Eighteen months after remodeling and downsizing its flagship Edina store, Gabberts Design Studio & Fine Furnishings has agreed to be sold to HOM Furniture in a transaction expected to be completed today.
Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. Coon Rapids-based HOM said it will continue to operate the Edina store under the Gabberts name and plans to expand the brand to other Midwest markets.
HOM is a privately held company with 13 stores in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota. Company officials expect sales of about $200 million this year from the combined businesses.
The deal marks the end of a family-operated business founded in downtown Minneapolis by Don Gabbert in 1946. His son Jim, who succeeded him as chairman and CEO in 1987, is leaving the company.
Gabberts moved to Edina in 1959 and became the anchor for Galleria in the 1970s, when Don Gabbert added the location as a smaller, upscale alternative to Southdale Center. Although the recent renovation cut the size of the store by more than half, to 63,000 square feet, it remains Galleria's largest tenant.
Jim Gabbert said Thursday that changes in the furniture industry made it increasingly difficult for single-store operators.
"The increase in offshore manufacturing has made it more important to have buying power. HOM has that, and Gabberts did not," he said. Rising fuel prices also proved burdensome for furniture businesses such as Gabberts that do not have multiple distribution facilities.
Competitive challenges also came from relative newcomers to this market, such as Ikea, and from specialty retailers like Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel, which now occupies some of the space Gabberts vacated in Galleria when it downsized its store.
