Taft Furniture

Executive Summary

"We believe at Taft that each employee contributes to the Company's growth and success, we like to think of ourselves as friendly and informal. The cornerstone of our business is our commitment to deliver quality products and services to our customers."

Company Description

Is a family owned retailer, founded in 1960 by Walter Mulcahy; the business originality started in downtown Troy under the name Mulcahy's Inc. Then in 1971 they had to relocate the business because the Federal Urban Renewal Agency was buying up the retail business buildings and demolishing them.

On August 26, 1972, Walter Mulcahy opened the first Warehouse- Showroom concept to New York State and surrounding states. This was so that the customer would be able to purchase low priced furniture and pick-it up in the same day. This would be a large warehouse to keep merchandise in stock.

Taft Furniture has increased its size from 110,000 square feet to now having 160,000 square feet with a warehouse that measures to over 50 feet tall. In addition, to the original store, Taft has expanded to opening a second warehouse in Albany and as well as a new showroom store in Saratoga Springs, New York (one hour north of Albany) with over 45,000 square feet, which was built recently, September of 2006.

In the store, Taft offers an affordable low priced, brand name furniture and bedding. Customers are allowed to special order right from the vender as well and still take advantage of the low pricing and financing packages. Taft has a fully staffed customer service department as well as a delivery department, customer service, associates, and repair division.

Strategic Focus and Plan

Mission/Vision

"We want to improve the look and comfort of our customer's home, at the same time creating a shopping experience that is not only convenient, but unique."

Goals

Non-finical goals: Taft Furniture wants to be the largest furniture store in the northeast. They want to have their competitors worried about whether they are going to expand and move into their area. Taft also wants to continue expanding in New York and into surrounding areas one day.

Finical goals: In 2005, Taft Furniture's estimated net sales were $16,800,000. Their total sales with only one store were 25 to 29.9 million dollars. Taft financial goal is to increase their sales ten percent from the pervious year and make a profit.

Core Competencies and Sustainable Completive Advantages

Have two stores in different key locations. This makes it easy for people to travel to the store. Unlike Taft, other two major competitors: Morandians and Old Brickonly have stores close together in the Albany area. Taft's third major competitor has different stories in the Albany area and in surrounding states. However, they do not have a furniture store in the Saratoga area near Taft's second location.

Taft also have has two large warehouses. This makes the product easily available. Pieces are in stock and ready for the customer to pick-up on a weekday or weekend. Taft has a one year price protection program where as other stores only offer up to thirty days. What this price protection program offers is that if you buy a product and then in a couple of weeks later the furniture is on sale you will be able to get the monetary difference back.

Situation Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Taft Furniture has many strengths; they have a high creditability within the capitol region and know by being the 'Big Store' in Albany, New York. Taft has been doing a superior job with customer service and profits; therefore, they were able to open a new store as well as an additional warehouse. Taft has had the ability to expand in many of their other departments as well because of the advantages being more profitable and satisfying their customers. Their delivery department started off with only having two trucks and now to the higher demand they have escalated to eight delivery trucks.

Taft Furniture's weakness is now that they are starting to expand even more that their internal communication between different managers and departments may be effected. If Taft gets too big it will be more profitable money wise but what about customer service wise. It may change the way the customers are being treated and they may not hear of the problem until it is too late to save the customer. Also, Taft is still a small business; they are not a big chain furniture store so they are not able to expand in other ways such as technology and filing system. They do not have the money to upgrade completely to a new computer system that will allow them to lose a useless stack of paperwork. They have to file the paper manually and save all the paperwork incase they need it in the long run to help a customer. If they were able to upgrade their technology, they would be able to save all the paperwork in the computer and not have to worry about a paper trail. Taft goes through so much paper that it becomes very costly. Another weakness is that Taft is still small in comparison to major furniture chains and is confined to it is available space. They are unable to open up online ordering. This is something that their competitors are doing while Taft is not able to offer this feature. This may hurt them.

Taft Furniture has an opportunity for growth within and without side the company. They can build the employment team stronger to have an improved customer service and enhanced the teamwork internally in the company. Taft has the chance to expand their store even more to increase their profit and recognition.

The greatest threat to Taft is a major chain such as Nebraska Furniture Mart. It is one of the largest furniture store chain. If one of them were to come into New York they would hurt Taft Furniture's business tremendously. As of now, Taft's biggest threat is Raymour & Flanigan. They are also a major chain that is already in the capital region and are building more stores in the area.

Industry Analysis

A major factor that would affect Taft Furniture is the house market. Whether people are buying or selling their houses. People have to have a need to buy furniture and they their high-test need for furniture is when they are moving into a house and need to furnish their new homes. When the house buying market is low so is the furniture market.