Levitz Furniture history

With $20,000 borrowed from their father, his sons Ralph and Leon opened a store of their own in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in 1936.

The first Levitz warehouse-showroom store opened in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September 1963.

A second one opened in Phoenix the following month and a third in Miami in October 1965.

Sales reached $12.2 million in the fiscal year ending January 31, 1966, and increased to $18.7 million and $26.5 million, respectively, in the following two years.

By 1970 Levitz was averaging more than $120 in sales per square foot of selling space, compared to the industry average of $26.54 in medium-sized stores and $54 in large stores.

During fiscal 1971 the 34 Levitz stores had sales of $183.8 million and a net profit of $9.2 million.

November 1, 1974, the current Warehouse Showroom was opened to the public

In 1975, a recession year during which the housing market was hard hit, it lost $142,000 on sales of $326.3 million.

Sales rebounded in 1976, and the company returned to the black.

He had the crucial support, however, of Chicago's wealthy Pritzker family, which in 1979 acquired about 23 percent of the company stock.

The investors who initiated LFC rewarded themselves with cash payments of about $215 million from $257 million obtained in new financing during late 1986.

For fiscal 1994 (ended March 31, 1994), net sales increased to $983.6 million from $922.4 million the previous year.

In fiscal 1995 (ended March 31, 1995) Levitz passed the $1-billion mark in net sales and had net income of nearly $4 million.

The Northwest side Showroom opened at Orange Grove and Thornydale in 1996.