Consumers can fulfill all their furniture needs at new center

ALBUQUERQUE RECEIVES FURNITURE ROW HOME SHOPPING CENTER

Denver, CO ‐ Denver Mattress™ Company, Oak Express Bedroom Expressions® , and Sofa Mart™, all sister companies, will open as a Furniture Row home shopping center in Albuquerque , New Mexico, creating a new home furniture retail resource. The shopping center will be located at 3230 Menaul NE, just west of Carlisle. All four residential retailers occupy the 46,000 square‐foot building. Denver Mattress Company opened its doors last Saturday, October 6, 2001, and employs 5 people. The remaining stores are slated to open in early November. Each is a retail division of the Denver‐based Furniture Row® Companies.

Denver Mattress, the fastest‐growing factory‐direct mattress retailer, is considered unique among its competitors in the bedding industry because it is both a mattress manufacturer and mattress retailer. It manufactures, distributes, and retails its own private‐label ‐ultimately providing full control over how its products are priced and sold.

The company uses the same components and material s as the leading brand name manufacturers, but because it manufactures and sells its own mattresses, it has eliminated the middleman markup. In the end, Denver Mattress customers get brand name quality mattresses for as much as 50 percent less. The company, which originated in Denver in 1995, currently has 36 stores stretching from Arizona to Michigan.

Other Stores

Oak Express is not a new retailer to Albuquerque. The store that offers homeowners real wood furniture for almost any room of the house, at discount prices, is relocating to the new location. Because Oak Express stores operate as both retail space and functional warehouses for the store's inventory, the chain has been able to keep overhead low and offer immediate product availability.

Beyond its tremendous price advantage, Oak Express' quality standard of carrying only furniture made of real wood is yet another strong selling point in the marketplace. That's because most of the wood furniture being sold today is made using computer generated pictures of wood grain, which is then laminated onto particleboard. The company originated in 1995 and has over 90 stores.

Sofa Mart is a relatively new player in the residential furniture market. It specializes in casual leather and upholstery home furnishings, as well as accent pieces such as occasional tables, armoires, and home accessories ‐ basically, the type of furniture used in living and family room areas of the home.

The chain provides a large variety of styles, some of which are reminiscent of those found in high‐end depa1tment stores and fashionable furnishings catalogs. The difference being that consumers will find Sofa Mart's product s more attractively priced and more readily available.

Currently, there are 15 stores nationwide and aggressive growth is planned

Furniture Row Companies is the fourth largest family‐owned specialty home furnishings and bedding retailer. It is comprised of a flagship brand Oak Express and 5 other company‐owned operations, including Sofa Mart, Bedroom Expressions, Denver Mattress Company, Big Sur™ Waterbeds, and Furniture Row Outlets.

Furniture Row operates 167 stores in 30 states, across all its brands, and plans for aggressive expansion over the next five years. Already, the company is among the "Top 15" national furniture retailers and it has become the nation's largest cash buyer of home furnishings.

Ratings and Reviews for Furniture Row Store in Albuquerque, New Mexico