Stan Civin wasn't sure he wanted to start anew when he watched one of his stores burn on a Sunday afternoon last November.
"It was our baby that we had nurtured from nothing," said Civin, CEO of Light Bulbs Unlimited International, which includes nine stores. "And now it was all gone."
The fire - the cause was never determined - destroyed all of the inventory inside the Light Bulbs Unlimited store in Boca Raton. Civin says investigators are still trying to determine the estimated damages, but he wasn't able to salvage even a paper clip.
After a few hours of debating whether to reopen, Civin and his staff decided they couldn’t let the store he had opened 12 years after arriving from South Africa disappear.
That night they moved operations to the company’s headquarters in Pompano Beach and decided to keep the effect on customers minimal. The store supplies bulbs for individuals and a wide range of businesses.
“We didn’t want people to know there had been a disruption," Civin said.
The staff had all calls forwarded to their newly purchased cell phones, and an employee manned the entrance of the burned-out store for two months to direct customers to the Pompano Beach store or call orders in on his phone. The company also offered free deliveries, even for only one 60-wattbulb.
"That really married a lot of customers to us," said Jon Gavronsky, the assistant manager.
They also bought a new car to make the deliveries, sending finances further into the red. After moving to a new location a few blocks down the road in March, Civin says he's still struggling to climb into profitability. He hopes that more house calls to help customers with their lighting and doubled advertising will help them succeed.
The new store is slowly rebuilding its inventory, interior construction is still going on in one corner, and Civin still receives checks and inquiries addressed to the old location.
But Civin says longstanding customers are returning, and he hopes that his practice of frequenting the businesses of current customers will help build strong relationships.
"We try to maintain reciprocal business," he said. "Everything we buy, we buy from a local business."
by Purva Patel business writer