Office furniture manufacturer HNI Corp. of Muscatine has been named one of the 50 best U.S. manufacturers by IndustryWeek magazine.

The company, whose brands include Allsteel, was top-ranked in the magazine’s furniture and fixtures category. Rankings are based on financial performance and inventory turnover.

HNI Chief Executive Stan Askren, shown in Allsteel’s No. 19 executive chair, noted that this is the fourth year in a row that the Muscatine company has made the top 50 list. Other manufacturers on the list that have Iowa operations were Procter & Gamble, which has a plant in Iowa City, and Polaris Industries, which has a plant in Spirit Lake.

Source: desmoinesregister.com

What you need — Red, white and blue pony beads and star-shaped beads, scissors, heavy beading cord and key ring

How to make — Cut three 18-inch lengths of cord and fold in half. Attach to key ring using a slip knot. Thread 18 pony beads onto each length of cording. Thread a star-shaped bead on to cording. Tie cording into a knot to secure.

For more information about this handicraft, call Peggy Smith at 316-268-6501 or e-mail her at psmith@wichitaeagle.com.

St. Andrew’s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church is holding a craft fair and flea market on Saturday, June 17 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The church is looking for people, interested in participating, to sign up to rent a 12-by-12 space to merchandise handcrafted items of all types or to sell garage sale/flea market items; the fee is $25.

St. Andrew’s takes care of publicizing the event. On the day of the fair, St. Andrew’s also has a baked goods table and plants for sale, as well as offering donuts, hamburgers, hot dogs and beverages for sale to shoppers. Read more »

The organizers of ABIMAD 2007 РBraziian Contemporary Furniture & Home D̩cor Exhibition announced that they will select furniture retailers to be granted with a free trip to Brazil during 2007 show dates (February 8-12, 2007).

ABIMAD 2007 – Brazilian Contemporary Furniture & Home Décor Exhibition will transform Sao Paulo City’s Imigrantes Exhibition Center into the global mid-to-high-end contemporary furniture community’s destination of choice.

On February 8 – 12 2007, South America’s premier event for contemporary and modern design will display the very best products and the latest trends in indoor and outdoor contemporary, modern furniture and fine decorative accessories for residential and commercial interiors that the region has to offer. Read more »

Furniture Brands International Inc. saw its shares jump in afternoon trading Thursday after a Credit Suisse analyst upgraded the stock on valuation.

The furniture maker’s shares advanced $1.22, or 5.7 percent, to $22.57 on the New York Stock Exchange, as trading volume more than doubled the stock’s daily average. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $16.07 to $25.34.

In a note to investors, Credit Suisse analyst Ivy L. Zelman noted the stock has slid 9 percent since January, dipping below its fair value of $22 per share. Zelman upgraded the stock from “Underperform” to “Neutral,” despite the stock’s 8 percent underperformance compared to the sector and sluggish industry trends. Read more »

The Stanley Furniture Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: STLY, www.stanleyfurniture.com ), has chosen the progeCAD DWG Viewer to supply AutoCAD® compatible DWG viewing and plotting to all of their facilities within the United States.

Established in 1924, Stanley Furniture Company, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of wood furniture targeted at the upper-medium price range of the residential market. Manufacturing facilities are located in Stanleytown, Va., Martinsville, Va., Robbinsville, N.C., and Lexington, N.C.

The progeCAD DWG Viewer, developed by progeSOFT s.a.s., is a high-performance review, measure, and plotting tool for digital design data. Compatible with the DWG drawing format, the progeCAD DWG Viewer reads, displays, and prints AutoCAD compatible drawing files from version 2.5 through version 2006, including DWG, DXF and DWF files. Output can be any Windows compatible printer or plotter, to Adobe PDF, or to Autodesk DWF. Output can be rendered, using the built in Rendering capability, can display and print in 2D and 3D, including ACIS solid models, and works with attached raster images. Read more »

Fire crews acted quickly to knock down a potentially large fire at a Cincinnati business on Thursday.

The fire broke out at Yesteryear’s in the 4000 block of Glenway Avenue shortly before 11 a.m. The fire started in the front of the store, and soon engulfed most of the front area.

Firefighters were able to bring it under control in a few minutes, but the store suffered heavy damage from fire and smoke. Read more »

A number of Vietnamese cultural objects, handicraft items and products representing the country’s socio-economic achievements and its international integration were displayed at the on-going international cultural festival in the central Mexican City of San Miguel.

Vietnamese Ambassador Le Van Thinh told the local press that Vietnam has worked to preserve and extend its traditional cultural treasures and wants to develop its relationship with other countries to enhance mutual understanding and contribute to building solidarity and friendship worldwide.

The festival opened on May 24 and will last through the end of this month.

Godrej and Boyce manufacturing company Ltd in association with Mahaveer group has opened an exclusive Godrej showroom in NSC Bose Road.

The new showroom would house the complete range of Godrej furniture and security equipment. The product portfolio includes open plan office systems, desking, storages, home furniture, seating solutions to modular kitchen and office interiors.

Addressing a press conference here Anil Sain Mathur, chief operating officer said, ’south holds close to 30 to 32 percent market share and has a strong base for accepta-bility towards home product market. Read more »

Claude Gable Co. Inc. said yesterday that it is ending furniture-manufacturing production in High Point after 34 years and cutting nearly 200 jobs.

It is the largest single-company layoff in High Point in three years, according to the High Point Economic Development Corp.

The company said it has begun “an orderly liquidation of its assets” because of difficulties with domestic-production costs and the impact of foreign competition. Read more »