ABC to grow store base

AT THE NEW YORK MARKET —ABC Carpet & Home has revealed plans to open two stores this summer on the heels of its newly launched decorative fabric department.

One will be a warehouse store in Hackensack, NJ, opening in June, and the other will be a store open for only three months during the summer in the Tanger Mall in Riverhead on Long Island, NY, that will focus on summer merchandise for the home.

The Hackensack store will be 45,000 square feet and will include all product categories, but with a price emphasis more focused on opening price points up to moderate levels, said Skye Kirby, vp, stores. In home textiles, for example, this could involve new packaging or new approaches to the way the merchandise is offered, she explained.

Last week, ABC launched its new decorative fabric department via a leased arrangement with Los Angeles-based The Silk Trading Co. The department occupies the entire lower level of the store and includes the full range of The Silk Trading Co. fabrics as well as their custom furniture, ready-made draperies, and custom bedding.

The Silk Trading Co. is one of a number of leased departments at ABC. "We want to get the best merchandise we can get in the store, and leased departments like The Silk Trading can bring this," said Kirby.

"We want to make available high-quality, high-design fabrics to anyone, not just the interior design trade," said Warren Kay, co-owner of The Silk Trading Co.

Of the 5,000 skus in The Silk Trading Co. line, about 3,500 are offered in the the ABC department. Silk Trading, which started in 1993, now has six stores in addition to ABC, one in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas and Greenwich, CT, all in the 15,000- to 20,000-square-foot-size.

The Kays also operate Koplavitch and Zimmer as a wholesale division, which sells to the interior design showrooms and the upper end of the furniture manufacturing market.