A Toledo company has expanded into Bowling Green, enabling Wood County residents to keep their tax
dollars local – and save some gas.
Banner Mattress & Furniture opened in the former Churchill’s Supermarket location on South Main
Street. According to Manager Wayne Leahey, it is the company’s sixth location. A Banner Mattress store
with no furniture previously opened in Perrysburg on Ohio 20/23,and the company maintains four Toledo
locations.
Though the Bowling Green store opened in mid-August, it will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday
at 1 p.m. Mayor John Quinn will attend along with members of the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce.
Banner’s main showroom has 20,000 square feet filled wall-to-wall with furniture for every room in the
house, and there are two smaller clearance rooms totaling about 5,000 square feet.
Leahey estimated 75 to 80 different recliners are on the showroom floor, along with living room, bedroom
and dining room furniture pieces and sets. Dining room tables include small pub-size ones to those for
formal dining rooms. There are curio cabinets and bedroom furniture, from youth styles to canopy beds,
plus lamps, pictures, mirrors and accent pieces.
Brand names include Ashley, Berkline and Lane, along with March Furniture and Klaussner Home Furnishings.
Leahey especially likes the feature of one manufacturer that offers 250 fabrics from which to customize
a piece of furniture.
He said the store carries "a lot of other manufacturers that make very reasonably-priced
furniture."
In addition, it carries about 45 models of mattresses, from Banner’s own brand, made in Toledo, to Sealy,
Tempur-Pedic and Simmons.
The store offers delivery, which the other five locations do not have, because of its distance from the
company’s two Toledo warehouse complexes. "If I stock it, we can deliver it today," said the
manager.
Banner accepts cash, checks and all major credit cards, plus offers layaway, financing through Wells
Fargo with a variety of options, as well as "no credit check" financing.
The store has been well received by Wood County shoppers who are pleased at its local location and
prices. Leahey said for its first month of business, 46 percent of clients had a Bowling Green zip code,
followed by North Baltimore and Pemberville.
"All the business we get is new business, and that’s what the company’s after," he said.
"They want to grow. They have plans to open two new stores" in the next year. Leahey added,
"A lot of people have shopped Banner many, many years."
The company started in 1929 in Toledo making and selling mattresses. Leahey estimated about 40 years ago
Banner added furniture to its sales.
He has worked for Banner since 1994 and has managed its Alexis, Hill Avenue and Navarre locations. The
property is owned and managed by Chase Properties out of Cleveland, which Leahey said is looking to fill
the remaining empty storefronts at the small strip mall.
The store is open seven days a week: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays, noon to 6
p.m. The store’s number is (419) 315-1002.