COVER STORY
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Joe Tatulli |
Elite Furniture: Service is the key
Prior to any of this partnering and growth Pathiratne was simply a one man show. "When I started Elite in 1991 I did everything myself. My beeper and my cell phone were my office and receptionist. When a container came in I would call some of my friends up to help me unload it. Back then I had a 1700 square foot space. I would get a futon order, deliver it in my own truck and then come back and start all over again," said Pathiratne. Growth and expansion came quickly. "I would travel to other cities to see relatives and friends and while I was there I would sell. We struggled with the cost of shipping to cities on the East Coast. It was because of this experience that we came up with the idea of a national distribution network, and in fact that's how we opened our first warehouse in Miami," he said.
Today the company has over two hundred thousand square feet of warehouse space in four distribution centers strategically located in key cities across the country. "Our vision," says Pathiratne, "has always included a national presence." With facilities in Dallas, Miami, and Hartford as satellites to their home office in San Jose, Elite is now positioned to deliver futon furniture to any retail situation from independent specialty shops to major national chains. "Service is the key," added Kumar, "We haven't just grown because the business grew. We have planned and carefully thought out how to provide the best products, packaging and service so that our level of defects and errors is the lowest in the industry. The purpose behind the plan is our desire to be able to take in an order on Monday, after a busy weekend of selling, and deliver fresh product by Friday, in time for the next weekend sales cycle."
While visiting Elite in early August we visited the company's new office space and warehouse in San Jose. "We are very tight where we are now," said Pathiratne, "The new space will allow us to breath a little now and will also afford us plenty of room to grow in the future."
Early on Elite began expanding its marketing plan by sharing space at shows and doing advertising cooperatives with "pine futon" specialists Frameworks in Washington. "As we began to grow we also began to work with Tony (Wolf) and Robin (Reid) of Wolf Corp. and Omni. Together we could work toward common goals, complement each other's lines and realize the cost savings of showing together," said Pathiratne.
Business was good but Pathiratne soon discovered that success and a rapidly growing demand that outstripped supply caused many companies to compromise. "Due to the exploding market many of the futon store owners were so eager to get product to sell that they overlooked many quality related issues. Low price became the primary tool used to distinguish suppliers on the wholesale side and this guided many retailers to use price only as a sales tool as well," he added. This issue still haunts the futon industry today.
"We are a full service futon furniture distributor. We want to be perceived as a company that can put a package together for a customer, designed to meet their specs and distribute it nationwide. We have the resources, we have the personnel, and we have the sales force to make it happen," Kumar said.
"We are not competing with the futon mattress companies directly for mattress sales. We are targeting national or regional dealers who need a supply of products to meet their need. Our mission has now been focused on the end user. We want to discover and understand what the futon shopper wants and needs so we can make the products to meet that need," said Pathiratne.
continued on next page