substantially in the past two years and we are projecting continued solid growth in this market,” said Yaraghi.

The broad spectrum of Safavieh products, including rugs, furniture, lighting and other decorative accessories, will be warehoused at the Antwerp facility.  Safavieh’s goal is to ship throughout Western Europe within three days by adapting the logistics model the company has had in place in the U.S. since 2000.

“Since implementing our logistics program, one of Safavieh’s main competitive advantages is the ability to ship product to our retail partners’ customers within three days.  We are committed to this goal as part of our brand promise: we want consumers and retailers to know us for fashion, quality, value, and for impeccable customer service. To do that in Europe we needed to control our own distribution,” said Yaraghi.

In 2011, Safavieh supported its western U.S. and Canadian sales with quick ship service from a new 150,000-foot warehouse in Fontana, CA. Purchased in February 2011, the facility gave the company a total of 1,000,000 sq. ft. of warehousing space across North America, including facilities in Easton, PA., and Port Washington, NY.

Safavieh drop-ships thousands of packages daily to end-use customers on behalf of retailers in all 50 states, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. The company offers warehouse stock levels to provide immediate delivery on over 1000 programmed rug designs, each in more than eight sizes and several color schemes.  In furniture, 500 SKUs are stocked for quick ship. 

In a separate announcement, Jonathan Yaraghi, general manager of Safavieh’s furniture division, noted that while the company’s accent furniture and rug collections will be marketed worldwide, Safavieh will launch upholstered furniture lines designed specifically for the European market within the next six weeks.  

04.19.12