Evan Cole is an American retail entrepreneur and chief executive who co-founded ABC Carpet & Home in New York and founded H.D. Buttercup in Los Angeles. His career has centered on eclectic home furnishings, direct-to-consumer retail, and the integration of furniture, design, accessories, hospitality, and real-estate ventures.
Background
Cole was born and raised in Queens, New York. He entered Boston University at the age of 16, studying there from 1977 to 1980 before beginning a varied entrepreneurial career in retail and consumer services.
His early ventures included licenses to sell IBM personal computers, a One Hour Photos franchise, and a seasonal holiday business called the Holiday Spirit. These activities preceded his move into home furnishings, where he developed a career combining retail operations, merchandising, and business expansion.
Education
Cole attended Boston University from 1977 to 1980, beginning university study at age 16. Boston University, founded in the nineteenth century and located in Boston, is a major private research university whose broad academic environment has supported professional and commercial careers as well as scholarship.
His education was followed by practical experience in retail entrepreneurship rather than a documented specialized degree program. His subsequent work connected business management with the changing American market for furniture, interiors, and lifestyle goods.
Cole began his entrepreneurial career by obtaining licenses to sell IBM personal computers and by operating a One Hour Photos franchise. He also ran the seasonal Holiday Spirit store. These early ventures placed him in the expanding American retail environment surrounding personal computing, franchising, and specialty consumer businesses.
In 1982, Cole joined the ABC Carpet Store on 19th Street and Broadway in New York. ABC Carpet was a long-established New York floor-covering retailer; during Cole's period there, the business broadened its merchandise beyond carpets and rugs to include antiques, furniture, lighting, linens, accessories, and other home products. He and Paulette Cole co-founded ABC Home in 1985, developing the store into an eclectic home-furnishings destination and introducing the home-as-fashion concept. The company later added a restaurant, and its annual revenue grew from about $3 million in 1982 to approximately $170 million by 2004, when Cole left the business.
In 2005, Cole founded H.D. Buttercup in the historic Helms Bakery complex in Los Angeles. The approximately 100,000-square-foot store was organized around a direct-to-consumer model that allowed manufacturers to present and sell their products in a shared retail setting, a concept Cole called “manutailing.” The building's Art Deco history and industrial features supported a marketplace combining furniture, rugs, antiques, lighting, accessories, gifts, design services, and hospitality.
H.D. Buttercup expanded to San Francisco in 2010, to the SOCO design center in Costa Mesa in 2014, and to Santa Monica and the Los Angeles Arts District in 2015. In 2017, the company opened a flagship showroom in Hong Kong, extending its California-based furnishings concept internationally. Cole has also been active in real-estate investment, including the purchase and later marketing of an apartment at 15 Central Park West in New York.
Achievements
Cole co-founded ABC Home and helped transform ABC Carpet & Home from a carpet retailer into a nationally recognized home-furnishings destination offering rugs, antiques, furniture, lighting, linens, and accessories.
He developed H.D. Buttercup's “manutailing” model, bringing manufacturers and consumers together in a large shared retail environment and extending the concept from Los Angeles to other American cities and Hong Kong.
Cole oversaw substantial growth at ABC Carpet & Home, where annual revenue rose from approximately $3 million in 1982 to about $170 million by 2004.
Views
Cole's documented retail philosophy emphasizes direct access between manufacturers and consumers, broad merchandise selection, and the combination of different decorating styles. His “manutailing” concept sought to reduce the traditional separation between producer, showroom, and retailer while presenting home furnishings as an integrated lifestyle experience.
Personality
Cole has described himself publicly as highly energetic and quick to change direction. In interviews, he presented his retail ventures through vivid, entrepreneurial language and emphasized experimentation in merchandising, store formats, and urban locations.
Quotes from others about the person
Retail and design commentators described ABC Carpet & Home as a destination for eclectic furnishings and characterized Cole as an important business and merchandising force in the store's expansion. His H.D. Buttercup concept was likewise described as a bridge between manufacturers and consumers.
Interests
Cole has shown a documented interest in architecture, interior design, urban retail districts, and real-estate investment.
Connections
Cole was married to Paulette Cole, the daughter of ABC Carpet founder Jerry Weinrib. Together they helped develop ABC Carpet & Home before separating and later divorcing. They have a daughter, Lena Cole.
Wife:
Paulette Cole
She was Cole's business partner in the development of ABC Home and later became ABC Home's chief executive and creative director.
Daughter:
Lena Cole
References
Make way for the 'manutailer'
The Los Angeles Times profiled Cole's departure from ABC Carpet & Home and the opening of H.D. Buttercup in the historic Helms Bakery complex, explaining the direct-to-consumer “manutailer” concept.
2005
How I Did It: Paulette Cole, CEO, ABC Home
Inc. described the business partnership between Cole and Paulette Cole, their work at ABC Home, their separation, and Cole's move to Los Angeles to establish H.D. Buttercup.
2005
H.D. Buttercup opens in S.F.
The San Francisco Chronicle documented H.D. Buttercup's expansion to San Francisco and identified Cole as the retailer's owner and chief executive.
2010
ABC's Coles discussing buyout of other's interest
Furniture Today reported on Cole and Paulette Cole as principal owners and business leaders of ABC Carpet & Home during negotiations over ownership and management.
