Morgan Richmond, 39

Morgan Richmond initially had no desire to get into the family retail furniture business.

His parents, Mark and Stephany Richmond, founded the company, The Furniture Warehouse, in 1988. The couple started humbly, buying a foreclosed warehouse south of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. It was built of metal, didn't have air conditioning and had previously been home to a farmers market. Some four decades later the company has six locations, from Port Charlotte to Ellenton, and does more than $40 million in sales a year. It’s building a new corporate warehouse and headquarters in Bradenton, which is expected to be ready later this year.

Photo by Mark Wemple

But Morgan Richmond, growing up, recalls he wanted to be a doctor, maybe specializing in plastic surgery. “When I saw all the school” it required to be a physician, he says, “I decided I would go into the family business.” 

His choice has worked out — for Richmond and the company. As president, he’s led the company on a major growth spurt, culminating in the new operations facility under construction that will triple the space of its current digs, going from 60,000 square feet to 150,000 square feet. 

While Richmond chose the family business, he wasn’t handed the leadership because of his last name. He worked a variety of roles as a teenager, including delivery. He has since worked his way up to where he now oversees day-to-day operations, merchandising and the logistics of both international and domestic supply chains. That includes importing over 500 containers of furniture annually worldwide and managing more than 300 domestic truck loads. 

No surprise, some of his work of late revolves around tariffs, and working with suppliers and vendors on alternative options if the market is disrupted. Industry chatter pegs a potential Trump Administration tariff on foreign furniture makers could be from 50% to as high as 80%. “If that happens, it will change the furniture industry as we know it,” he says.

Richmond’s mentor, his father Mark, died in 2019 at 63 from an infection related to a pacemaker replacement. Morgan says his dad led by example, in work ethic, patience and treating people — customers, vendors, employees — with respect, dignity and generosity. “Everyone who encountered him always felt better after a conversation with him,” he says.

Morgan adds that his dad also led by example in work-life balance and not micromanaging the team, something to which Morgan aspires. “I like to have my hands in everything we do,” he says 

One major accomplishment Morgan has led at the company — making Furniture Retailer magazine’s Top 100 list in annual sales — is something Mark Richmond pursued for several years. Making that list — The Furniture Warehouse has now been on it twice — is an especially proud moment for the younger Richmond. “His legacy continues to guide me in both business and life,” he says.