Posts filed under 'Business News'
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture could be growing. Tonight, the Planning Board will hold a public hearing on a site plan review application to expand the furniture store, located on Route 1 south next to Hilltop Steak House. The store has applied to add a 25,084-square-foot addition to its 50,000-square-foot store. “Bernie & Phyl’s had a great year last year,” said Amy Blumenthal, a spokeswoman for the company. “Saugus already is a popular location. With this addition, we’ll be able to offer a larger selection of furniture.” The hearing will be held as part of the Planning Board’s regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Annex, located at 25 Main St.
April 8th, 2008
Today Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture’s commercial jingle is so well known that when founder and chairman Bernie Rubin goes out and about, people inevitably start singing to him.
“Everywhere I go people sing, ‘Quality, comfort and price’ and I say, ‘That’s nice,’ ” said Rubin.
When asked how his company’s famous ad campaign got started, he claims it “just evolved.”
Over the years, Bernie & Phyl’s has evolved into a profitable, independent furniture retailer with six stores, over 400 employees and sales revenue of over $100 million in 2006.
After years of helping his father Chick run his furniture trucking business, Rubin and his wife Phyllis decided to follow their hearts and open a small sleep sofa store in Quincy in 1983.
“It was tough in the beginning,” said Rubin, 69. “I’ve been married for a long time. We worked in a tiny store bumping into each other and we worked long, hard hours.”
That first year the company rang up $250,000 in sales.
Read full article at Boston Business Journal
May 25th, 2007
By Clint Engel, Furniture Today | August 29, 2005
Braintree, Mass.— In a sense, Bernie & Phyl’s has come back home with the recent launch of its store here. But in the 22 years since founders Bernie and Phyllis Rubin opened their first full-line store in nearby Weymouth, Mass., it has grown so much that its earliest customers may not recognize it. Read More
August 29th, 2005
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture Makes List of Top 100
Furniture Stores in the Country for Sixth Year in a Row
Norton, MA, June 1, 2005 — Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture, one of the fastest growing furniture retailers in the country with six stores in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire, has made the list of Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores for the sixth year in a row. The exclusive list is compiled by Furniture/Today, the industry’s leading trade publication.
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has moved up the list to number 61 with $105.8 million in sales for the year 2004, representing a 21.6 percent increase in sales over the previous year. The company’s impressive 21.6 percent sales gain was the sixth highest in the country. Bernie & Phyl’s was number 70 on the list last year with $87 million in sales.Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture also made Furniture/Today’s Top 10 lists in the important “sales per square foot” category and “average stock turns” category. The company has made both of the Top 10 lists – a remarkable feat – for the past six years.
Bernie & Phyl’s was number ten in the category of sales per square foot and number five in the average stock turns category this year. They were one of only four retailers from the Top 100 to appear on both of these lists.“We started out on this prestigious list six years ago at number 100 and have moved up almost 40 spots since then, which is a major accomplishment,” said Bernie Rubin, chairman and co-founder of Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture. “This past year, we attained another important benchmark in our company’s history – exceeding the $100 million sales mark for the first time. It is our goal to continue serving our customers at the highest levels, so that we can maintain our annual double-digit growth and continue to expand our company.”
With a focus on quality furniture at great prices, the family-run business has created a highly successful niche in a very competitive marketplace. In 2004, Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture purchased a prominent 3.5-acre site in Braintree, where they opened a 50,000 s/f store in February 2005. In 2003, the retailer bought and opened a 55,000 s/f store in Raynham and doubled the size of its Nashua superstore to 86,000 s/f – all part of the company’s ambitious expansion plans.
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture is one of the largest furniture retailers in New England with seven stores throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Based in Norton, MA, the company has large stores in Braintree, MA (50,000 s/f), Raynham, MA (55,000 s/f), Saugus, MA (50,000 s/f), Westboro, MA (50,000 s/f), and Nashua, NH (86,000 s/f). The company also has Bedding and Clearance Centers in Everett and Weymouth, MA. Bernie & Phyl’s was named the 2002 Retailer of the Year by the National Home Furnishings Association, the highest honor in the furniture industry, and the 2004 winner of the Better Business Bureau’s Local Torch Award for Excellence.
June 1st, 2005
Boston Business Journal
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture, a Bay State independent furniture retailer with six locations, purchased a 50,000-square-foot building on a 3.25-acre site at 180 Wood Road in Braintree. It plans to open a new superstore there early next year.
This is the company’s third major expansion in less than two years. The company, which started in Quincy in 1983, plans to convert its 12,000-square-foot Weymouth store into a bedding and clearance center when the Braintree store opens. read article
October 12th, 2004
By Clint Engel, Furniture Today | July 14, 2003
Everett, Mass.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has converted its full-line store here to a bedding and clearance center outlet, freeing up space in other larger stores for more regular-priced goods.The 16,000-square-foot store in this northern Boston suburb — one the company’s smallest units — became Bernie & Phyl’s Bedding and Clearance Center in late June. It has about 13,000 square feet of clearance space, with the rest dedicated to its regular bedding offering from Sealy, Stearns & Foster and Bassett Bedding’s Carrington Chase. Read More
July 14th, 2003
By Clint Engel, Furniture Today | June 23, 2003
Norton, Mass.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture will open its seventh store this August in Raynham, Mass., filling in a gap in its Boston-area penetration.The family-owned, midpriced retailer acquired a former Ames department store building on Route 44 southwest of Boston for $2.6 million and will convert it to a 55,000-square-foot superstore, said Bernie Rubin, president, and co-founder of the Top 100 chain. Read More
June 23rd, 2003
By Sheri Qualters | May 23, 2003
It’s not a surprise that Arnold Worldwide CEO Ed Eskandarian spent a little time praising the effectiveness of advertising campaigns during a speech at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast event last week.
What may startle some is that one of the accounts Eskandarian mentioned does not belong to Arnold. In fact, the campaign for Norton-based furniture retailer Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture — which Eskandarian says he mentions to people as an example of advertising’s effectiveness — was crafted by Winchester-based Open Skye Design LLC. Read More
May 23rd, 2003
Staff, Furniture Today | May 6, 2002
NASHUA, N.H.—Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has broken ground on a three-floor, 86,000-square-foot superstore on the Daniel Webster Highway here. Read More
May 6th, 2002
By Donna L. Goodison, Boston Business Journal | May 26, 2000
NORTON–Furniture/Today refers to it as a “from-out-of-nowhere” story.Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture of Norton cracked the trade publication’s list of the nation’s top 100 furniture store chains this week, sliding in at the very bottom with $45.5 million in 1999 sales.The company recorded the highest percentage sales increase among the 100 companies–a 76.7 percent jump from 1998–making it one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country, according to David Perry, executive editor of the Greensboro, N.C.-based magazine.
“They were one of a handful of stores to make it on the list this year for the first time,” Perry said. “That kind of growth is spectacular, obviously.” Read More
May 26th, 2000