Eliot Tatelman steps away from top job at Jordan’s Furniture

His two sons, Josh and Michael, will take over, though they have no plans to appear in TV ads like their father

Eliot Tatelman stood in front of the new Christmas-themed enchanted village inside the Jordan's Furniture store in Avon in 2009.Debee Tlumacki/For the Boston Globe

It’s the end of an era for another storied Massachusetts company: Eliot Tatelman is stepping down from the top job at Jordan’s Furniture after decades of being the brand’s public face.

Eliot is handing over the keys to the furniture kingdom to his two sons, Josh and Michael. Eliot will continue to advise his sons and appear in commercials from time to time. At 79, though, it’s time for him to think about retiring. Eliot announced his decision to the Dedham-based company’s 1,200 employees on Thursday. The move takes effect immediately.

He’ll join the likes of Herb Chambers and Roger Berkowitz, whose own retail empires — Chambers’ car dealerships and Berkowitz’s seafood restaurants — became big New England brands that were intertwined with their charismatic leaders. (Chambers reached a deal to sell his dealership group later this year, while Berkowitz sold Legal Sea Foods in 2020.) In the case of Jordan’s, Eliot’s two sons represent the fourth generation of family management in the business, though there are no plans for them to appear in Jordan’s ads; their great-grandfather started it roughly a century ago in Waltham.

For many years after taking over management of the company in 1973, Eliot shared the spotlight and the reins with his brother, Barry, appearing in a seemingly endless array of offbeat TV ads promoting the chain. Then Barry and Eliot sold the company to Berkshire Hathaway in 1999; Barry left roughly seven years later to produce Broadway shows and pursue his passion for golf, leaving Eliot to carry the brand on his shoulders.

Brothers Barry and Eliot Tatelman posed together in the Avon Jordan's Furniture store on Oct. 11, 1999. JULIA MALAKIE

“He was the smart one,” Eliot joked in an interview, as he prepared to make a similar move.

It’s been a job that he has clearly relished, overseeing an eight-store empire that mixes shopping and entertainment, or what the Jordan’s crew dubs “shoppertainment”: ziplines at the New Haven store, for example, or an IMAX theater at the one in Reading. During his tenure, he famously oversaw furniture giveaway promotions tied to the Red Sox; in 2007, Tatelman gave out rebates to nearly 30,000 customers who had bought items during a springtime promotional period after the Sox won the World Series that fall.

But after Eliot’s wife died last year, he began to rethink how he wanted to spend his time. He already had a transition plan underway: His two sons have been co-chief executives since 2019 in an unusual management structure in which they reported to their father, the company president. They’ll both hold onto the co-CEO titles, but will be firmly in charge of all aspects of the business going forward.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have two great kids who have really been running the day-to-day business for a long time,” Eliot said. “[Now] I can take some of my creativity and do a little bit more for others.”

He said his focus on charitable work could include projects for the philanthropically minded company, such as a massive bike giveaway that he oversaw last year for Boston kids on behalf of Jordan’s, as well as initiatives he will pursue outside of the Jordan’s purview.

Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett has given the Tatelmans the authority to run Jordan’s autonomously — a promise that was quite appealing to them when they originally inked the deal to sell the business to Berkshire when Buffett’s holding company had been buying up furniture brands. Eliot said he called Buffett about a month ago to break the news to him and ended up having a chat with the legendary investment guru for more than an hour.

Warren Buffett and Eliot Tatelman at the official grand opening of Jordan's Furniture in New Haven, Conn. handout

Buffett also made the occasional promotional appearance, like the time in 2002 when he showed up wearing a casual short-sleeved Jordan’s shirt at the opening of a six-story theater in the Natick store.

Speaking at an event in Boston in 2019, Buffett mentioned that the most important trait he seeks in CEOs is whether they’re in love with their companies, and he mentioned Tatelman as a prime example. “Eliot gets excited when he’s opening a new store,” Buffett said at the time. “He’s not doing it because someone in headquarters told him to.”

Barry and Eliot Tatelman inside a Jordan's Furniture store in Natick, where a Mardi Gras show ran every hour in 1999.MAEDA, Wendy GLOBE STAFF

Josh, 49, and Michael, 45, literally grew up in Jordan’s Furniture, playing hide-and-seek among the beds when they were kids and joining as full-time employees more than 20 years ago. They both say they’re going to honor their father’s legacy, while also trying to take steps to modernize the business. When at the office, they dutifully refer to him as Eliot, not “Dad.”

“Companies have to continue to evolve, else they die,” Josh said. “Eliot has always pushed us to think differently, to think creatively.”

Michael noted that Eliot’s known for his fun-loving persona that comes across in the ads. There’s another side, though, that’s at least as important, if not more so: the culture that Eliot has fostered at the company while at the helm.

“He cares so much about every single employee here,” Michael said. “That is the heart of who Jordan’s is.”

The two brothers are fully aware that they will have big shoes to fill.

“Eliot has been the face of the brand for so long,” Josh said. “Imagining what the company looks like without him is really tough. [But] we feel pretty fortunate to be involved in a company that’s four generations old, over 100 years in business, still strong, and we hope we’re around for another 100 years. We have the ability to do that.”