High-end furnishings manufacturer John-Richard celebrated the grand opening of its first retail showroom Oct. 7 in the affluent Nashville community of Belle Meade.

CEO Alex Malouf said the move was driven by a motivation to get more of the company's product in front of the design trade, and to grow brand recognition among consumers. “We embrace the designer,” he said. “Most of our product around the country is placed by designers and they are much more commonplace today than 20 years ago.”

The 12,000-sq.-ft. store includes eight design offices, seven of which are leased to outside designers. The eighth office is used by one of the company's in-house residential designers. The inventory, merchandised in vignettes, includes an extensive selection of John-Richard's lighting, wall decor, mirrors, accessories, accent furniture and botanicals.

“We want this to feel to all the designers in the area that they can come use this showroom,” Malouf said. “We want them to be an extension of our sales force.”

Malouf intends for the showroom to serve as a prototype for the company's retail customers who might want to open their own John-Richard showroom or in-store gallery. “No dealers could carry the John-Richard lines en masse. And when two or three products leave the showroom, the look can get diluted,” he said.

Malouf said several dealers have already flown to Nashville to see the setup. “We felt that before we could show other dealers what they can do, we needed to do it ourselves… and we expect the business model to continue to change as it evolves.”

Since setting up shop in Nashville, a decision based on demographics and proximity to John-Richard's distribution facility in Greenwood, Miss., the company has installed two galleries in Florida and one in South Carolina. The galleries, placed within existing dealer locations, range in size from 800 to 2,500 square feet.

“The goal is to use that showroom (as a model) for other showrooms that dealers would like to install,” he said.

Malouf added that the new retail showroom is not discounting product. “Actually, the markup in the showroom is more than that of our retailers. And it's one price — the same to the customer, same to the designer, although designers receive a commission. For us, it's all about quality and design — not price.

“We are not out to compete with our dealers,” he said.

The company's move into retail follows several significant organizational changes that have taken place over the past several years.

“We built our own factory in Vietnam — two and a half years ago it came fully one line, now it's humming,” Malouf said. “Our management team underwent a three-year restructuring and we invested a million and a half dollars in a software system that came online six months ago. Our design team is the finest we've had in 37 years of business.

“Now we're poised to do business, but we can't do business the way we've always done it in the past.”

Editor in Chief Jenny Heinzen York contributed to this article.