Bernie & Phyl's In the News
March 1st, 2006
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture Be A Champion for a Child Program
with World Champion Football Player Vince Wilfork
A 325-Pound Defensive Lineman, a Furniture Company, the WBCN Patriots Rock
Radio Network and a Non-Profit –What’s this team doing?
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January 15th, 2006
Aim for quality, value to furnish kids’ rooms
By Ricki Morell, Globe Correspondent | January 15, 2006
When Phyl Rubin was a young mother, she didn’t have money to spare on
upscale children’s furniture.Still, she wanted something special for her
youngest child and only girl. So, she bought an inexpensive canopy bed covered
in pink-and-white gingham, painted elephants on the walls and glued gingham
material on the lamp shades.These days, Phyl, 65, has 10 grandchildren’s
rooms to fuss over — and much better access to children’s furniture.
Phyl and her husband, Bernie Rubin, own Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture,
one of the largest furniture retailers in Massachusetts.
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October 21st, 2005
Bernie & Phyl’s donates furniture to kids’ center
Jay McIntosh, Furniture Today | October 21, 2005
Norton, Mass.— Retailer Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has donated
new waiting room furniture to the Children’s Advocacy Center in Suffolk
County, Massachusetts.The CAC is a public-private partnership dedicated to minimizing
trauma to children and families when concerns of abuse and violence arise. The
organization recently moved into a larger space at the Boston Family Justice
Center.
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August 29, 2005
Bigger Bernie & Phyl’s comes home
By Clint Engel, Furniture Today | August 29, 2005
Braintree, Mass.— In a sense, Bernie & Phyl’s has come back
home with the recent launch of its store here. But in the 22 years since founders
Bernie and Phyllis Rubin opened their first full-line store in nearby Weymouth,
Mass., it has grown so much that its earliest customers may not recognize it.
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June 1st, 2005
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture Makes List of Top 100
Furniture Stores in the Country for Sixth Year in a Row
Norton, MA, June 1, 2005 — Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture, one of
the fastest growing furniture retailers in the country with six stores in Massachusetts
and one in New Hampshire, has made the list of Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores
for the sixth year in a row. The exclusive list is compiled by Furniture/Today,
the industry’s leading trade publication.
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has moved up the list to number 61 with
$105.8 million in sales for the year 2004, representing a 21.6 percent increase
in sales over the previous year. The company’s impressive 21.6 percent
sales gain was the sixth highest in the country. Bernie & Phyl’s was
number 70 on the list last year with $87 million in sales.Bernie & Phyl’s
Furniture also made Furniture/Today’s Top 10 lists in the important “sales
per square foot” category and “average stock turns” category.
The company has made both of the Top 10 lists – a remarkable feat –
for the past six years.
Bernie & Phyl’s was number ten in the category of sales per square
foot and number five in the average stock turns category this year. They were
one of only four retailers from the Top 100 to appear on both of these lists.“We
started out on this prestigious list six years ago at number 100 and have moved
up almost 40 spots since then, which is a major accomplishment,” said
Bernie Rubin, chairman and co-founder of Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture.
“This past year, we attained another important benchmark in our company’s
history – exceeding the $100 million sales mark for the first time. It
is our goal to continue serving our customers at the highest levels, so that
we can maintain our annual double-digit growth and continue to expand our company.”
With a focus on quality furniture at great prices, the family-run business
has created a highly successful niche in a very competitive marketplace. In
2004, Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture purchased a prominent 3.5-acre site
in Braintree, where they opened a 50,000 s/f store in February 2005. In 2003,
the retailer bought and opened a 55,000 s/f store in Raynham and doubled the
size of its Nashua superstore to 86,000 s/f – all part of the company’s
ambitious expansion plans.
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture is one of the largest furniture retailers
in New England with seven stores throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Based in Norton, MA, the company has large stores in Braintree, MA (50,000 s/f),
Raynham, MA (55,000 s/f), Saugus, MA (50,000 s/f), Westboro, MA (50,000 s/f),
and Nashua, NH (86,000 s/f). The company also has Bedding and Clearance Centers
in Everett and Weymouth, MA. Bernie & Phyl’s was named the 2002 Retailer
of the Year by the National Home Furnishings Association, the highest honor
in the furniture industry, and the 2004 winner of the Better Business Bureau’s
Local Torch Award for Excellence.
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October 12th, 2004
Bernie & Phyl’s buys Braintree building, plans superstore
Boston Business Journal
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture, a Bay State independent furniture retailer
with six locations, purchased a 50,000-square-foot building on a 3.25-acre site
at 180 Wood Road in Braintree. It plans to open a new superstore there early
next year.
This is the company’s third major expansion in less than two years. The
company, which started in Quincy in 1983, plans to convert its 12,000-square-foot
Weymouth store into a bedding and clearance center when the Braintree store
opens.
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April 24th, 2004
Magazine taps Bernie & Phyl’s for charity work
By Staff, Furniture Today | April 24, 2004
NORTON, Mass.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture was one of 10 retailers
internationally to win the Executive Technology Retail Community Service Award,
given by Executive Technology Magazine.
Bernie Rubin, co-founder and president, and Larry Rubin, chief operating officer,
accepted the award on behalf of the company during a gala at the National Retail
Federation conference in New York.
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture was selected because of its ongoing and
strong commitment to donating furniture to organizations in need.
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January 1st, 2004
Retailers Seek to Retain Customers
By Emily Kay, Frontline Solutions | January 1, 2004
Thanks to a clear focus on retaining loyal customers, Bernie & Phyl’s
Furniture has enjoyed tremendous revenue growth over the past six years.The
furniture retailer “absolutely” pegs its expansion from $15 million
in 1998 to an estimated $100 million in 2004 to the company’s customer-retention
approach, says Larry Rubin, chief operating officer and chief financial officer
with the Norton, Mass.-based firm.
“Making the customer happy and having them tell friends about us,”
says Rubin, “is of major importance in our success.”
The time has long since passed when retailers knew every customer’s personal
history and purchasing inclination and could tailor sales to each of them individually.
Intense competitive demands to reduce costs and boost profits, increasingly
demanding shoppers expecting superior multichannel support and expanding purchasing
options have dramatically changed customer relationships.
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July 14th, 2003
Bernie & Phyl’s opens outlet store
By Clint Engel, Furniture Today | July 14, 2003
Everett, Mass.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has converted its
full-line store here to a bedding and clearance center outlet, freeing up space
in other larger stores for more regular-priced goods.The 16,000-square-foot
store in this northern Boston suburb — one the company’s smallest
units — became Bernie & Phyl’s Bedding and Clearance Center
in late June. It has about 13,000 square feet of clearance space, with the rest
dedicated to its regular bedding offering from Sealy, Stearns & Foster and
Bassett Bedding’s Carrington Chase.
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June 23rd, 2003
Bernie & Phyl’s opening seventh store
By Clint Engel, Furniture Today | June 23, 2003
Norton, Mass.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture will open its seventh
store this August in Raynham, Mass., filling in a gap in its Boston-area penetration.The
family-owned, midpriced retailer acquired a former Ames department store building
on Route 44 southwest of Boston for $2.6 million and will convert it to a 55,000-square-foot
superstore, said Bernie Rubin, president, and co-founder of the Top 100 chain.
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June 9th, 2003
Bernie & Phyl’s donates furniture to Goodwill
Staff, Furniture Today | June 9, 2003
Nashua, N.H.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has donated $12,000
worth of furniture to Goodwill Inds. of the Merrimack Valley to support the
organization’s job training programs in the area.
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May 23rd, 2003
Eskandarian: Bernie & Phyl’s marks ad success story
By Sheri Qualters | May 23, 2003
It’s not a surprise that Arnold Worldwide CEO Ed Eskandarian spent a
little time praising the effectiveness of advertising campaigns during a speech
at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast event last week.
What may startle some is that one of the accounts Eskandarian mentioned does
not belong to Arnold. In fact, the campaign for Norton-based furniture retailer
Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture — which Eskandarian says he mentions
to people as an example of advertising’s effectiveness — was crafted
by Winchester-based Open Skye Design LLC.
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April 1st, 2003
Bernie & Phyl help out ‘Friends in Need’
Staff, Furniture Today | April 1, 2003
Norton, Mass.— Retailer Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has donated
furniture to two charities as part of its Friends in Need program.
The company gave two sets of living room furniture to the Friendly House Shelter
in Worcester, Mass., and also donated two rooms of furniture to the Greater
Nashua Visitation Center and the Young Adult Program of the Community Council
of Nashua.
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February 17th, 2003
Bernie & Phyl gives more furniture to Goodwill Industries
Staff, Furniture Today | February 17, 2003
Norton, Mass.— Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has donated $55,000
worth of furniture to Morgan Memorial Goodwill Inds., adding to the more than
$300,000 in furniture donations the retailer has made to Goodwill since 2000.
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August 12th, 2002
Bernie & Phyl’s supports Habitat
By Staff, Furniture Today | August 12, 2002
Bernie and Phyllis Rubin and family members, all of the Bernie & Phyl's
Furniture chain in metro Boston, recently delivered free furniture to four Habitat
for Humanity families moving into new homes. Bernie & Phyl's has an ongoing
relationship with Habitat for Humanity to help furnish all the houses the organization
builds in the greater Boston and Nashua, New Hampshire areas.
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May 6th, 2002
Bernie & Phyl’s to expand unit
Staff, Furniture Today | May 6, 2002
NASHUA, N.H.—Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture has broken ground on
a three-floor, 86,000-square-foot superstore on the Daniel Webster Highway here.
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May 26th, 2000
`Quality, comfort and price, that’s nice’ … for expansion
at Bernie & Phyl’s
By Donna L. Goodison, Boston Business Journal | May 26, 2000
NORTON–Furniture/Today refers to it as a “from-out-of-nowhere”
story.Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture of Norton cracked the trade publication’s
list of the nation’s top 100 furniture store chains this week, sliding
in at the very bottom with $45.5 million in 1999 sales.The company recorded
the highest percentage sales increase among the 100 companies–a 76.7 percent
jump from 1998–making it one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country,
according to David Perry, executive editor of the Greensboro, N.C.-based magazine.
“They were one of a handful of stores to make it on the list this year
for the first time,” Perry said. “That kind of growth is spectacular,
obviously.”
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