Fourth-generation family member | sales and marketing director | spokesperson
BILTRITE Furniture-Leather-Mattresses
This year has been one of milestones for Greenfield-based BILTRITE Furniture-Leather-Mattresses. In February, the fourth-generation family-owned business was named 2023 Retailer of the Year (under 50 employees) by the Home Furnishings Association, becoming the first furniture retailer in Wisconsin to earn that recognition. 2023 also marks 95 years in business for BILTRITE, which operates its single store and showroom at 5430 W. Layton Ave. BizTimes associate editor Maredithe Meyer recently caught up with fourth-generation family member Randi Schachter on how business has been and ongoing growth. The following portions of their conversation have been edited for length and clarity.
Navigating out of the pandemic, supply chain challenges
“During the pandemic and for a little while post-pandemic, everybody was just happy to get whatever we could get in stock because there were so many delays with shipping. But now that’s all back to normal. Custom and special orders are faster in 2023 and lead times are pretty much back to normal, so we’re seeing people are shifting from only buying in stock and not wanting to wait a long time to really going back to ordering what they want.
“… We know how to pivot and turn on a dime. It’s easy to make shifts being an independent, locally owned store, we don’t have a corporate board to answer to. Prices had to go up, we did what we did, but we always at the end of the day took care of our customers to the best of our ability. We were very up front, like if they wanted to special order something in and it was going to take six months, we would tell them right away. The people who wanted to wait waited and the people who didn’t went a different path. We worked the hardest we’ve ever worked.”
Appealing to multiple generations
“Being part of the senior citizen crowd, we do a tremendous amount of lift chair business, and it keeps the store busy during the week. The seniors come in and they can get something in stock. We have 50 models of lift chairs, so that’s huge. We also have looks for Generation Z, so we’re really catering to every generation here under 45,000 square feet.
“(For the younger generations) we have some lower price points; we’re not IKEA, but if somebody wants better than IKEA, we’re the next step up. And a lot of times, too, their families are saying, ‘Hey, you should go to BILTRITE.’ The millennials are buying homes, wanting to settle down, want good-quality furniture. On a Saturday here, I’ll see anywhere from people in their mid 20s all the way up to close to 100 and everything in between.”
Warehousing expansion
“We added a warehouse in October of 2022, so we could have more inventory capability. We bought a 26,000-square-foot warehouse building in Oak Creek. We were leasing a much smaller warehouse space in Greendale for several years, but we needed a larger building with racking, and we like to own our real estate. Now between our current 14,000 square foot warehouse attached to our showroom and this off-site warehouse, we have a total of 40,000 square feet of warehousing space. … It’s been very helpful to be able to stock a lot and buy a lot; for example, we can order a container of leather from Italy and receive it.”
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Third- and fourth-generation family members (from right) Sarah Komisar, Randi Schachter, Gail Komisar, Marty Komisar and Brad Komisar celebrating BILTRITE’s recent HFA award.[/caption]
