"Socks, our resident cat & warehouse mouser!"
Mammoth Office Furniture is a family run Herndon, VA company that specializes in buying and selling used and new office furniture as well as used Herman Miller workstations for small to medium size companies.
We have been in business since 1999 and despite the economic hard times most of the industry has experienced recently, our company with twelve full time employees has been thriving.
Liquidating Assets
The business model, although a bit unusual, has proved to be quite profitable for the company. Mammoth’s core business is in used furniture liquidation and resale. The other portion of its business is a mixture of new furniture and used Herman Miller modular workstations, both as-is and refurbished.
When companies downsize, they typically move to a smaller space and they have a considerable amount of office furniture they need to get rid of. That is where we come in. We come in and make it all disappear.
Most recently, Mammoth Office Furniture struck gold when AOL downsized in the DC area. Mammoth went in and bought Herman Miller workstations, filing cabinets and about 100 chairs. Typically, Mammoth buys for 5-10 cents on the dollar and turns and resells the furniture for about 30 cents on the dollar.
“It is a win-win-win situation for everyone involved,” he said. “The company downsizing wins because we offer a service to buy the product and move it out. We win because we profit when we resell the furniture, and the customer wins because they can buy for instance, a 5 drawer lateral filing cabinet for $300. a savings of $700 versus buying new.
Pricing Strategy
Pricing is the other key element to Mammoth’s business model. Our price structure is unique and we have put a lot of thought into it. We sell our used products generically. That is, every major product line is given a price, not based on color or brand, but on the size of the piece of furniture.
Regardless of manufacturer, lateral and vertical filing cabinets are priced based on the number of drawers. Lateral filing cabinets go for $60 per drawer. Mammoth charges customers $15 per drawer for vertical filing cabinets.
A standard desk is 30 x 60 inches. Mammoth sells all standard desks for $200, regardless of brand or material. Executive desks, 36 x 72, will cost customers a flat $350.
Initially, the biggest concern customers have about the price structure is the quality of furniture they will be purchasing for a flat, dimension rate. These concerns are eliminated the second they step onto the showroom floor.
We don’t buy junk. We only get good quality stuff to put in our warehouse. That is the beauty of the liquidation business, especially in recent years. A fortune 500 company, which typically buys top-of-the-line furniture, will downsize and needs to rid itself of relatively new furniture. This is the niche Mammoth Office Furniture fills.
The concept is easy: buy high quality, used furniture for pennies on the dollar and resell it for profit. The difficulty comes in finding the furniture.
The key to our business is being able to come up with good quality, use office furniture on a consistent basis. You do not go to the auctions to get it, instead we build the relationships with various building managers, engineers, and building demolition crews.
The role of a demolition crew, for example, is to empty the building and tear it down. We have made relationships with local crews to call when they have a building full of furniture. Mammoth will then relieve them of the burden of transporting the furniture to the dump.
Given the nature of the business, FSI has quite an assortment of furniture from which customers can choose. They offer everything from conference tables and white boards to Herman Miller workstations and Steelcase chairs — all stuffed into his Herndon warehouse.
The Warehouse
Unlike the average dealer that stocks product, Mammoth Office Furniture has little control over inventory. Although a portion of his warehouse is stocked with new furniture, which can be ordered as needed, the vast majority of his stock comes from liquidation acquisitions. Unfortunately, we do not know when a company will downsize and, as such, has little time to plan for large influxes of furniture.
The solution: have at your disposal a 27,000 sq-ft warehouse capable of storing just about anything, and two additional storage warehouses nearby for over-flow.
We have about a 4,000 sq-ft showroom that is adjacent to the warehouse. People actually walk through the warehouse to get to the showroom. Most people never make it to the showroom because of the selection in the warehouse. By the time they get to the showroom, they have already picked out what they want.
A Family Business
We are a family orientated company and everyone is taking care of the other person.
Mammoth Office Furniture is owned and operated entirely family. Mike Kuzniewski handles all the sales and furniture acquisition. Brother, Pat Kuzniewski handles the operations, installations and removal, and daughter, Kim Krukowski, handles administrative work, computer design service and sales. In addition, we have 8 full-time warehouse employees who deliver, install and organize our warehouses.
The Secret
Mammoth Office Furniture does little advertising. With the exception of internet optimizing and a small ad in the phonebook, the only advertising for the company comes from word-of-mouth. It makes sense, then, to give people something to talk about.
We are a mammoth liquidator. People see our truck rolling down the street and they see the large wooly mammoth on the side and it catches their eye.
Although we acknowledge the role the wooly mammoth logo plays in attracting new customers, the key to his success has been an extensive customer service effort.
Customers know the price we are going to give them is the best they can possibly get with the best service. If something goes wrong, they know they can pick up the phone and talk to the owner of the company and have the situation rectified.
Repeat customers are the key to our success. The customer has to believe in you. If they believe in you, they will return.