In Good Company: (From left to right) Cristina Powis, Eric Bangle, and Bruce and Christy Jaynes

The Futon Company - Deep in the heart of Texas In 1986 the futon furniture industry was still in its infancy. San Francisco was home to a growing cadre of futon dealers and vendors all hoping to cash in on the growing trend. Cristina Powis, who had come from England to the West Coast, had spent a few months in the Bay Area exploring the city while working in retail at a clothing boutique. It was then that a friend informed her of a job opportunity at the Futon Shop, San Francisco’s largest specialty retailer. She applied for the job and instantly fell in love with selling furniture and the futon concept in particular. “I really didn’t like selling clothing, but I just fell in love with selling furniture,” said Powis. It is a love affair that is still flourishing today.

After a short career with the Futon Shop she and her husband Chris decided to strike out on their own, and with little more than great expectations and a passion for this very utilitarian product they began looking for a city in which to plant their dreams. “I had sold sandwiches on the beach in Greece, and that was fun, but the futon furniture business truly excited me,” said Powis. She not only liked selling the product but her personal vision included a deeper, more philosophical purpose. “I was ultimately attracted to the fact that the whole category is built around renewable resources,” she said.

Powis and company traveled down the California coast but couldn’t find a place for their venture. They mapped out their prospects and decided to try Texas. Austin seemed like a natural, i.e. college town, young demographic, minimal competition. “There was some very nice real estate available here in Austin because of some overdevelopment,” said Powis, “so we started here in 1987.”

Twelve years, a manufacturing facility and eight stores later Powis is President of what she describes as a value based company with a deep sense of responsibility to empower employees, enrich the communities her company does business in, and, as she calls it, fulfill a desire to be the “Ben & Jerry’s” of the futon industry. “We want to grow,” said Powis, “but we want to do it with the goal of empowering people to grow as well.” And when she speaks of “people” she is talking employees, customers, and the community at large.

A Value Based Business Model

With this introduction in mind we started exploring The Futon Company’s extensive breadth as a vertically integrated manufacturer and retailer who has always operated with a mission, as clearly spelled out in their vision statement: “To be a company that promotes global harmony and prosperity, while providing our employees with opportunities for personal growth in an atmosphere that fosters creativity, innovation and respect.”

Powis’ fulfillment of the mission statement is embodied in many employees who have been with the company for years, including several who started in the beginning at entry level positions and who have since become part of the company management team. Bruce and Christy Jaynes are just such a couple. Bruce, Powis’ first sales hire, is a district manager for the Austin and San Antonio areas, and Christy manages all store displays and merchandising as well as being a member of the company marketing team.

“Austin was a perfect fit for us in many ways,” says Powis, as we drive up to her company headquarters. “We were able to take advantage of some over building. Landlords were very eager to lease space because of that and we have been in our building for eight years.”

The manufacturing facility is a modern 30,000 square foot space that houses three different plants and the corporate offices. “All our covers are cut right here and sewn both here and at three home sewers we use in the community,” Powis said. As we quickly move into the company’s full woodworking facility, Powis continues to speak of her desire to make more than money with her business. “Alfredo (Lopez), the plant manager, started with us as a sander and has moved into his present role because we created an environment that fosters personal growth. We encourage our people to stretch and reach out to their true potential,” she says. Powis also weaves more future plans into our conversation. “We want to take this paradigm (of empowering people) far beyond where we are today via a business plan and financing, with the eventual goal of doing a DPO.”

“We want to grow,” said Powis, “but we want to do it with the goal of empowering people to grow as well.”

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are very common these days, but Direct Public Offerings are the exception, not the rule. She again speaks of Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont ice cream vendors, who used a DPO to sell stock first to just Vermonters, and then beyond to the investment community at large. Powis is a member of Businesses for Social Responsibility, a group that defines this business model and supports its members with information, guidance, and tools to help them better define their company culture and goals.

The wood shop is looming ahead and takes up 15,000 square feet of the building space. “We make all our own southern yellow pine, maple and oak furniture and frames in this plant using a just in time system that allows our stores to offer up to ten different finishes on any of our frames,” she says. The frames remain in parts on the factory floor and are fabricated almost to order through a sophisticated computer tracking system created as a proprietary product for the firm (more on that later).

The impressive plant is well laid out and very clean. As Yoda would say, “Impressed I am.” All the company’s futons and cushions are also assembled on site. “We use two pound foam,” she says, “that’s why people come to us. When long term comfort is what your customers want, why scrimp on materials?” Jose Vasquez, Powis’ very first employee, now manages the futon and pillow plant.

Off to Gateway

As a teenager, Powis cut her teeth selling nuts & bolts in her parent’s retail hardware store in Manchester, England. Futon furniture retailing has now become her passion. Each of her eight stores is about three thousand square feet, and each is merchandised to appeal to the traditional furniture shopper. The two Austin stores, with their younger demographic, are laid out to feature some nifty metal frames from Innovation, and several displays of dorm type accessories, along with the more typical home based accents like pictures, occasional tables, and lighting.

Noticeably more animated in her preferred domain Powis scouts the Gateway store asking questions and checking the computer at the sales desk. There are four sales people in the store on this particular back-to-school Saturday and each one is with a customer. The place, to put it bluntly, is swarming with customers. Some are with salespeople, one is handling large fabric swatches while others sit and discuss their options. Powis introduces me to the store’s top sales person, Kristen Bolling, and then checks the numbers over the company’s internet based sales and inventory management network. Kristen says hello and then she is gone. At the moment her customers are much more important than our story.

“We’re having a good day,” Powis says. The system allows her to view not only this particular store’s sales history but because of the on-line connection to a central server she can view any of the other seven stores’ numbers from any computer on the system. “We are currently implementing a full bar code system,” she adds, “which will help us get a handle on real time inventory control.” Powis believes this step will put the final link into a control/access chain she hopes will be an integral part of her business plan for the future. Steven Dougherty, MIS manager, installs and maintains all the company’s computer systems and is also head of company operations. “We rely on Steven to keep the whole system working,” she said.

San Antonio and The Bungalow Home Studio

After a near death experience en route, and continuous futon conversation we arrive at Powis’ latest retailing venture. “This is my baby,” she says. The craftsman period look and futon furniture are obviously not strangers. The design styles of Stickley and Morris are currently very popular in both futon specialty and traditional furniture stores. The Bungalow Home Studio is Powis’ attempt to introduce customers to futon furniture in an upscale retail environment that features an eclectic mix of rich colors and textures, including Rowe upholstery, contemporary leather, and both wood and metal bedroom furniture with futon furniture as the basis of the mix.

“I believed our customers would more easily make the connection that futon furniture is real furniture if they could see it in an environment like this,” said Powis, who quickly added, “and it’s working.”

The Bungalow Home Studio is in a huge retail development called The Quarry Market, which houses several of furniture retailing’s leading players, i.e. Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, and Store House, along with several smaller accessory and home accent dealers as well. The look is funky traditional with a craftsman twist, making the mix unique. Powis hopes The Bungalow Home Studio concept will be the company’s vehicle to venture financing and major growth. “This concept is where we want to go in the future. We are looking for adjoining space in Austin for our second store now,” she said.

Powis value based vision is punctuated again as she talks about some of the rustic look product her company is bringing in from Mexico. “We don’t want to just sell furniture made in Mexico,” says Powis, “We want to work with Mexican craftsmen and develop a true relationship with the people who make the products.” It is all part of her vision to be a company that bases its entire culture on the value of human beings and their relationships. Powis wants to build repeat business by creating a conduit between her customers and the people who make what she sells. Meaningful customer service is more than helping someone make a choice, it is transferring the value built into a usable piece of furniture from the creator of the piece to the new owner who is purchasing it.

Wholesale Horizons & E-commerce

With all these capabilities and a business plan that includes an internet based control feature Powis’ drive towards e-commerce is a natural. “We want to find a way to partner with several key retailers across the country in a unique business to business relationship,” says Powis. The plan involves joining with several key retail partners who will carry the entire Futon Company manufactured line and distribute in their local geographic area to internet shoppers who are shopping on line at the Futon Company’s, still in development, web site www.futonclick.com.

“The e-commerce paradigm is a major part of the future of retailing,” says Powis. Her plan will bring distribution of Futon Company products to the retail level so customers can either shop or do research on line and then visit a Futon Company partner retailer in person to touch and feel the goods before they buy.

The plan is ambitious and Powis knows it. But after twelve years of, up till now, quiet yet unmitigated success she is full of confidence that her plan will work. The entire Futon Company and Bungalow Home Studio team seems ready and willing to move forward, and with her kind of values and integrity I can understand why.

Retailers take notice:

The Futon Company is looking for a few good retail dealers to partner with as stocking dealers for their line of fine futon furniture, covers and mattresses. Interested parties contact Cristina Powis at The Futon Company for details at 1.512.389.3733 Ext. 101.

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