Luxury Resource Anichini to Open Fifth Avenue Store

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 3/20/2006 12:00:00 AM

Tunbridge, Vt. —

Tunbridge, Vt. – Anichini, the luxury bedding supplier, will open a retail store at 230 Fifth Avenue in New York later this year.

The 1,600-sq.-ft. store will be on the first floor of the building which also houses the company's wholesale showroom and is the base of a number of home textiles suppliers. Discussing the new store, ceo Susan Dollenmaier said, “When 225 Fifth Avenue [the former Gift Building] and 200 Fifth Avenue [the former Toy Building] closed to be converted to luxury residential buildings, the whole lower Madison Avenue began to feel like the Wrought Iron District on 20th Street.”

With all the potential luxury customers nearby, Dollenmaier feels it is a good business opportunity, similar to those offered at the company's other retail locations in Los Angeles, Dallas and a boutique in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Cayman Islands. “We need a retail presence in the area beyond our boutique at ABC Carpet & Home.”

Last year, the company moved and enlarged its wholesale presence in 230 Fifth, she added. “We've been in the building for 10 years. Marti [Dollenmaier, company president] came up with the idea for the Quorum, a cooperative home textiles showroom that pioneered the luxury segment on the 19th floor.”

“We outgrew the space and wanted to raise our presence a notch as well as expand the showroom for our growing hospitality business.”

The showroom is on the 20th floor, adjacent to a high-end restaurant that will open soon.