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Wolf Furniture reopening with new name, owner

Store purchased by Loves Furniture Inc.

The Altoona Wolf Furniture store has a new owner and soon will reopen its doors under a new name.

U.S. Assets Inc. and Loves Furniture Inc. recently announced that a deal has been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court that gives them the inventory and assets of 27 former Art Van Furniture, Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture stores across Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia and Maryland.

All locations will be rebranded and added to Loves Furniture’s portfolio.

U.S Assets reportedly acquired the 27 stores for $6.7 million in cash. The sold locations are scheduled to open under the new Loves Furniture brand in early June, according to published reports.

“We are very excited to confirm that we did acquire the Altoona store and plan to open a new Loves Furniture store there in the very near future. The Johnstown and State College stores were not in the group of leases that we acquired in this initial purchase,” a Loves Furniture spokesman said in an email. “That being said — our excitement to open these 27 locations is only the beginning as we are already looking at opportunities to grow and expand our new brand with a much larger footprint across the area.”

The 17 Wolf Furniture stores affecting about 500 employees were shut down by Art Van Furniture LLC on March 20.

Art Van had purchased both Wolf Furniture and Levin Furniture of Pitts­burgh in 2017.

On March 5, Robert Levin, announced he was coming out of retirement and had reached an agreement to acquire the Pennsylvania and Ohio assets of Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture through a court restructuring of Art Van Furniture LLC, which was exploring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Art Van did file for bankruptcy March 8.

However, two weeks later, Levin learned that Art Van had decided to close all of the Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture stores immediately, to terminate the employees and not to proceed with the terms of their agreement.

The parent company reported vast reductions in business due to the COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory store closures as rationale for its decision to close and to not seek approval of the sale to Levin in bankruptcy court.

Meanwhile, Loves Furn­iture is excited about the acquisitions.

“The acquisition of these locations across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions represents a tremendous milestone for our company, our associates and for the communities that we serve,” said Matthew Damiani, CEO of Loves Furniture, in a statement.

Founded earlier this year by entrepreneur and investor, Jeff Love, Loves Furniture seeks to differentiate itself through a more personalized shopping experience.

“Our mission is to provide stylish products, authentic guidance and an easy experience for our customers as we build comfortable spaces together,” Love said. “We look forward to bringing a brand-new furniture and mattress offering to market very soon.”

Loves Furniture will be headquartered in the metro Detroit area and expects to add over 1,000-plus new employees across the region.

In many cases, this presents an opportunity to rehire workers who recently lost their jobs due to store closings.

At a challenging time when many companies are looking to contract, the Loves team sees this as an opportunity to grow.

“We understand the difficulties facing our communities in the face of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Damiani in a statement. “Our leadership team lives in the same cities and towns we serve. For us, it is a point of pride and hope that we have this opportunity to help put many of our talented neighbors back to work. We want to get up and running quickly.”

To expedite the local hiring efforts, the company said it plans to conduct a “soft launch” of stores in the coming weeks and is actively exploring options to provide customers with discounted services and special product buys leading up to the official grand opening.

“Our vision is to create a world where all homes are filled with happiness, hope, and love,” said Damiani. “That starts here with this initial investment.”

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