Furniture store setting up Athens shop

By Lauren Ricks STAFF WRITER

December 26, 2008 09:30 am

— The second half of the old Winn-Dixie building will soon have a new tenant.
Ivan Smith Furniture will open a store in Athens no later than the first week of January according to Ivan Smith Advertising and Marketing Director Peyton Childs.
“We will have the official ribbon cutting toward the end of January,” he said.
The other half of the building has been leased by Groom and Sons’ Hardware & Lumber Inc., based in Mabank.
Ivan Smith Furniture was established in 1961 by Ivan Smith Sr., in Shreveport, La. The company has been adding locations since 1976.
“We’ve been on an expanding deal for quite a long time,” Childs said.
The chain has 44 locations in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, according to Childs.
“Every location we are in we try to get involved in the community,” he said.
In October of 2007, the company purchased Terry’s Furniture, according to Childs. The acquisition added eight locations in Paris, Emory, Palestine, Gun Barrel City, Greenville, Sulphur Springs and two stores in Tyler.
Childs said several dignitaries from Athens were at the Gun Barrel City store’s ribbon cutting in February in, and asked for a store in Athens.
“It would be a natural step to be in Athens,” he said.
Childs said the store sells a wide range of furniture.
“For someone just starting out to someone who wants the finer things,” he said. “We only look expensive.”