Jake Jabs: American furniture warehouse founder knows how to make a profit even during the toughest of economic times.

AuthorCote, Mike

While some of his competitors have gone out of business (luring the tough economic climate of the past new years. Jake Jabs has expanded his American Furniture Warehouse empire to 13, with new stores open or under way in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs.

The company long' known for its founder's homespun TV ads had estimated sales of furniture, bedding and accessories in 2010 of $300 million, up from $297 million in 2009. according to the trade publication. Furniture Today.

Sitting in his office at his corporate headquarters in Centennial, located inside one of his furniture warehouse stores. Jabs talked about some of the moves he had to make to keep his company lean, including gelling rid of a 50-person online division in 2008.

"We were shipping a lamp Lo New Jersey. We were shipping bedroom set to Houston. And it just wasn't working very well," said Jabs, citing the high cost of doing business. "The trouble with shipping a lamp to New Jersey is if there is something wrong with the lamp [22] (the customer) just slops making payment on their Visa, and you got a lamp in New Jersey. What do you do with a lamp in New Jersey? You throw it in the garbage."

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Jabs retooled American Furniture Warehoused online sales practices to align with where the company's trucks make deliveries. It's the kind of adjustment you make when declining sales force you to rethink everything you do.

But recessionary times also have been kind to Jabs: Colorado's largest furniture retailer got its start during the 1975 recession. Jabs says he's made some (if the best deals of his life during economic downturns.

"I negotiated with the old American (Furniture Co.), which had gone out of business. They were just trying to get something out of their assets. their trucks and their trucks and warehouse racks," Jabs said, "ll was on their books for a million and hall dollars, and I...

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