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Letter to the editor

Bombay furniture to close all stores

The housing slump claims another victim in the retail industry.

By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published October 16, 2007

The Bombay Co. will close all 388 of its remaining U.S. stores after managers failed to reverse a three-year decline.

The liquidation sale, which includes four Tampa Bay area stores and an outlet in Ellenton, begins shortly. Two other local stores closed in the past year.

Liquidators Gordon Brothers Retail Partners and Hilco Merchant Resources are poised to start unloading remaining inventory this week pending approval of a Fort Worth, Texas, judge overseeing the company's recent bankruptcy. Bombay will continue to operate in Canada.

The liquidators' winning bid for the inventory was not disclosed, but the minimum bid in the auction was $100-million.

Bombay's domestic demise is one more sign of turmoil the housing slump helped bring to a head in the retail furniture industry. Nationally, sales are weak. Locally, Galloway's Furniture in Tampa will close by Christmas for "personal and business reasons." Burgess Carriage House, which operates Ethan Allen franchise stores in Pinellas Park, Lakeland and Sarasota, is liquidating its inventory before switching to the higher-priced Drexel Heritage line that might be more immune to economic shifts. Ethan Allen stores in Tampa are keeping their affiliation.

For Bombay, a pioneer in selling a tightly edited selection of 2,100 home furnishings and accessories in a mall setting, the slump played a role in the company's inability to redefine its niche.

Founded in 1978, Bombay was one of the first chains to match inexpensive Asian imports with budget-minded shoppers' interest in 18th- and 19th-century classic British colonial styles. The chain's polished mahogany-stain finishes and classic replica accessories helped fuel the popularity of dark-wood British West Indies furniture styles that were big sellers a few years ago.

Purchased by the parent of Radio Shack in 1981, Bombay spread to more than 500 stores before being spun off on its own.

Once rivals discovered the look and demand weakened, however, Bombay never recovered.

In the quarter ended May 5, the company lost $15-million on revenue of $104-million. Sales in stores open more than a year dropped 10 percent. An experiment with a BombayKids store misfired. Sales per square foot plunged to $250, a third below the average sales productivity of all regional mall stores. Bombay stock that three years ago peaked at $14 a share closed Monday at 4 cents a share on the pink sheets.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.

[Last modified October 15, 2007, 22:52:48]