Art Van Elslander founded his first furniture store in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959. Within one year, Elslander had opened 3 more locations but didn’t hire his first employee until the opening of his 4th store.
By 1963, Art Van Furniture had 7 stores and Elslander took on his brothers as partners. When the company reached 15 locations in 1973, Elslander could no longer do his office work at each location and the company purchased a building in Warren, Michigan, to use as a corporate office.
Today, the company has nearly 200 locations, with some of them franchises, in 7 states. Art Van Furniture also operates outlet locations and Art Van PureSleep Bedding.
Art Van Furniture was sold to Thomas H. Lee Partners, a private equity firm, in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. The company estimates annual revenue in 2018 to be $1.4 billion.
The company sacked CEO Ron Boire after only a year on the job, citing that Elslander wanted change to occur more quickly. Gary Fazio was named CEO in 2018.
Headquarters for the company are still located in Warren, Michigan.
