Although it's the hub of one of the country's most successful furniture retail chains, the building that houses Robb & Stucky Interiors' new national headquarters and Florida

distribution center is unexpectedly serene. Outside, delivery vans and 18-wheelers occupy less than half of the facility's 74 warehouse loading bays. Inside, 35,000 square feet of airy second floor offices and conference rooms are quiet and sparsely populated.

Located just off Six Mile Cypress Parkway in south Fort Myers, the 240,000-square-foot, sandy brown building with dark chocolate trim is as primed for growth as the vacant cow pastures-filled with real estate billboards-surrounding the facility. After 90 years in business, Robb & Stucky already sits atop the upscale home furnishings retail industry. But the company seems to be just taking off.

In the last five years, Robb & Stucky's sales revenue has doubled to an expected $260 million during the fiscal year that ended in June. Furniture Today magazine ranked the company as the nation's 33rd leading furniture retailer in 2004. Among high-end design-oriented furniture companies, Robb & Stucky ranks in the top 10.

"And we're going to double our revenues again in the next four to five years," promises Fred Berk, the company's president and chief operating officer since 1998.

During that period, Robb & Stucky plans to increase its point-of-sale outlets from 17 to 25, Berk says. The operations will include new design centers, patio and outdoor living stores, interior showrooms and even larger big-box stores anchoring regional malls. In addition to more stores in the established markets of Florida, Texas and Arizona, the company will enter the Nevada market with a new Las Vegas store in 2007.

Rearranging the furniture

Amid all the growth, it is hard to imagine that just 25 years ago the company generated a modest $2 million in sales each year. Founded as a general merchandise emporium in 1915, Robb & Stucky nurtured its loyal clientele, trusted brand name and steady Fort Myers business for more than 50 years before opening a second store in Naples.

By the time company president Clive Lubner immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s, there were Robb & Stucky stores in Lee, Collier and Hillsborough counties. Lubner, a furniture executive from South Africa, was searching for a business opportunity and saw promise in the small chain. In partnership with the Mariner Group, Lubner bought the company in 1979.

"Robb & Stucky had a fabulous name and heritage," says Lubner. "Edison and Ford had furnished their homes with purchases from Robb & Stucky. It had that wonderful recognition, it had cash flow and it had a great foundation to build from. And you could feel that the marketplace here was going to explode. We got lucky and made the right move."

There's no question that the region's remarkable growth has boosted every sector of the home-building and furnishing industry. But though the timing may have been right for Lubner, his gift for visual merchandising has boosted the company's fortunes during the last two decades. Soon after acquiring Robb & Stucky, he developed the theory that a high-end furniture showroom should reflect the way people live, rather than simply display the separate collections of its various suppliers.

"We decided to place our furniture the way our customers might place it in their homes," says Lubner. "It's a mix, an eclectic vignette that all works together. We want customers to walk through our store and say, 'Wow, I could live with that.'"

From the fresh-baked cookies and fragrant coffee near each store's design room to the elegant bedroom, kitchen and living room displays on the showroom floors, Lubner insists that everything adds to the customer's visceral experience. "We spend more to show our product than anybody," he says. "We pay $15 per square foot of retail space, while the industry average is $4."

Lubner's innovative merchandising approach quickly paid off. Between 1980 and 1995, the company opened or expanded showrooms in Sarasota, Clearwater, Naples and Altamonte Springs. By the end of the '90s, new stores near Dallas and Phoenix made Robb & Stucky the Sun Belt's most successful premier furniture retailer. It was just the second high-end chain, after Ethan Allen, to expand to more than two states.

Seated comfortably

If "retail is detail," as Lubner likes to say, the key to Robb & Stucky's continued success might be the company's philosophy that stores in different regions remain faithful to the markets they serve. Unlike some chains, each of the larger Robb & Stucky outlets has a merchandising specialist who contributes ideas during corporate buying strategy sessions.

"It can be grueling," says Dan Lubner, Clive Lubner's son and the general manager of Robb & Stucky's new Bonita Springs Interiors showroom. "The buying team receives input from every store, and then analyzes every piece of furniture separately for each specific location. But that's what makes each store a different destination."

That attention to detail is also exhibited on the showroom floor in the form of personalized service. Robb & Stucky employs the state's largest collection of certified designers, who sometimes work with customers for months before a sale is made. Reviewing floor plans, creating design schemes and carefully matching fabrics and accessories ensures that customers are pleased with purchases when they occur.

"Then there's the white-glove delivery," says Dan Lubner, noting that the company uses only its own trucks and Robb & Stucky employees as drivers. "We cater to our clients, pamper them with service and follow-through. We read every comment card we get, and we think it's a good sign that, more often than not, the best comments are about the last people the customer sees-the drivers."

Translating that corporate culture to new stores in distant places might be Robb & Stucky's biggest challenge as it continues to evolve. With about 1,300 employees, hiring the right managers, and then making sure they are passionate about the company's philosophy, is crucial, says Clive Lubner.

"The further you get from home the more difficult it is, but the culture has to be there so the experience of the customer can be the same," he says. "It all comes down to the people you have and how they grow. Fortunately, the people we've hired all had growth potential and enthusiasm, and they've all grown along with the company."

That consistent corporate vision allows the company to expand in areas where Robb & Stucky has already earned a good reputation. The new Bonita Springs store, for instance, has established itself in a region that was already generating $100 million in business each year.

"The store in Bonita has done very well, better than expected, without taking anything away from Naples or Fort Myers," says Clive Lubner. "The people buying in Bonita Springs are all coming from within a 10-mile radius."

Through all the growth, Lubner and Berk have resisted the temptation to rely on tried-and-true formulas. Combining traditional demographic research with gut instincts, the forward-thinking executives regularly conceptualize innovative store formats for different markets.

A store that opened in Tampa early this year, for example, occupies more than 120,000 square feet of retail space including eight showcase rooms, a collection of couture shops, a gift boutique and a chandelier and vanity shop. Situated near a Nordstrom department store in the International Plaza, the store is the first furniture retailer to serve as an anchor at a regional mall.

"We are an opportunistic company, and with all the department store consolidations, like Burdines and Macy's, a lot of the box stores in malls are opening up," says Berk. "People have approached us as an anchor store, and there are more of those opportunities coming our way."

Robb & Stucky also recently partnered with Whirlpool/KitchenAid to create a working showplace for that company's high-end household appliances. Located at the Robb & Stucky Casual Living Outdoor store in Bonita Springs, the concept includes a culinary center where shoppers can take cooking lessons from an in-house executive chef.

"The store is a unique arrangement for our company," says Collette Wismer, a national account executive for Whirlpool/KitchenAid. "Our brand is the most important thing we can project, so we are absolutely very careful with it. But Clive and Robb & Stucky are so well-respected that we think it makes a good partnership."

So far, the experimental format has been a success. Wismer says appliance sales have been vigorous in Bonita and representatives from both companies have already visited a potential site for the next concept store.

"It's a great way to reach our customers at the higher end," says Clive Lubner, explaining his personal litmus test of success. "But the crucial question is always, does it meet our brand promise? In advertising, visual displays and delivery services, in everything we do, the brand promise has to be there all the way through."