About Us
Our Story
In 1981, Charles and Alyse Sprintz had $1,000 in cash, a family, and a vision for the future. They set up shop in a former grocery store that was slated for demolition, the low cost of rent allowing them to offer quality furniture at great prices.
At the time, Charles had spent 20 years of his career managing a furniture store in Nashville and Alyse had a background in design. So their most valuable business tool was knowledge. They used their knowledge and effervescent personalities to forge relationships with potential furniture sources and quickly convinced five furniture manufacturers to give them a credit line of $1,500 each.
The original store of 10,000 sq. ft. displayed mainly upholstery, but Charles promised customers that he could get anything at the best prices. Charles and Alyse overcame many obstacles to double their sales twice in two years.
The business grew so quickly, in fact, that it could support a new 25,000-square-foot store, the first section of the current 110,000-square-foot store on White Bridge Road. That was in 1982 with the first Sprintz Gallery being Pennsylvania House.
With the beginning location in Belle Meade Shopping Center, the store began attracting affluent consumers and the Sprintz family wanted to provide the appropriate merchandise. Alyse pushed for a vast selection of fabrics for custom orders with over 50,000 fabrics and a design-oriented staff. “Too many people were walking out without making a purchase because they didn’t see a fabric they wanted,” she said. At the same time, Charles used his considerable power of persuasion to gain even more support from the furniture manufacturers such as Thomasville, Lexington, Drexel Heritage, Lane, Sealy, and Stearns & Foster.
Charles realized that, to become known as a design store, they had to land Henredon, a high-end manufacturer. After several years and many meetings, Sprintz picked up the Henredon name in 1988. This set the stage for more growth and higher quality furniture to go along with other popular brands like Thomasville, Lexington, and Pennsylvania House.
The success of the plan was apparent, the store added 35,000-square-feet in 1985 and 25,000 more in 1995. Then, in 1999, Sprintz added the world-class Baker and Century lines. This completed Sprintz' collection of all the very top quality furniture lines.
In 1986 Bruce Sprintz, their son, brought his unique form of optimism to the company, along with an incredibly effective combination of Charles’ intuitive entrepreneurship and Alyse’s consumer insight. No wonder he assumed the role of President in 1996, helping to expand the flagship store to 110,000 sq. ft. and adding another location of 50,000 sq. ft. in Cool Springs. All backed up by a Sprintz Distribution Center of 70,000 sq. ft.
Now Sprintz features the largest choice of quality furniture in five states at discounts of 40-60%, allowing customers who are busy with work and family to find just about anything they need for their home in one store. All that built on the strong foundation of two people who believed in their vision. And in themselves.
In the growth of their business, Sprintz became known for quality furniture at low prices. So well known, in fact, that they now ship furniture all over the country. Yes, people come from far and wide to shop their store for the fine quality, value, and services they offer.
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