A most comfortable career
Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their furniture company, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, this year.
Marking the milestone are a commemorative book (“Who We Are” published by Assouline), a silver-anniversary collection and a national tour of its Signature Stores that recently brought them to East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich.
As the North Carolina-based company marks its silver anniversary this year, it is celebrating what the company likes to call a “journey to make the world a more comfortable place for everyone.”
It has been quite the ride for the two, who met in 1980s New York and have fashioned a career that has not followed the proverbial pack.
“The kind of trends we follow are more the way people live,” Gold said, as Williams added that lately, it”™s “a little more sophisticated, not so much country casual.”
In addition to savvy homeowners, the brand has attracted interior and set designers, shelter magazine editors and was also tapped as part of the 2008 redecoration of the Obama White House.
It all began back in 1989 when the plan was to introduce a line of dining chairs and tables. A $60,000 investment and a goal of cultivating a customer list of 25 would allow both a profit and a four-day workweek.
Pre-sales of more than 5,000 pieces before the factory was even opened, though, were swiftly followed by a rapidly expanding collection that had the company reaching $1 million in sales in its first full year.
Clearly, what Gold and Williams were offering had struck a chord.
“In 1989, a furniture company did not use the word comfort,” Gold said, while Williams added “Comfort doesn”™t always represent style.”
The two, who were romantically involved for 14 years before separating and remaining business partners, were committed to combining comfort with design and craftsmanship. Each has his own role within the company.
“Bob heads up design, and I head up most of the other things,” Gold said.
From 23 employees to a roster now topping 600, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams now sells upholstered furniture, storage units, tables, lighting and other home accessories. The $100-million international brand is carried in a growing chain of 18 Signature Stores and boutique shops within other stores around the world. Private-label customers range from Pottery Barn to Restoration Hardware, with a hospitality division works that works with hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton.
“We want to be more than just a company making money,” Gold said.
The company is dedicated to eco-friendly practices, social causes and to its employees and the work environment. The corporate culture respects diversity, supports education and is all about being environmentally responsible.
Part of the Sustainable Furnishings Council, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams operates out of a 600,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art factory in Taylorsville, N.C.
There, for example, the company hosts Lulu”™s Childhood Enrichment Center, an award-winning nonprofit day care center, on site, named after Gold and Williams”™ late English bull dog (the company mascot).
Lauded for both style and business practices, the company has been featured in publications ranging from Elle Décor to Time to Health magazines. Its work in television has included a collaboration with “The Good Wife,” a CBS series that has filmed in Westchester County, N.Y. That credit sparked the design of a collection with the show”™s set decorator, Beth Kushnick, said to be the first furniture license in television history.
The Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams customers, the founders share, run the gamut from mature downsizers to those just starting out.
“We also have a lot of customers who are collecting,” Gold said.
Everyone, it seems, finds something to like in the range, from mid-century modern-inspired chairs to nailhead-studded bookcases, all with a decidedly glamorous edge.
The Greenwich stop is near the start of a blockbuster year of growth.
“Through our research we know there are 60 to 70 really great markets to be in,” Gold said and noted plans are underway to add Signature Stores in cities including Miami and Beverly Hills, Calif.
Touring the country and seeing the progress has been rewarding already, again on more than one front, they said.
Charitable efforts are intertwined with the company”™s anniversary plans, with the Greenwich celebration to benefit The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Actor-philanthropist Paul Newman founded the Fairfield County-based nonprofit organization dedicated to serving children with serious medical conditions and their families in 1988.
Keeping on top of advances in the field and staying committed to a meticulous production method has been key to the move ever forward, the founders agree.
An early misstep led to realizing the importance of that, Williams said, noting an early creation of a “big, beautiful” collection.
“Big would be a good way to describe it because they couldn”™t fit through doors,” he said with a laugh.