by Company recently opened a new warehouse and showroom and also has doubled the size of its sales force to further penetrate key markets in the US
ONTARIO, Calif. — Seating and wood furniture specialist Lilola Home is making significant investments in its business this year not only in anticipation of a turnaround in 2026, but with expectations of an even stronger 2027 and beyond.
The company recently opened its new 160,000-square-foot headquarters and warehouse facility in Ontario that consolidated two facilities into one. It also includes a new showroom that showcases the full depth and breadth of its line of sofa-sleepers and other furniture.
For visiting customers, the facility offers not just a window into its product offerings but also its consolidated domestic distribution operations, including its 145,000-square-foot warehouse.
“We are in a great position as we have grown our warehouse and have consolidated everything under one roof,” said John Chen, president. “Plus we have a new office and a showroom where we can show all of our products for the first time in one place.”
For many customers, having that ability to see the product in a new space all in one location gives them a fresh perspective on the line. In some cases, Chen noted, this makes presentation of many of the products look new to many customers who have seen a good number of the same items previously.
“To me that has already had a huge impact,” he said. “It has been meaningful because customers have been able to see everything under one roof,” he said.
With the move, the company also is sharpening the focus of its product line, by reducing its SKU count to about 600, from about 1,000 SKUs about a year ago. Ultimately, it plans to reduce this further to around 350, Chen said, noting that it seeks to keep 100% of its bestsellers in stock, with a selection that runs deep versus wide.
Sleepers continue to be its largest and bestselling category with more than 100 SKUs of convertible sleeper sofas and sectionals, followed by dining, motion upholstery, case goods and KD fireplace units.
“As we are selling down inventory, it is freeing up a lot of cash that we can reinvest back into our bestsellers,” said Andy Bush, executive vice president of business development at Lilola Home. “And our in-stock rate has and will continue to improve.”
The company also is launching a Southern California Local Dealer Program for retailers located in a 50-mile radius of its headquarters and showroom.
“By leveraging proximity to our warehouse, we can offer faster delivery timelines, improved replenishment speed and prepaid freight tiers based on order size — all designed to encourage deeper engagement and repeat business,” the company said of the new model, which provides delivery versus customers having to come pick up themselves at the warehouse facilities.
Dealers placing a minimum order can receive free freight and those that don’t will have a modest delivery fee of 5%.
“The incentive is to give them free freight so they can put more product placement on their floors,” Chen noted, adding that this potentially expands various categories Lilola Home offers in their stores.
“That should turn more revenue because it’s all about placements when it comes to working with these retail mom-and-pop businesses,” he added, noting that there are about 250 individual storefronts within the 50-mile radius of its Ontario headquarters.
The company also plans to show in High Point for the second time this coming April. This, combined with its recent membership in FMG, is connecting the company with new and existing brick-and-mortar accounts that are growing sales beyond its e-commerce business model.
To service these emerging accounts, the company also has doubled the size of its sales force, officials noted. Bush said the company has added roughly a dozen reps in the past six months, bringing its total to 22.
“Building out our sales force and training and empowering them to target top ~200 HF retailers is a core focus for us.”
“The initial thought was let’s cover the whole country,” Bush added. “But taking a step back we said we need to be strongest west of the Mississippi. And we had a lot of gaps. We had no coverage in the Pacific Northwest, no coverage in the Rocky Mountains. Not enough coverage in Texas. So we filled those gaps.”
New reps, he noted, also have been added in the Ohio Valley and western Pennsylvania and into the Carolinas and Florida.
It currently lacks representation in the Northeast, but officials noted that will occur as the company establishes a distribution strategy for that part of the country.
“It’s only a matter of time before we have an East Coast 3PL,” Bush said. “We have to be able to service those customers on the East Coast as well as we do on the West Coast.”
With events such as the FMG Symposium next week and also at the April High Point Market, Chen is looking forward to meeting and working with new business partners now and in the future, believing it will fuel growth for the company’s brick-and-mortar business moving forward.
“We are pretty optimistic about this year,” he said. “We think the worst is behind us, and we think this is going to be a growth year and is really going to set us up for ’27. We think ’27 is going to be the breakout year where we start to put out some really respectable numbers.”
