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Frame game

By Kevin Kenyon

Corners Picture Framing Superstore hopes to corner the market in frames.

The owners of a rapidly expanding superstore chain are attempting to do for the custom picture framing business what The Home Depot and Staples did for their respective industries.

With an eye on market dominance, officials at Framington, Mass.-based Corners Picture Framing Superstore — now a 37-store chain with most of its units in the Northeast — say the eventual goal is to evolve into a U.S.-wide chain over the next five years.

By all indications, the opportunity is there. The custom framing industry, which is extremely fragmented, consists of approximately 20,000 mostly mom-and-pop gallery-oriented frame shops. With no national chain to speak of specializing in custom picture framing, the company is betting that the marketing and purchasing power of a category killer will give it an unmatched competitive advantage.

“It’s no secret that the industry is dominated by mom-and-pops and that there’s no major player out there, and that’s one of the primary reasons why we feel we can become the dominant custom framing chain,” said Jim Riley, the company’s director of development, who estimates the size of the business at somewhere between $6 billion to $7 billion in the United States alone.

“It’s much like what we’ve seen in several other industries over the past 20 years, from pharmacies to office supply stores. All have moved to various superstore concepts,” he said. “Look at the CVS’s, Staples and Home Depots of the world; that’s who we’re trying to emulate for this business.”

Only time will tell, however, if such a formula can be translated to the frame business, according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting firm based in New York.

“The frame business is a sound business, but there’s some question whether you can take something so narrow and turn it into a viable national chain,” he said, noting that there are pluses and minuses to the concept.

“There’s a lot more emphasis on the home today. People are spending more on frames than they were five years ago, so it’s a growing segment,” he said. “On the other hand, to make it work I think they’re going to have to really differentiate themselves from their competitors.”

The company is looking primarily at strip and community centers for new stores, although some units will be freestanding, Riley said. Those operators, by the way, would be interested to know that the 37 existing stores average approximately $250 per square foot, with an average ticket of $90, according to company officials.

The stores, which are between 3,500 and 5,000 square feet, dedicate substantial floor space to custom framing, tabletop and wall frames, and preframed art and mirrors.

The concept is a good fit with grocery-anchored strip and community centers, according to Riley, who said the chain looks to be paired with the dominant grocer in the market.

“Custom framing, which is 75% of our business, is a two-trip activity: The customer’s going to bring their own artwork or go to the store and pick something out, have it custom-framed and pick it up when it’s ready.” (Besides custom framing, the remaining 25% of the business consists of ready-made frames, framed and unframed artwork and tabletop frames.)

“We’re still working on the exact formula for what makes these things tick, but right now community centers with dominant grocers are one of the synergies we look for.”

The main points of difference between Corners and its mom-and-pop competitors, according to Riley, is the size, price and positioning of the stores.

“Most mom-and-pop framers are in C or D real estate, they’re very hard to find. We’re putting our stores in high-profile real estate,” he said.

The stores, most of which run 4,000 square feet, are larger than the majority of mom-and-pop custom frame shops, which Riley said generally average around 1,500 square feet.

“That allows every store to have its own shop capabilities, so all the production is done on-site, while most locals send out to a supplier,” he said, noting that such a disparity results in a turnaround time of one week for Corners, compared to between four and five weeks for mom-and-pops.

“The other net result of our size is buying power, which allows us to pass through consistently a 30% savings in comparison to our competitors,” he said.

The company also seeks to hire skilled framers, which Riley says can be difficult. “That’s certainly a challenge. It’s not like other businesses where you can just train a younger set of employees, but we feel it’s important.”

Although the Corners name is new, the concept is actually an evolution of the successful Boston area-based chain FrameKing Express, which got its start in Framington, Mass., in 1985. Early last year, the founders of FrameKing Express, Peter Blumenthal and Robert Rubenstein, infused the company with new capital by joining forces with an investment group headed by George Naddaff, the founder of Boston Chicken. The capital will enable the company to go from a regional to a national player, Riley said.

All 14 of the existing Boston area FrameKing Express stores, as well as three in San Francisco, have already been converted to the Corners concept. The company has added 20 new stores in the past year, primarily in the Boston and metro New York markets.

“The stores are essentially the same business that FrameKing ran with an entirely new image, a new decor and a new identity,” he said.

Part of the name change, Riley added, can be attributed to a need to differentiate itself from individual merchants in several states which already used the FrameKing name or some type of variation.

Depending on franchise growth, the company plans on growing at the rate of between 30 and 50 stores per year. The eventual goal is 400 stores nationwide over the next five years, he said, noting that 70% will be company owned and 30% will be franchises.

In the near term, most of that growth will occur in the Northeast, in the Boston, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey markets, he said. The company is also considering Washington, D.C., Atlanta, the Midwest and Dallas for the next round of expansion, he said.

Considering the tremendous growth in housing starts and home sales that has occurred nationwide recently, Riley is optimistic that Corners is well on its way to establishing itself as the dominant custom picture framing chain.

“We think there’s just a huge opportunity relative to the way we’re delivering the concept both in price and service. It’s just a matter of executing it.”