WORCESTER – After over six decades in business, Rotmans, the iconic furniture, mattress and accessory store at 725 Southbridge St., is closing.
The store will be closed on both Wednesday, Oct. 12, and Thursday, Oct. 13, to prepare for its liquidation sale which begins on Friday, Oct. 14, at 10 AM.
Steven Rotman, 83, told industry publication Furniture Today that he expects the sale to be wrapped up by the end of the year or January 2023 at the latest.
Murray and Ida Rotman first opened Rotmans for business in 1956. Vystar, a publicly traded company, acquired a majority interest in the company in 2019. Steven Rotman is CEO of Vystar. He previously said that Rotmans ended 2021 at around $30 million in sales, two to three million less than prior to the pandemic.
Rotman said his children are in other careers and there is no other family involved in the business. “The business has been fairly good over the past four or five years. It just got to the point where it was getting more stressful,” Rotman told Furniture Today.
He also told Furniture Today that he considered splitting the business from its parent company, Vystar, with hope of finding a buyer for the retail brand and that he’s hopes another furnishings retailer will see potential in the location. They reported in February that Rotman was positioning to sell the furniture business.
Vystar is also the parent company of RxAir air purification, Vytex, which makes latex foam, and Fluid Energy Conversion. Rotman is retiring from the retail furniture industry, but will remain CEO of Vystar.
Rotman’s leases four acres at its Southbridge Street location, which is highly visible from I-290. It renovated the location in June 2021, converting a section of the 175,000 square foot facility from showroom to warehouse space to increase in-stock capacity. The facility is around 175,000 square feet.
Rotmans is working with Zimmer Hester Furniture Liquidations in conjunction with its going-out-of-business sale.
Image Credit: Google
