Kimbrell's history in Gaffney dates to 1968, when the company bought Cooper Furniture. The store's location has changed on several occasions during its four decades in Cherokee County. The facade of the current location on Limestone Street was recently restored to its original look. There’s no place like home.

A mainstay in downtown areas across the Southeast, the goal of Kimbrell’s Furniture has been to provide comfortable, luxurious home furnishing items customers can be proud of when friends and family come over for a visit. In the end, however, the furniture store has earned a home of its own — in the hearts of customers.

Kimbrell’s is celebrating its 94th anniversary this month, honoring the decision of three men — W. Earle and Walter Kimbrell, as well as H.A. Taylor — and their decision to invest $1,000 apiece to open the company’s first store on Hampton Street in downtown Columbia in 1915.

The family-owned business now has 55 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, employing more than 500 associates. Three new stores will open next week in Raleigh, N.C., and Columbia.

“Once we’re there, we’re there to stay,” Gaffney native and Kimbrell’s district manager Steve Huskey said. “In our 94 years in business, we have never closed a store due to lack of business or other factors. I think our success has come from not trying to blow competitors out the water, rather we have done our best to listen to customers’ needs and delivering items that best match their vision; our goal is to keep customers coming back, not to focus on blowing out our competition.”

Kimbrell’s recently came in at No. 97 on Furniture Today’s Top 100 list, which ranks stores by 2008 sales of furniture, bedding and decorative accessories. The company is estimated to have brought in $49.4 million in sales last year.

The company’s history in Gaffney dates back to 1968, when the company bought Cooper Furniture. The store’s location has changed on several occasions during Kimbrell’s four decades in Cherokee County, but Huskey said the store has always been dedicated to providing customers with the service necessary to cater to the needs of their home.

“We’re dedicated to giving customers the luxuries they want in their home,” Huskey said. “Such service has been a catalyst for keeping customers for close to a century. It also applies to our associates, many of whom stay for a long time, helping to build a family atmosphere.”