Safavieh acquires Belgian warehouse, plans furniture launch in Europe

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 4/19/2012 12:22:58 PM

Port Washington, N.Y. - Safavieh has acquired a warehouse in Belgium, its first on the continent, with an eye to expanding overseas growth.
Jonathan Yaraghi, general manager of Safavieh's furniture division, also announced the company will launch upholstered furniture lines designed specifically for the European market within the next six weeks. The company will continue to market its existing accent furniture and rug collections worldwide.
The new facility is located five miles from the port of Antwerp.
"This is a strategic move that will dramatically increase the speed with which we drop ship Safavieh products directly to European consumers," said Arash Yaraghi, principal, Safavieh. "Our volume with European retailers has increased substantially in the past two years and we are projecting continued solid growth in this market."
Safavieh will store its spectrum of products, including rugs, furniture, lighting and other decorative accessories, at the Antwerp facility. According to the company, its goal is to ship orders throughout Western Europe within three days by adapting the company's logistics model in place in the U.S. since 2000.
"Since implementing our logistics program, one of Safavieh's main competitive advantages is the ability to ship product to our retail partners' customers within three days," Yaraghi said. "We are committed to this goal as part of our brand promise: We want consumers and retailers to know us for fashion, quality, value, and for impeccable customer service. To do that in Europe we needed to control our own distribution."
In 2011, Safavieh added a new 150,000-foot warehouse in Fontana, Calif. to support its western U.S. and Canadian sales with quick ship service. The addition of the Fontana facility brought the company's total warehousing space in North America to 1,000,000 square feet. Safavieh also has facilities in Easton, Pa. and Port Washington, N.Y.

According to a release, Safavieh drop-ships orders to end-use customers on behalf of retailers in all 50 states, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. The company's warehouse stock levels provide immediate delivery on more than 1,000 programmed rug designs, each in more than eight sizes and several color schemes. In furniture, 500 skus are stocked for quick ship.