FFO Home acquires
Kentucky operation
Fort Smith-based furnishing retailer FFO Home has acquired Service Furniture and Bedding Inc., adding 28 stores to its operation, according to a news release Wednesday.
Kentucky-based Service Furniture and Bedding runs 13 Furniture Liquidators locations and 15 Mattress and More bedding stores, all in the Louisville area. The terms of the deal were not released.
The acquisition adds 250 workers to the FFO Home organization, bringing the company's total to 800, and plans are to add jobs in the company's Fort Smith headquarters to support operations in Kentucky, a company spokesman said. FFO Home has 47 stores in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
In the summer of 2015, FFO Home moved its headquarters and manufacturing operations from Oklahoma to Fort Smith. In early 2016, an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a private-equity firm, bought FFO Home from Alpine Investors.
-- John Magsam
Jet.com head leaves
for venture investor
Jet.com President Liza Landsman is leaving the company to become a venture partner at New York-based New Enterprise Associates Inc., according to a news release.
Landsman has held the top role at New Jersey-based Jet.com -- which Walmart Inc. acquired for $3.3 billion in 2016 -- for the past 13 months. During that time, Landsman led Jet.com's integration with Walmart, was a member of the parent company's U.S. e-commerce leadership team and oversaw initiatives like the launch of Jet.com's private-label brand, Uniquely J.
Jet.com did not return a message Wednesday seeking comment about Landsman's departure or the company's plans to replace her.
Landsman -- who was Jet.com's chief customer officer before being elevated to president -- will focus on "consumer technology and commerce" in her new role.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
State index up 1.87,
ends day at 405.20
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.87 to 405.20 Wednesday.
"Despite a morning rally that extended Tuesday's bounce in equities, the market sold off late Wednesday to close negative as rising bond yields continue to raise concerns among investors as the energy and information technology sectors underperformed," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 02/08/2018