UPDATE - June 18, 2004 - William Rice sells Arizona operating to concentrate on expanding the Maryland operation.

USBI's Newsroom

D.C. furniture company buys Valley-owned Valdez
week of June 16, 1997, Phoenix Business Journal
by Lisa Gonderinger

Valdez Office Environments Inc., one of the Valley's largest office furniture dealers, has been sold to a Washington, D.C., company that has king-size plans for local expansion.

Bill Rice, president and chief executive officer of US Business Interiors, is relocating to the Valley to run the newly acquired venture, which now will be called US Business Interiors of Arizona. Although he will keep the title of president and CEO of the entire USBI operation and will spend about 80 percent of his time in Arizona, he said USBI's headquarters will remain planted in Washington.

Valdez ranked as the Valley's third-largest office furniture company in the most recent The Business Journal's Book of Lists, with $22.4 million in 1995 sales, behind Goodmans Furniture and Office Systems and Walsh Bros. Office Equipment.

Ted Lewis, vice president of finance operations for USBI Arizona, said sales dipped to $18 million last year. An additional $5 million in business is being lost in the sale as the new company no longer will have Valdez's minority business status, something that opened doors at both private companies and government sales for Valdez.

Rice said sales now are between $12 million and $15 million, and his goal is to double the size of the business in 18 months to $30 million.

"That's pretty much what we've been able to do in Washington, D.C.," Rice said. "We started from nothing eight years ago and now we're a $40 million business that employs 100 people."

Valdez had 64 employees at the time of the acquisition, which closed in late May. Rice said all those employees were kept, and since the acquisition, that number has gone up to 70. All management was kept in place, but Rice did bring in several key leaders, including a chief financial officer and a director of sales. Also, Valdez's president had left several months before the acquisition for unrelated reasons, leaving a space for Rice to come in and run the show.

Rice said if he is able to double the business, he anticipates upping employment to as many as 140 to 150 people, with new hires in everything from sales to drivers to administration.

Valdez had been organized in two separate businesses: a 7,000-square-foot showroom at University Drive and 36th Street in Phoenix; and a 35,000-square-foot warehouse that dealt with a separate moving and storage operation of Valdez.

Rice said he currently is looking to more than double that space, scouring the Valley for a 100,000-square-foot facility, with about 15,000 square feet of office and showroom space and the remainder warehouse. And he said if growth continues as projected, three or four years down the road he may look to build his own facility in the Valley. Currently, USBI is building its own 100,000-square-foot building in Washington.

USBI also will change the automation system in the company. "We basically have to take a company that has done a pretty good job and make it the best of the best," Rice said.

Rice said he had been looking at several markets for possible expansion, and liked the explosive growth and demographics he saw in the Valley. He said he stumbled across the Valdez opportunity, and worked through Steelcase, one of both USBI's and Valdez's main vendors, to ensure that if USBI took over Valdez, Steelcase would remain involved.
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