FURNITURE BUSINESS HAS HAD TO REARRANGE THE CHAIRS

Even in tough times, firm’s niche has seen it through.

In the competitive home furnishings marketplace, Today’s Home created a niche when it opened 63 years ago that has helped the company ride out tough times over the ensuing decades.

“Today’s Home is the interior design center of what we would consider custom design,” said Jeff Lenchner, the company president. “Even in 1953, my parents’ mission statement was high-quality, high-end furnishings with interior design assistance.”

The Lenchner family made a leap of faith in 1953 when they established the home furnishings business on in the Pittsburgh-area town of Ross at a time when the area was mostly cow pasture. But founders Sig and Audrey Lenchner knew the corridor was bound to grow.

“Even in those days, there was talk about a super highway that was going north. It was not called 279 North yet. And they knew all of that growth most likely was going to go north because the land was available,” said Lenchner, a son who took over the furniture company when his parents passed away.

What started as a momand-pop shop with two employees has grown to four operating companies with 60 employees. But that makes it sound too easy.

Business boomed for about 20 years, When Pittsburgh’s steel industry faltered in the early 1970s, the region began losing numerous other major corporations whose employees bought high-end furniture.

“That was an incredibly challenging period for my parents,” Lenchner said.

And it wouldn’t be the last one. Today’s Home eventually grew to three locations.

The original business also grew into four operating companies, Today’s Home, Designer Furniture Outlet, TH Trade Contract and TH Trade Design.

A national economic downturn in 2000 - the dot-com bust - prompted the company to create its first operating company, Designer Furniture Outlet, which sells furniture at marked down prices, similar to the model used by Marshall’s and TJ Maxx.

Frugal was hip. It became less acceptable to shop at pricey stores. Big Box chains like Wal-Mart, Costco and Target were gaining traction with affluent shoppers.

“The high-end changed completely and we had to change our business model literally to survive because it was no longer fashionable to buy custom furniture,” Lenchner said. “People wanted to save money.”

The company weathered the slump from 1999 to around 2002. Then Hurricane Ivan came along in 2004 and threatened to crush the business.

That storm dumped close to 10 feet of water into the company’s distribution center. Delivery trucks were underwater.

“And in our distribution center, which was 100 feet high, we always kept customer’s special orders on the first level,” Lenchner said. “We lost 100 customers’ special ordered furniture during that flood.”

The company didn’t have flood insurance; didn’t even know it was on a flood plain.

“We managed to get through that, then started to get our feet stable again and the great economic recession hit just four years later when there was a little stability,” Lenchner said. The recession washed out 60 percent of the company’s peer group around the country, he said.

Today’s Home stayed afloat, partly because of its model to provide design assistance and partly because it kept diversifying.

In 2008, the company launched TH Trade Contract, which sells furniture to businesses in the corporate, health, hospitality and education segment. Clients include country clubs, offices, law firms and funeral parlors.

Two years later, Today’s Home started unveiled TH Trade Design, which is a trade showroom for 265 independent furniture designers who purchase furniture at a discount and resell.

“There are hundreds of independent designers that work with residential customers, but need a trade showroom to procure orders,” Lenchner said. “Independents really don’t want to deal with warehousing, accounts receivables and accounts payable.”

The management is now in its third generation. Lenchner’s daughter Rachel joined the company after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. She works as director of marketing. His wife, Jill, is director of merchandising, accessories, wall decor and the stores’ visual display.

“My father, who was retired (when the Great Recession was in full force) would often say to me, ‘Don’t ever give up.’ He was an ex-Navy officer. He understood what it was like never to give up,” Lenchner said.

That perspective has helped.

“So we kept just keeping our nose to the grindstone, diversifying and then our great employee base helped us get through that,” he said.

Lenchner said the company has seen double digit growth on a compounded basis over the last four years.

“That doesn’t mean the next crisis isn’t looming,” he said.

LAKE FONG / PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE Jeff Lenchner is president of the Today’s Home chain of furniture stores, a company established by his parents 63 years ago. His wife, Jill, (left) and daughter Rachel also help handling the business.