Our top fifteen of the most profitable independent furniture stores shows that the crumbs dropped by the all-powerful market leader IKEA continue to make a good living.
The chains were excluded from our selection; The list only contains independent operators with a maximum of two stores. The most profitable shops are on the outskirts of the smaller central cities. With plenty of parking spaces, shops of thousands of square meters, and a very wide range. The shops often have their own restaurant, because choosing furniture takes time. At Gero Wonen a customer stays for an average of three hours. Expansion is sometimes literally sought across the street.
These invariably concern Flemish family businesses, where succession has often been arranged. At the top of the list is Gero Wonen from Lier, whose testimonial you can read here. Number six in the list, Prenuptia in Genk, will celebrate its eightieth anniversary next year. The fourth generation of the founding Lus family is at the helm. At Monikids in Sint-Niklaas, number nine in our ranking, third-generation member Marieke Van den Poel (37) took over the torch at the beginning of this year. The Van den Poel family has two stores, Krea and Colifac, with a wide range of products for children.
Two families appear twice in our list. The Verfaillie-Sintobin family owns number three, Top Interieur in Massenhoven, and number ten, Top Mart in Izegem. The Govaerts family has had a furniture store in Lier for sixty years, Gova Meubelen, which ranks fifth in our ranking. And since the end of 2008 she has had a second furniture store on the Antwerpsesteenweg in Lier, the nv Ygo. It is at number seven. Yves Govaerts (57) and his sister Sofie (43) are the third generation at the helm.
In our top fifteen, no fewer than nine companies have more than half their own capital, often with quite large balance sheet totals. Number two, Poppels Meubelhuis NV, is an example of this. The Coenen family company has been around for 88 years. Eric and Stan Coenen have been active in the family business since 1977.
In the top fifty of largest cash flow makers, the bottom line, Meubelen Robbrecht in Zwijndrecht, also has a cash flow of 407,000 euros. “A cash flow of at least 400,000 euros is not bad,” says Pascal Flisch of the financial-economic database Trends Business Information. “That amount is certainly sufficient for the necessary investments, including in additional stocks. Or the company can treat shareholders to a dividend payment. The cash flow is the cash that remains at the end of the financial year, after payment of all costs. It gives an idea of the real profitability of the company.”
The number of companies is indeed declining systematically. In 2023, fourteen furniture stores went bankrupt. “That is 0.87 percent of a total of 1,617 companies in the sector,” says Pascal Flisch. “That is slightly more than the general average in Belgium, which is between 0.65 and 0.70 percent.”
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2024-04-04 21:43:27
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