Paul’s TV Eyes National Rollout

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 3/22/2010

LA HABRA, CALIF. — Paul’s TV, the Los Angeles- area specialty A/V dealer, plans to take its store-within- a-furniture store concept to all 50 states.

Babak Ghazavi, president of the privately held business, wouldn’t put a timetable on the expansion, but said he is targeting dominant furniture chains with significant share in their respective markets.

By year’s end, the strategy will extend the two-store, PRO Group dealer’s multiregional presence to 41 leased shops in New England (with Jordan’s), Southern California (through Living Spaces) and Michigan (via Art Van).

The latter deal, announced last month, calls for 31 in-store shops averaging about 3,000 square feet that will hold 60 to 80 TVs plus audio and other hometheater products. Paul’s has complete sales and operational responsibility for the stores, and has secured a 112,000- square-foot warehouse in Detroit to support the rollout.

Ghazavi said the time is right to reunite CE and furniture, which had been merchandised together in department stores more than a generation ago. “Female shoppers are having a bigger say in CE selection, especially now that TVs are looking sexier,” he said.

Ghazavi is in “no hurry” to enter new markets. “We will do it carefully,” he said, adding that he has no plans for additional freestanding Paul’s TV stores beyond the two existing locations here and in West L.A. Instead, the company will focus on its Art Van expansion and the addition of two more Living Spaces shops, for a total of six, later this year.

Paul’s TV was founded in 1964 by Paul Goldenberg, the self-proclaimed “King of the Big TV.” The company is currently held by a management team comprised of former Good Guys executives.