OK, thanks, that's interesting and potentially a reasonable moat of loyalty and lock in and a certain cachet among the less price sensitive clientele. Also potential for riding a growth wave to higher valuations, at first sight.
Some of the middle market furniture companies like DFS Furniture in the UK (which has been public then private more than once) also have some attractive working capital characteristics like low inventory, making products to be delivered only after receiving payment or setting up finance, so there could even be interesting angles on that side, enabling them to finance rapid expansion and extensive advertising. I owned some DFS shares for about a year or two since Oct 2001 at about 9% FCF yield and the proceeds went towards my original Berkshire Hathaway stake in July 2003. I got the impression it was a little risky in the event of a recession, especially being somewhat debt levered, so I'd rather hold Berkshire long term but I think private equity took it private since then and I haven't looked at it since except when trying to look up historical prices to reconstruct my past investment ledger. But there's certainly scope for quality compounding in home furnishings in many sections of the market.
