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What's going on: The company sells contemporary and Scandinavian furniture and accessories throughout the world, with 60 percent of business coming through its Web site.
Who's who: Chris Kenyon, president; John Pusateri, vice president; Franklin Pusateri, founder; John Kenyon, vice president for national sales
Employment: 14
History: Advance Furniture was founded in 1954 when Franklin Pusateri purchased a hardware store in Kenmore. He expanded to furniture after adding the Magnivox line of television sets. By 1962, the company was carrying a full line of contemporary furniture.
In 1965, he flew to Copenhagen to look at a line of Danish furniture and soon became the first and only store in Western New York to carry a Danish line.
"There was nobody in Buffalo that sold it. It just evolved from there," he said.
Now that Franklin Pusateri is retired, his children run the company. Son John Pusateri, daughter Chris Kenyon and her husband John are equal partners. Adding high-end European furniture and a Web site, the trio have grown the business from a 4,000-square-foot showroom to 13,000 square feet plus an on-site warehouse.
Taking the company online in the mid-90s with www.contemporaryfurniture.com propelled the company from a regional furniture store to a national source for contemporary furniture and accessories. Originally, the trio thought a Web site would help entice customers from Clarence or further out like Rochester and Jamestown to make...