When markets and trends change, Joe Pedrojetti likes to be on the cusp — even if it means revamping a furniture showroom or tossing aside brands.

Sometimes, it means going back to an old favorite at Joseph Winans Furniture.

The downtown Medford retailer's latest move is to take advantage of North Carolina manufacturer Thomasville's Internet marketing and global approach, which includes shared freight costs and a West Coast warehouse.

Pedrojetti's wife, Frances, and her decorating crew have recast the former Pelle Fina location at 115 W. Main St. into an 8,000-square-foot Thomasville gallery with 10 major collections, from bedroom and dining room to home office and entertainment. Although Thomasville furniture is available in the state, this is now the only Thomasville store in Oregon.

Winans has carried Thomasville products for two decades and dedicated much of the same location to Thomasville in the early 1990s. But two incarnations later, Thomasville has supplanted Italian leather as a standalone store with Pelle Fina Natuzzi Gallery shifting to the other side of the street.

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"Leather is still strong and Natuzzi is still strong," Pedrojetti said. "They're doing some new things, too, including a new line named after their founder, Pasquali Natuzzi."

The Thomasville brand has gained steam and its Internet traffic has surpassed Ethan Allen and La-Z-Boy. It also has an attractive national advertising campaign. Its furnishings cost 25 percent less today than two years ago, Pedrojetti says, because many of them are now produced in China or other offshore locations.

"We've been carrying 20 or more brands and would like to narrow that down to 10," Pedrojetti says. "You're more meaningful to the manufacturer and can have a bigger impact that way. It's also simpler for sales people when they can get real good at what they're working with rather than 20 or 30 products."

Pedrojetti is a former football coach who doesn't mind punting on fourth-and-long or gambling on fourth-and-short.

"We didn't study business principles when we went into business," Pedrojetti says. "We took the principles that made us successful at coaching and applied them to business. The things that make you successful coaching will make you successful in business, so we're pretty aggressive. Sometimes when people say pass, I'll run."

It's paid off. Between the two Medford locations and Grants Pass, Winans Furniture will produce sales of between $7 million and $8 million.

A growing population has contributed, but that's also brought more competition to town.

"It's a good move and I'm excited," Pedrojetti says. "This is our best year ever volume-wise, yet there's so much more we can do. I guess it's my competitive nature. We could be in the $10 million range and that's what we should be shooting for. Obviously, some of the people who aren't adjusting are going to have a hard time. At Joseph Winans we don't do the same thing over and over and hope the economy gets better or population gets bigger. If the economy is slow I can't do anything about it, but I can make changes."

Next year the business, which employs about 50 people, plans to open a Stickley store on Fir Street in a location now occupied by Bella Bambino, adjacent to the Thomasville store.

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.