Siloam Springs Store Is Prototype for Hank?s Chain

If Henry “Hank” Browne doesn’t have a furniture store near you, just be patient.

Browne has built Hank’s Discount Fine Furniture into one of the biggest chains in the country in the past 27 years, ranking 86th out the 50,000 or so furniture dealers in North America, according to Furniture Today, a trade journal of the furniture business.

The company rang up some $58 million in sales in 2001, and Browne said he expects the company to hit $100 million by 2005.

The chain continues to grow steadily, adding about two stores a year. On June 22, the furniture retailer will open a 25,000-SF store at Siloam Springs, the 23rd store in the company.

“Growth is predicated on having well-trained salespeople, so it’s a controlled expansion,” Browne said. The company now has 320 employees.

The Siloam Springs store is also a prototype of new Hank’s stores, featuring a wide open center for more flexibility in arranging furniture.

Browne last month moved the company headquarters from Interstate 30 in southwest Little Rock to a former Hank’s store on Warden Road in Sherwood.

With a new retail store next door nearly doubling the old 15,000-SF store, the older facility has been converted into an office complex for the 47 employees who work at the corporate offices.

Browne is also expanding the company into the Gulf Coast region, although those stores have a different name.

Last year, Browne opened Home Place Furniture stores at Pensacola and Panama City, Fla., part of six new-format stores planned for the Gulf area.

By the end of the year, a new store should be up and running at Mobile, Ala.

The Home Place stores are a bit larger than the Hank’s stores, running 28,000-30,000 SF, Browne said. And they carry an expanded line of furnishings in the upper-middle price range.

The stores will cater to the Gulf Coast consumer by offering more furniture with lighter colored fabrics and finishes.

Browne also opened a 25,000-SF warehouse at Pensacola to support the Florida panhandle Home Place stores. Browne said he has bought additional land at Mobile to build a 60,000-SF warehouse to handle the increase in imported furniture coming into the port at Mobile.

Current Hank’s stores in Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Louisiana range from 14,000 SF to about 30,000 SF. There are 14 Hank’s stores in Arkansas, three in southern Missouri, one in Shreveport, one in Texarkana and one in Longview, Texas.

“There’s no secret to our success,” Browne said. “We do the basics every day. We shop hard.

“I believe the retail furniture business is the purest form of capitalism left,” Browne said.

“There are so many manufacturers of furniture.”

Because of the size of the company, he can buy in volume, which makes a substantial difference in price. A smaller dealer may pay $375 for a piece of furniture that Browne can get for less than $300.

A Little History

Hank Browne’s retailing career actually began in wholesale. He learned how to sell from the late Frank Lyon Sr.

“He was a brilliant businessman,” Browne said.

Lyon had the RCA Whirlpool franchise for the state, and Browne was hired to sell appliances to small dealers around Arkansas.

Browne ended up having to teach those small-town salesmen how to sell.

Finally, Browne thought to himself, “I believe I can do a better job than they can. So I got out of wholesale and into retail.”

He became a partner in the Garner-Browne stores, which were made famous locally through television ads featuring “Little John” Garner.

The pair sold appliances but later added some furniture to the mix of merchandise in their stores. Browne sold out to Garner in 1979.

When Browne struck out on his own, he turned to furniture and began building his empire with stores called Freight Sales Furniture.

The company had 16 stores in 1995, when the name was changed to Hank’s Discount Fine Furniture.

Unlike Browne’s earlier venture, Hank’s concentrates solely on furniture, bedding and accessories.

Although the Freight Sales name seemed to imply low-end furniture, or furniture that was damaged and marked down, that wasn’t the case, according to Browne.

The business was highly profitable, but Browne could see that 80 percent of all furniture sales are in the middle-price range.

“And that’s what we try to reach at the Hank’s stores,” he said.

Changing Times

There’s been a careful and consistent upscaling of the Hank’s stores during the past few years as the company has found its niche in the market.

“The quality and value of furniture is better than ever,” Browne said. Key suppliers to Hank’s stores include Simmons, Kemp, Standard, Alan White, Palliser, Natuzzi, and Ther-a-pedic and Spring Air in bedding.

“Styles change faster than you would think,” Browne said.

“Not so much in bedroom furniture, but anything made of fabric changes much faster.”

And with imported furnishings taking 90 days to get to the United States, “try to project that.”

One of the biggest changes in the furniture industry, Browne said, is the rise of imported furniture in the major categories.

“In the past, it was mostly accessory items that were imported,” Browne said.

Now imports make up about 20 percent of his business, including imported bedroom and dining room furnishings and, of course, all those leather sofas that for the most part come from Italy.

“Living room furniture makes up about 23 percent of the total sales, and bedroom furnishing makes up another 23 percent,” Browne said. Leather products now make up 12 percent and have become one of the fastest-growing segments.

The stores do not handle office furniture, and the company has no plans to ever do so.

Awesome Person

Browne said he spends $3 million a year on advertising — money that is a complete waste unless the customer buys something after he walks through the door.

“I recognize the value of a salesperson — what an asset they are if they’re well-trained and what a liability they are if not,” he said.

On the back of a brochure welcoming customers to the Home Place stores, Browne writes: “When I am conducting indoctrination seminars for new employees, I spend a great deal of time speaking about the ‘awesome person.’ I explain to them that a customer coming through our front door is an ‘awesome person’ … the person who pays their rent, buys their food, puts their children through school, etc. That person is due our utmost respect, courtesy and professionalism. That person can turn into a lifelong friend and customer by treating them fairly with great values and services after the sale.”

“The biggest single problem is getting and keeping good people,” Browne said. He knows most don’t like the 48-hour weeks and Saturday work, but that’s the company’s biggest day.

The company’s repeat customer ratio is among the highest in the United States.

“Business is stable,” Browne said. “We promote all the time, and we sell all the time.”

One of the company’s basics is, “Do it professionally and consistently. It works.” And that’s the philosophy behind the company’s advertising agenda.

“Often in lean times, a company will cut back on advertising, but that’s the wrong thing to do,” said Cathy Browne, advertising and public relations director — and wife of Hank.

Hank Sells

“Hank on television is the most effective tool we have. He started appearing in the ads three to four years ago, and the response has been tremendous,” Cathy Browne said. “TV is an unbelievable tool for us. And we’re expanding into the cable markets.”

The consistent advertising is reaching people. Cathy Browne tells of a woman who came in and said, “This is my store. I feel at home here.”

Even the company headquarters has a homey feel to it — after all, it is a family operation.

While Hank Browne lists himself as president and Cathy Browne heads advertising and public relations, two daughters also are involved in the business. Jennifer, a lawyer, is the company’s in-house legal counsel, and Mary is general merchandise manager. A third daughter, Laura, is not involved in the business, but works for Entergy.

Another of Browne’s passions is The Nature Conservancy, and he sits on the board of the Arkansas chapter.

His home in DeValls Bluff overlooks the White River, and he waxes eloquent about the river.

“The White River is the largest natural overflow river left in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s listed as one of the five top ecosystems on the planet.”

To see the Army Engineers dredge it out so that more barges can go up the river when the water level is low is insane to Browne, who hunts and fishes the area.

The White River Navigation Project is still on hold, and that’s exactly where Browne wants it to stay.

The Engineers talk about the economic impact, Browne said.

“But I say look at areas along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas River. Those river projects flow through what is still the poorest area of the state.”

Browne also finds time to serve on the board of trustees at Hendrix College at Conway.