Fabrics Firm Agrees to Buy Silk Shop Chain

House of Fabrics of Sherman Oaks, the nation’s largest home-sewing retailer, said Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire privately held Home Silk Shop of Los Angeles for an undisclosed amount of cash.

The two companies signed a letter of intent that calls for House of Fabrics to acquire selected assets of 23 Home Silk Shop outlets in Southern California and one store in Arizona. The acquisition does not include Home Silk Shop’s warehouse and headquarters, according to Murray Pepper, president of the company founded by his parents, Simon and Rose Pepper, in 1939.

House of Fabrics, which operates 760 stores in 47 states, also said it completed the purchase of Yardage Fair Inc. of San Pablo, Calif., which operates 12 retail fabric stores in the San Francisco Bay area, for an undisclosed amount of cash and notes.

Known as Super Stores

The Home Silk Shop outlets range from 8,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet and are known in the trade as super stores. Their acquisition gives House of Fabrics a strong base of super stores in Southern California. House of Fabrics now operates 61 stores in the area.

Until two years ago, House of Fabrics concentrated on developing fabric shops within malls or shopping centers. But with the slowdown in mall development, the company began looking to other opportunities, according to Barney Sofro, president.

Sofro said the home-sewing industry is estimated to have an annual retail volume of $3 billion, 85% of which is accounted for by outlets outside malls and shopping centers.

House of Fabrics opened its first free-standing super store, which offers fabrics, notions and craft items, in Tempe, Ariz., in October, 1983. It opened 17 others by the end of 1984 and 17 since the beginning of this year.

“We said to ourselves, ‘Why not look at other chains running successful super stores and see if anyone is interested in selling?’ ” Sofro said.

Both the Home Silk Shop and Yardage Fair stores will retain their names and personnel, he said.

Pepper, who often appears with his mother, Rose, in advertisements for Home Silk Shop, said the deal with House of Fabrics provides greater buying power.