Broad River Retail, a South Carolina-based Ashley licensee, has acquired six Ashley stores and a distribution center in Oregon. The company, based in Fort Mill, S.C., already owns Ashley stores in the Southeast and in Eastern Washington, and the deal marks its first move into Oregon. Broad River plans to remodel the Clackamas store and add an Ashley outlet inside it, but it hasn’t announced a timeline.
In the Portland area, the company now owns three Ashley stores. They are in Clackamas at 11421 SE 82nd Ave., at Jantzen Beach at 2028 N. Tomahawk Island Dr. in Portland, and in Tigard at 6600 SW Bonita Rd.
The deal also includes the Ashley store in Salem at 3850 Hagers Grove Rd. SE, along with a distribution center in the same city. The remaining two stores are in Corvallis at 720 NE Circle Blvd. and in Springfield at 3000 Gateway St., in Gateway Mall.
The company said it expects the six Oregon stores to bring in about $40 million in annual revenue. Its CEO, Charlie Malouf, said he had never been to Oregon before last year. After learning the stores were for sale and seeing how well Broad River’s Ashley store in Spokane was doing, he was excited to enter the Oregon market, which he described as one of the “hidden gems” in retail. He said the state deserves full attention, not to be treated as an extension of Seattle.
The Oregon locations also help Broad River’s supply chain. The company said it wants to be closer to the coast and to ports in Sea-Tac and Portland, since it sees an opportunity to import more goods. Ashley’s corporate team used to have a distribution site in Spanaway, Washington, which recently closed, and much of Broad River’s product comes from Redlands, California. Having a base in Oregon should cut travel time and costs and bring the company closer to the ports.
The Portland Business Journal reported first on this development.
