Restoration Hardware Closes Record Year, Looks to ‘Selling Spaces’

For the second year in a row, luxury furniture and home goods retailer Restoration Hardware posted record results for the fourth-quarter and full-year.

“We are pleased to report another year of record results with net revenues increasing 32% to $3.759 billion versus $2.849 billion a year ago, and up 42% versus 2019,” Chairman and CEO Gary Friedman wrote in a letter to shareholders Wednesday (March 30). “If you exclude money-losing online businesses, it represents one of the highest two-year growth rates in our industry.”

In his letter, Friedman spoke of plans to open “immersive Design Galleries” in each major market, generating revenues of $20 to $25 billion worldwide, part of a strategy to “move the brand beyond curating and selling product to conceptualizing and selling spaces.”

See also: RH Closes Record Year, Outlines Wildly Bullish Path For 2021 And Beyond

Longer term, the Corte Madera, California-based company said it wants to host what it calls “the world’s first consumer-facing architecture, interior design and landscape architecture services platform” inside its galleries.

Finally, the company said it will move “beyond the  $170 billion home furnishings market into the $1.7 trillion North American housing market” as it rolls out a line of fully furnished apartments, homes and condos dubbed RH Residences.

Read more: Restoration Hardware CEO Says Difference Is ‘Plants Don’t Die In Our Stores’

Speaking to investors last year, Friedman discussed what separates his stores from their competitors in the home furnishings field.

“All you need to do is walk into a mall to notice most retail stores are archaic, windowless boxes that lack any sense of humanity. There’s generally no fresh air or natural light, plants die in most retail stores,” he said. “That’s why we don’t build retail stores, we create inspiring spaces that blur the lines between residential and retail, indoors and outdoors, home and hospitality.”