CLAIRE MURRAY SWITCHES EMPHASIS
TO LIFESTYLE RETAIL STORES

Claire Murray's store in Yorktown, VA, shows off
the lifestyle brand in a coastal cottage setting.

By Janet Herlihy

OSTERVILLE, MA  -- Claire Murray is the founder of a brand that started with hand hooked rugs made and sold at a small inn on Nantucket. Now some 20 years later, Murray describes her company's strategy as a "return to our roots.€VbCrLf

Focused on a coastal country style, the Claire Murray brand grew through licenses to encompass a wide range of home products and price points as Claire Murray designs were sold in mass market big box stores, specialty stores and, what began as a very few company-owned Claire Murray stores.

In addition to hooked rugs imported from China, the Claire Murray signature line of rugs was also licensed to such machine made manufacturers as Oriental Weavers and Milliken.

But now ANB International, Inc., the Claire Murray corporate structure, is headed in a new direction.

"We've decided to transition what was a wholesale company with a few stores to a retail company with a wholesale business,€VbCrLf said Murray.

With 17 company-owned stores located in prime coastal cities and towns, Claire Murray has closed its wholesale showrooms in Atlanta, High Point and New York and now concentrates on reinventing itself as an upscale lifestyle brand.

 "We are still doing some limited licenses but want to get back to doing our own manufacturing of hi-end products.€VbCrLf

In addition to rugs, the Claire Murray  line now includes apparel, bedding, dinnerware, home accessories, kits, crafts and fabrics.

The licenses that Claire Murray is now interested in growing are Claire Murray licensed boutiques, which can take the form of a store within a store or a free-standing store.

"As the manufacturer, Claire Murray can have the margins necessary to succeed and the control to make sure the quality stays true to the brand," she explained. The company-owned stores will have a different line of hi-end  exclusive products.

Claire Murray products have also been a featured on the Home Shopping Network and QVC in both the USA and Great Britain.

There are currently 17 Claire Murray retail stores, featuring the entire line of hand hooked rugs, home accessories and apparel. Most are located in such historic areas of New England's as Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod in  Massachusetts and Newport, RI. There are also stores in Stuart, FL, Hilton Head, SC and Annapolis, MD and Yorktown, VA.

La Vie Claire, a glossy quarterly magazine, was launched three years ago for a coastal luxury audience. "One important reason for the magazine was to reach different parts of the country and develop markets for the stores,€VbCrLf Murray explained.