Matter Brothers felt a few growing pains when it added the 100,000-square-foot Sarasota showroom into the mix, John Matter said. Once that stabilizes, the company will be more inclined to grow. Matter Brothers Furniture Store Locations. Matter Brothers Furniture Florida Company Information We offer the largest and most beautiful selection of quality furnishings, mattresses, and accessories available in SW Florida at the lowest possible prices! We work hard in the showrooms every day to provide you with the best selection, prices.

The variable environment is made up of simple objects. You get to visit such places as the cat town, beach, and even an ice stage.

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Family company survives with the help of an influx of people hungry for coastal style.The Matter family spent nearly four decades thinking about a move into the Sarasota market.They were a lot like their customers in that way.Today, the Matter Brothers Furniture showroom at 4675 Clark Road is a hub for outfitting Southwest Florida’s newest residents with coastal-style furniture for the next chapter of their lives.But the Matter family remembers first-hand what it's like to leave everything behind and start from scratch. Stewart Matter Sr., a furniture icon in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was traveling in search of new furniture vendors in the mid-'70s. The way the family tells the story, it took just one plane ride sitting next to a Florida resident for Matter to realize there might be a better, warmer place to do business. He changed his travel plans and went to Florida.Matter and his wife, Shirley, soon set their sights on Sarasota, and the family stayed in the Holiday Inn on Lido Key for about two weeks in 1977 as they searched for the right spot to open a store, said John Matter, their son, who's now president of the company and runs the Sarasota store.But the right fit just wasn’t there, so they took their business south to Fort Myers and steadily grew their family furniture chain to Naples, Pinellas Park and Tarpon Springs as real estate opportunities presented themselves. They also opened six Florida Leather Gallery stores, including one in Sarasota in 1997 at 7766 South Tamiami Trail.But it took another 20 years to bring the family’s original vision to reality.“My parents used to come up at least once a month and have lunch on St.

Armands Key, and they just loved Sarasota,” John Matter said. “It just took us awhile to get there.”Surviving changesThe family prefers to own rather than lease their stores, John Matter said. It’s a practice that helped the chain grow at a slow, steady rate and to survive the Great Recession. The company didn’t have to worry about expensive leases as consumers tightened their belts and spent less on furniture.The opportunity to fill the gap between Matter Brothers' Fort Myers and Tampa Bay area stores finally presented itself in January 2014, after the economy settled. The Matters purchased the site of the former Parker Hannifin Corp. Manufacturing plant and opened their 100,000-square-foot Sarasota showroom that Thanksgiving.The property is double the size of the company’s flagship store in Fort Myers, and it’s considered one of the largest furniture stores in the state.It was a bold move in a turbulent retail climate. Furniture sales nationally haven’t been entirely immune to the e-commerce boom and the shift toward spending cash on experiences rather than things.

Matter Brothers and other players still have to compete with new online concepts such as Wayfair.com that are gaining increasing traction in the market, said Stan Rutstein, a commercial real estate broker in Manatee County. The brick-and-mortar furniture market may not be having the same kind of woes as apparel retailers, but it’s still going through a shift.“I think that the research points to people liking Wayfair — and Wayfair is working, and its working big time,” Rutstein said. The brick-and-mortar furniture business 'isn’t bad, but they’re being buffeted pretty hard by the online people.”Furniture purchases, in general, hinge on consumer confidence and the amount of disposable income a household has, said Steven Kirn, a lecturer at the David F. Miller Retailing Education and Research Center at the University of Florida. Typically, shoppers can postpone buying a new sofa or bed if money is tight.Moving masses helpsBut the masses moving into the Sunshine State give Florida furniture stores an upper hand. Southwest Florida’s newest residents are often relatively wealthy and retired, and the homes they’ve left behind are vastly different from what the next chapter of their lives looks like. There’s a big difference between the high ceilings common in the Northeast and a beach bungalow or a downtown Sarasota condo.“You don’t want big, overstuffed, dark wood pieces,” Kirn said.

“It just wouldn’t look right in these kinds of condo settings. That’s an advantage Florida has with people buying new stuff.”Matter Brothers' customers typically are older than 45 and have made furniture purchases before, John Matter said.

He considers his product lines to be priced in the middle to upper-middle tier. They’re quality pieces but not necessarily lavish.The company focuses on lighter, more coastal designs because people who move into this market typically want to immerse themselves in that lifestyle.“We just have a different look to our stores, and it just seems to really resonate with people that are moving down from the north to capture the Florida lifestyle,” John Matter said. “With the exception of the downturn (in the 2000s), I’d say business has been very strong, and again it’s fueled by people moving to Florida.”And the industry is showing signs of further growth. When John Matter and his brothers go to furniture markets, they’re seeing an enormous amount of products being offered.The company doesn’t have any immediate plans to expand.

There are markets of opportunity along the Gulf Coast for Matter Brothers' brand, and the family may eventually take its Florida Leather Gallery concept to other parts of the state.For the moment, though, the Matter family is focusing on improving operations and customer service. John Matter mans the Sarasota store, while Tom Matter, the company's treasurer, handles the Tarpon Springs location.

Their brothers Gary Matter, Stewart Matter II and Dave Matter serve as vice presidents and run the Ft. Myers and Naples stores and the company's mattress factory, respectively.Matter Brothers felt a few growing pains when it added the 100,000-square-foot Sarasota showroom into the mix, John Matter said. Once that stabilizes, the company will be more inclined to grow.In the meantime, John Matter and his brothers can revel in the fact that they finally brought his parents' vision full circle.Their mother died in the early '90s and never got to see the Sarasota store she always dreamed of.His father died in 2015, but not before he attended the grand opening of the 100,000-square-foot showroom on Clark Road.

In the final weeks of his life, the plan he had made nearly 40 years earlier finally became a reality.“He was here for the grand opening,” John Matter said. “It was really satisfying to me to finally complete that journey.”.