You wouldn’t think that a global recession would be a good time to be in the office furniture business. Businesses are closing or shrinking or “consolidating” left and right. And that can’t be a good thing, can it?
  But, according to office furniture impresario Seth DeForest “if your family of dealerships covers the entire life cycle of furniture assets (read that as new and used),” life can be good.
  “I believe that the key—at least for our four companies—is to be able to offer high end lines like Knoll and Herman Miller, as well as more than 250 standard lines.
  “Not everybody is going out of business…but, if they are, our pre-owned furniture company, Boomerang, is there if a liquidation is going to occur.
  “And, for those companies that are making the acquisitions and growing, our three Corporate Facilities, Inc. companies are ready to help in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the Lehigh Valley.
  According to DeForest, Boomerang earned more than $7 million in gross revenues last year, while the three Corporate Facilities (CFI) branches brought in more than $33 million.
  DeForest’s business partners include his wife, Amanda, and his father-in-law Robert Chevalier, who founded CFI a quarter century ago.
  Amanda and co-owner Peggy Kelly opened CFI’s New Jersey branch four years ago and a branch in the Lehigh Valley was launched just a year later.
  “We’re opening a facility in New York City soon, so we’ll really cover the market from Delaware to New York and through all of Eastern Pennsylvania,” says DeForest.
  In “an industry of generic cubicles re-painted and sold from the back of a trailer,” CFI and Boomerang stand out in many ways—not the least significant of which is the conglomerate’s corporate headquarters in what was once an ornate Swedenborgian church at 22nd and Chestnut Streets in Center City Philadelphia.
  But what else would you expect from an entrepreneur whose original office and warehouse included swings, a coffee bar, an office Segway and vintage vehicles, including a 1956 Porsche and an old biplane. “We work too hard not to have a little fun once in a while,” DeForest says.
  DeForest received his bachelor’s degree at Cornell University’s School of Business.  It was there that he met his wife (and future business partner)—she was a teaching assistant in a class that included DeForest (he got a B).
  And it was at Cornell that he first started to evidence his legendary entrepreneurial skills. His first effort was the creation of an after school program, T.I.E.S., (Together Ithaca Empowers Students) for the neighborhood children.  The program brought participants to factories and facilities in town so they could learn about a variety of jobs and skills.   When he graduated, Seth’s program had more than 300 Cornell student volunteers, and the program is still growing and operating today.  
  After graduating from Cornell, Seth moved to New York City and started work at the prestigious Myriad Restaurant Group, where he managed several restaurants, including Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Grille.  Seth also helped with the W Hotel launch and was one of the Hotel’s opening managers.
  After that came the launch of Boomerang in April of 2001. “When we started, the industry had a whole bunch of shady “used-car dealers,” DeForest says, so
he took his education and his background in the restaurant business where “it was all about presentation and cutting edge,” and came up with what is clearly a ”different” approach.
  I told myself “If I’m going to get into this industry…we can make it sexy,” says DeForest. And he adds that the choice to buy used and refurbished brand-name pieces can save a business about half the cost of buying new.
  When Boomerang buys a company’s used furniture, the pieces come back to the warehouse for evaluation. Some items are labeled for sale “as is” while other units are repaired or refurbished to client standards.
  “The financial potential is there. It was at least 10 years ago. Inc. magazine estimated the market for used furniture at about $800 million annually in the U.S. Since then corporate belt-tightening has only pushed the numbers higher,” says DeForest.
  “There’s an obvious economic incentive for businesses to seek out used furniture.
A really famous Aeron chair, for instance, goes from $700 to over $1,000 new…depending on your bells and whistles. We can sell that chair for $400 to $500,” DeForest said.
  “Then there are Knoll workstations. Their new products go from $3,000 to $4,000 per workstation. We can sell those for about $1,500 each.”
  Still, the Boomerang team has a job to do in convincing potential buyers that used furniture is worth owning. “When you think used furniture you think used car. Is it
broken inside? Does the motor function? This industry started off with a lot of
bad people in it, so my biggest challenge is in overcoming that image,” DeForest
says.
  And “image” is something that DeForest knows all about.