Friday, June 29, 2018

Local Firm Woodstock Mattress Outlet in Kennesaw to Take Advantage of Mattress Firm Weakness

Acworth-based Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet is planning its third standalone mattress outlet store.  With existing locations in Canton and Buckhead, which opened this past February, the company is returning to its OTP roots with a location in Kennesaw.  The Kennesaw outpost will open alongside a new Flying Biscuit Cafe in a newly constructed outparcel strip at Kennesaw Marketplace, the Whole Foods Market anchored center at the corner of Ernest Barrett and Cobb Parkways.  The store will occupy suite #420 at 1450 Ernest W Barrett Parkway.
Woodstock Mattress Outlet and Flying Biscuit Cafe will be among the first new tenants to open in the center following its acquisition by InvenTrust Properties Corp. earlier this month.

Downers Grove, Illinois-based InvenTrust announced June 5 that it had purchased the 114,000 square foot Kennesaw Marketplace, developed by Atlanta-based Fuqua Development in 2017, for $64.3 million.

The center, which opened last year, is already home to a Mattress Firm store, one of the many the retailer operates in Kennesaw.  Mattress Firm operates within an existing outparcel of the center, along Cobb Parkway, adjacent to a freestanding Del Taco restaurant.

Mattress Firm, owned by South African conglomerate Steinhoff International, is at an inflection point.  The company is still dealing with a domestic legal mess as it sues its former master broker and two of its real estate executives involved in what it called a “massive, multi-year fraud, bribery, and kickback scheme."   Things are not much better at its parent company, with Steinhoff reeling from what has been revealed to have been multiple years of accounting irregularities. 

The company earlier this year announced plans to close 175 stores in 2018, with some analysts predicting store closures could increase to as many as 600.  

The Aaron family opened the first Woodstock Furniture store in 1988 in Woodstock.  The company significantly expanded in 2001 when they relocated from a 6,000 square foot store to a 100,000 square foot mega store in Acworth.  The company operates Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet stores in Acworth, Dallas/Hiram and Rome.  This past December, the company relocated their Canton mattress outlet to a more prominent location in an effort to grow the concept as a standalone business. 

Sources close to the retailer indicate that Woodstock is shrewdly taking advantage of the Mattress Firm turmoil by growing its mattress business with more stores planned.  

The Kennesaw store, delayed from a previously expected mid-June opening, is now targeting a mid-July opening, potentially as soon as July 13.  

From where did you buy your last mattress?  Have you been to Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet?  How many stores do you think Mattress Firm will ultimately close?

Please share your thoughts below.

1 comment:

Jeff R said...

InvenTrust doesn't own the entire center, only the Whole Foods/small shops and then some of the outparcels. if you look at their website you can see the grey-ed out parts of the center are not owned by them. Mattress Firm and Woodstock aren't technically in the same center.

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