Antique Guild to Be Sold to A.A. Importing

The Antique Guild, a privately held, Carson-based company that pioneered the modern merchandising of antiques and antique reproductions, is being bought by A.A. Importing Co. of St. Louis, the firms said Tuesday.

A.A. Importing, the nation’s largest designer, importer and wholesaler of antique reproductions, is acquiring substantially all of the assets of the Antique Guild, which operates seven retail outlets in Southern California.

Cash Transaction

Terms of the cash transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition of Antique Guild, which had fiscal 1985 sales of $16.5 million, would more than double revenues for A.A. Importing, which had sales of $13.8 million in 1984.

The flagship Antique Guild store--90,000 square feet--is in the old Helms Bakeries building in Los Angeles and is the largest retail antique store in the world, according to Don Guild, the chain’s founder. The other stores are in Irvine, Torrance, Studio City, Cerritos, Santa Ana and Glendale.

Guild, who also owns the Guild Drug Store chain, stumbled on the idea of selling antiques in 1969, when he used a few pieces of antique furniture to help jazz up some gift and jewelry displays at his drugstores. He discovered to his surprise that shoppers were more interested in the furniture.

He first began selling antiques from a warehouse, then opened the first Antique Guild at the Helms Bakeries site. Guild used heavy advertising and other modern retailing techniques, marked departures from the traditional selling of antiques out of sedate auction rooms and musty, small shops.

Asked why he decided to sell, Guild said: “At this point, I’ve taken it as far as I can. My specialty is the antique side of the business.” But he explained that antiques are becoming more difficult to locate and that prices are continuing to rise.

As a result, he said, whereas four years ago the chain’s wares consisted almost entirely of antiques, now about half of the stock is reproductions.

“The people that we are selling to bring in huge quantities of reproductions and have done it for 30 years,” Guild explained. “It is logical that they will be able to grow the reproduction side” of the business.

Randall E. Green, chairman of A.A. Importing, said the firm has been a wholesaler of antique reproductions for 50 years. The company reproduces a broad range of antiques ranging from furniture to crystal to rugs.

“In the last three to five years, we formulated a plan to vertically integrate into the retail level,” Green said. A.A. Importing opened its first retail store, Regency Manor, in St. Louis last November.

“It turns out that Don Guild’s interest to sell the business coincided with our plans to expand more aggressively in the retail end,” Green said.

He added that A.A. Importing will retain the Antique Guild’s 160 employees and plans to expand the chain in the Los Angeles market as well as nationally.