Home Décor adding on flooring, garage storage

Home Décor Products Inc. will use some of the $65 million in new funding to grow its business. New web sites slated for an early 2007 rollout include flooring, furniture, mattresses and garage storage. Some funds also are earmarked for working capital.

The company, No. 107 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is an online retailer of kitchen, bath and other products for the home.

Funding comes from three investment groups. The plan, says Home Décor CEO Michael Golden, is to stick to the plan. “We started out room-by-room and have moved all over the house. Now we’re moving outdoors, but we’re going to stick to home and garden products.”

Since Home Décor began operating online in October 2000 with HomeClick.com, the formula has been to explore a product line and its related merchandise to build complementary product channels, Golden says. “We started with kitchen and bath products,” Golden notes. “Some categories we enter cautiously and test to see if there are opportunities. If so, we go full-bore.”

Home Décor has added five web sites this year, including ChefsCorner.com, ChristmasCatalog.com and NationBlinds.com, bringing its total to 10.

Because some of Home Décor’s web sites are seasonal, a quarterly analysis of sales is not particularly meaningful, Golden explains. And although some of the parent company web sites just began this year, Golden expects 2006 holiday sales to increase 25% to 30% compared to last year. He declined to provide specific sales figures.

Series C capital funding was provided by 3i Venture Capital, a private equity and venture capital firm, and also included Liberty Associated Partners and Comcast Interactive Capital.