Elan Contemporary Furnishings

▶CLICK HERE to see the interior of the Store on a typical day after forty five days into the Sale (Video)
▶CLICK HERE to see the Public Relations Results by Deere Park (Video)
▶CLICK HERE for exit interview with owner after the sale was over (Video)

NAME OF STORE:
Elan Contemporary Furnishings

PROFILE:
One of the Midwest’s most prestigious designer oriented retail contemporary multi store chains. Their flagship store maintained a 20,000 foot retail display in Omaha, Nebraska with such well known home furnishing resources as American Leather, Ello, Carter, Elite, Ekornes, Thayer Coggin, Statements, and many others. While competing with such local furniture stores as Nebraska Furniture Mart for market share in the elite design business, Elan Contemporary Furnishings had built their business in 2000 to approximately eight million dollars. In 2000, they decided, upon the advice of another furniture retailer, to run a “remodeling sale” with a Michigan based furniture promoter. Shortly following this event which was “to improve their business” Elan Contemporary Furnishings was forced to try to raise cash by closing one of their stores. (Click Here for owner interview) After these two events, Elan was not able to compensate from the financial loses sustained by the events conducted by the other promotion company and the deteriorating local business conditions. Both the secured lender and the legal advisors to Elan Contemporary Furnishings recommended filing for bankruptcy. (Click Here for owner interview) When the Elan owners rejected filing for bankruptcy, the local bank attempted to force the ending of the Elan business by a foreclosure action against all of the business and personal assets of the owners. Such action would have resulted in a total loss of all financial assets of the owners with debt remaining, and failure to complete hundreds of thousands of dollars of unfilled sold orders. The owners wanted to fill their sold orders and secure their own financial future. The financial position of Elan was further complicated by the need to pay back taxes, judgments from creditors, and a non-defensible lawsuit from a former landlord. After contacting multiple other consulting companies who also recommended bankruptcy, the owners of Elan started a dialog with Richard Glabman, President of Deere Park & Associates.

OBJECTIVES:
Avoid bankruptcy, complete hundreds of thousands of dollars of sold orders, prevent foreclosure from the bank on all the assets of the owners, satisfy back taxes, sell all existing inventory recovering dollar for dollar on inventory costs, satisfy creditors, and retain equity for the owners. The owners recognized that the current debt significantly exceeded the equity and potential sale profits, but they wanted to maximize opportunities to exit their business with dignity and maximize the opportunity to generate additional cash. No other consultants other than Deere Park & Associates offered a viable plan.


RESULTS:
While Deere Park & Associates provided the funding to fill Elan open sold orders and address outstanding creditor demands, Richard Glabman, President of Deere Park and the owners of Elan started negotiations with Elan’s local bank to stop foreclosure action. When it became evident that the foreclosure action by the bank was motivated by the bank’s desire of their own profit, Deere Park bought out the bank loan by advancing funds to Elan to pay off the bank loan in full. The amount of the Bank loan was in mid six figure amount. After a brief period of six weeks to insure receiving the majority of open sold orders, the store closing Sale at Elan’s remaining 20,000 foot store was started. Prior to the start of the Sale, Deere Park assisted the Merchant bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars of new inventory and rented a separate 30,000 foot warehouse for the anticipated sale volume. The opening first week of the Sale resulted in almost $1,000,000 in sales at Gross margins in excess of 46%. In the following weeks, the Sale generated over $3.2 Million in volume with a Sale Profit of 16% of sales. As a result of the Sale, the Merchant received the benefit of dollar for dollar for the Cost Value of their entire inventory, repaid all secured debts, and recovered a Sale Profit. More importantly to the owners of Elan, hundreds of their friends and neighbors received their sold orders and the owners were able to conduct the Sale with dignity without bankruptcy procedures. At the completion of the Elan Event, Connie Stevenson, the owner and President of Elan stated, “I cannot thank Deere Park enough for all of their efforts on this project. The advice of lawyers and bankers proved to be wrong and I was right to take the advice of Richard Glabman. Deere Park treated us and our customers with dignity and respect and delivered results in excess of what we anticipated. I made the right choice this time in furniture consultants and the outstanding financial results are proven.” (Click here for exit interview with owner after sale is over).

▶CLICK HERE to see the interior of the Store on a typical day after forty five days into the Sale (Video)
▶CLICK HERE to see the Public Relations Results by Deere Park (Video)
▶CLICK HERE for exit interview with owner after the sale was over (Video)