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Clint Engel
Plans business and fun
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- To celebrate its success and reward its employees, City Furniture
will send 200 people to the Las Vegas furniture market this month.
It’s the biggest crew City has ever sent to a market. Some 100 employees with their spouses
or guests will hit the city in two shifts starting July 25.
They’ll stay at the new Wynn Las Vegas resort hotel, and they will mix furniture business
with the other kinds of fun Las Vegas has to offer, said City President Keith Koenig.
“Our business is great, and we’re going to have a little celebration,” Koenig said. “I
believe strongly in having a little fun along the way.”
The majority of the employees are in middle and senior management in all parts of the Top
100 company’s operation, including information technology, warehouse and delivery,
administrative and customer support, along with senior store management. Also in the crew
are about 25 sales associates for the 17-store retailer, chosen from a pool of those who
met certain performance criteria.
Koenig wouldn’t say how much money the trip is costing. “Let’s just say we’re trying to
do it right — by convenient air travel and what may be the best hotel in Las Vegas.”
He said the groups will tour the Word Market Center building to “see our vendors and their
product in the whole furniture-market concept first hand — something many of the employees
have not had the opportunity to do before.”
Some will return to market for a second day, while others will play or shop and study other
stores in a city with a reputation for innovative retail.
The trip is in part a thank you for employees’ hard work and City’s resulting success,
Koenig said. Last year, the company posted a nearly 13% increase in sales to $297.3
million. This year, it’s on track for a 20% increase, he said.
Earlier this month the South Florida retailer opened its fourth Ashley Furniture HomeStore
— its first built from the ground up — in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Davie. Two more
Ashley stores and two full-line City showrooms will open in the fourth quarter.
This isn’t the first time City has brought a large group on the road. In 2002, the retailer
sent about 75 members of its management team and spouses or guests to New York when the
Anti-Defamation League honored Koenig.
And in High Point, City always tries to bring extra people to market — usually six or seven
managers and sales associates, who go around with him on the closing days to see the goods
City’s merchandising team want to buy, in order to gauge their interest and get additional
feedback.
“I like to say all of us are smarter than any one of us,” Koenig said.
Still this the first time such a huge group is coming to market.
“High Pont is just a challenge for accommodating large groups,” said Koenig, whose company
a few years ago bought its own High Point house to serve as a market base.
“And Las Vegas, like it or not, is a lot more exciting a venue for outside of the market.”
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