Party continues for Levin Furniture workers who faced bleak future days ago

Just when it seemed the feel-good story of the week couldn’t get any better, hundreds of Levin Furniture employees and managers turned out for a rousing homecoming for former owner Robert Levin on Friday.

“I just want to tell everybody how excited I am to be back, running the company,” Levin said from the company’s huge warehouse in Fitz Henry, South Huntingdon. “I just found out this morning … that today is national Employee Appreciation Day. What a day to come back into business.”

As cheers went up from the circle around Levin, he pointed to people he recognized and called out their names. Nobody escaped without a hug.

The occasion for the impromptu party was Levin’s announcement Thursday that he was buying back the company he sold to Michigan-based Art Van Furniture LLC in 2017. Less than three years after the sale, Art Van announced this week that it was entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Levin, 63, said he reached a “last-minute” deal Wednesday night to acquire the Pennsylvania and Ohio assets of Levin Furniture through a bankruptcy court restructuring of parent company Art Van.

“The company that owned us kind of messed us up, but we’re back,” Levin said.

Speculation about Art Van’s future started about a month ago, when Detroit news outlets reported that the Boston-based private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners LP was seeking a buyer for Art Van and its brands, Levin and Altoona-based Wolf Furniture.

The news triggered fears throughout Levin’s — from the forklift drivers on the warehouse floor to the senior managers in the corporate offices — that the 100-year-old company was coming to an end.

“The future just became very, very bright,” CEO Chris Pelcher said. “A week ago, things were looking pretty dark. … We’re just so happy today.”

Pelcher said the lesson of the last two years is that “people matter, experience matters, expertise matters.”

“Before the sale (in 2017), we were the best-run retail furniture company in the country. We’re going to get back to that,” he said.

Levin praised the senior management team — Pelcher, Chief Financial Officer Gus Glyptis and Human Resources Vice President Irene Fostyk — for “weathering the storm during such a difficult number of weeks for the company.”

Fostyk has been with the company for 19 years but said the last two years have been difficult, filled with uncertainty and change.

“It’s been chaos,” she said. “This management team has fought hard to protect the employees. Our general manager (Pelcher) has really fought for us and for what’s right.”

Fostyk’s highest praise went to Levin, whose grandfather, Sam Levin, founded the company in Mt. Pleasant in 1920.

“We are so grateful that Robert was able to do this out of the goodness of his heart,” she said. “He saved us from a horrible fate. His legacy — all of us can’t thank him enough.”

As Levin and the office staff made their way into the warehouse, they were greeted by a large banner hanging overhead that read, “Welcome home, Robert!” Hundreds of employees, some of them wearing “Thank you Robert” T-shirts, gathered around and hung on his every word.

“There’s lots to do,” he said. “We’re talking to vendors. We’re going to get product back in. We’re going to get sales cranked up, so (there’s) a lot of work to do. But we’re very excited. We’re ready to go. We’re funded, and we’re going to be back in business.”

Maintenance technician Darel Keslar, a four-year employee, said he has no doubt the return of Levin will bring big changes.

“We went from being owned by a family (in 2017) to being owned by a corporation. Robert treated us like family,” he said. “This is the best news we could have gotten. It’s a fantastic day.”

Shop supervisor Paul Fess, a 35-year employee, said the “family atmosphere” was missing over the last two years.

“(Levin) has a way of making us feel like a part of the team, a part of the family. I don’t know that we could have a better owner than Robert Levin,” he said.

Friday’s homecoming party ended with a typical Levin flourish — a catered lunch for the gathered employees.

Levin’s has 35 furniture stores and mattress showrooms in Southwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio. Levin has 635 employees in Pennsylvania, including the corporate office and distribution center in Fitz Henry, and 385 employees in Ohio.

Levin’s acquired three former Goldsteins Furniture stores in the Youngstown area and reopened them as Levin Furniture stores in 2018.