
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240549
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING  
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FURNITURE SALES INCREASE AS RETAILER RANKS CHANGE

Grand Piano & Furniture Co. of Roanoke raised its revenues $2 million to $61 million last year to rank 43rd among the top 100 furniture retailers, as reported by Furniture Today, a weekly trade paper.

While increasing its sales, Grand Piano dropped from 41st place after two years. In 1987, the family-owned company ranked 35th and it was 33rd in 1986. Acquisitions and other moves have brought faster growth to large furniture chains.

Grand Piano opened a Grand Interiors store at Charlottesville last year and its 25th store is under construction at Valley View Mall. The 50,000-square-foot store, to be larger than the company's headquarters unit in downtown Roanoke, is to open in September.

The company has 500,000 square feet of space in its stores, located from Hagerstown, Md., to Kingsport, Tenn.

Heilig-Meyers of Richmond, operator of a number of Western Virginia stores among its chain of 287 units, ranked third with total revenues of $382.9 million last year. Although the company gained $23.5 million in revenue, it did not change its third-place rank. Heilig-Meyers bought 34 former Hub stores from Reliable Stores this year.

Schewel Furniture of Lynchburg increased its standing from 50th to 48th by raising its revenue from $52 million to $56.8 million. Schewel operates 35 stores in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia.

***CORRECTION***

Published correction ran on May 25, 1990 in the evening edition\ Correction

Grand Piano & Furniture Co. expects to open a store at Valley View Mall next spring. Incorrect information from Furniture Today, a trade paper, was reported in Thursday's paper.

Memo: correction

by CNB