Reinventing an industry: EI Dorado is more than just a furniture retail chain. It's a case study in innovation and in taking a traditional industry and making it new - Retail

South Florida CEO, June, 2003 by Johanna Marmon

When the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce gave- out its coveted Cutting Edge awards this year -- bestowed on companies for their innovative business practices -- the winner was not computer-maker Alienware, or bioscience star KOS Pharmaceuticals or even online success story TradeStation Group. Instead, it was furniture retail chain El Dorado.

The award, at first blush, seemed surprising. A retail chain, after all, doesn't normally fit into the wunderkind league of high-tech companies. But El Dorado is not your father's furniture company. "This is a company that has redefined its industry," says Basil Bernard, who oversees the Cutting Edge committee for the chamber.

That becomes clear the moment you walk into the company's main showroom, off the Palmetto Expressway in Miami Gardens. Just inside the door is a life-sized pirate decked out in full regalia, eye patch and striped knickers included. A little further ahead, there's an armored knight astride a full-sized horse. Then there's the kung fu fighter, the family of cheetahs and the alarmingly real-looking (but not lifesized, thankfully) elephant. They appear to be there for show, but closer inspection reveals dangling price tags.

Then there's the furniture itself. Hundreds of beds, couches, easy chairs, china cabinets, mirrors, lamps and accessories from more than 200 manufacturers worldwide share the 110,000-square-foot space. Remarkably, it doesn't feel crowded. That's partly because no salespeople trail after customers, hassling them into an impulse buy. It also has to do with the showroom's unique "Boulevard" layout: a main artery runs through it, replete with park benches and faux trees. On either side are distinct areas with furniture displays.

"We're branding the company through the Boulevard concept," says company chief operating officer Pedro Capo, who works at El Dorado with his seven brothers and his father, who opened the first store on Calle Ocho in 1967. In fact, it was Pedro Cap6 who first came up with the Boulevard idea back in 1993, when El Dorado -- named for the boat on which his father originally made it to the US from Cuba -- had only three stores.

"I was brainstorming on how to make the company different," he says. "We noticed that when people came to shop for furniture, they brought the entire family and the neighbors, and we wanted to put some space between them and the salesperson, give the buyer time to relax and enjoy the experience."

That concept -- along with other innovations -- translated into $126 million in revenues for El Dorado last year. With 700 employees and eight stores (six in MiamiDade, two in Broward), the firm holds a 20 percent market share in South Florida. It is also the nation's largest Hispanicowned retailer.

El Dorado's backroom operations are as impressive as the public facade. Its 250,000 square-foot warehouse (another 124,000-foot space will open this summer) holds 32,000 pieces of furniture worth about $30 million. All are tracked by a $1.5 million barcode system that has helped streamline operations.

"The bar code is not new to the world, but new to the furniture industry," Capo' says. When a delivery is made to the warehouse, employees affix a barcode to each piece of the furniture and then scan it, which automatically enters the code into El Dorado's computer system. "It is available to be delivered from that second on," Cap6 says, noting that before, the process would take six to eight hours from the time an employee would give it a routing number and manually enter it into the system.

El Dorado is also unique in that its delivery-truck drivers are independent contractors who earn 3 percent commission on the retail price of the furniture they deliver. "Some of our drivers make more than $100,000 a year," Cap6 says. Not surprisingly, there is a waiting list for drivers that stretches longer than a year and a half. Within a half-hour after a delivery is made, Capo says, a customerservice representative calls the buyer at home to ensure the process went as smoothly as possible.

"It's our way of doing things a little differently to always guarantee ultimate customer satisfaction," he says. It works, too: 45 percent of El Dorado's business comes from repeat customers. "Anyone can sell something to somebody once," says Cap6. "We're looking to keep bringing them back."