St. Louis, MO-based Furniture Brands International, furniture manufacturer of brands Broyhill, Lane, Thomasville, Henredon, Drexel Heritage and Maitland-Smith, announced the closing of three North Carolina manufacturing facilities. The closures will result in the loss of 250 jobs and in addition, 80 executive and administrative positions across the company; which is expected to generate an annualized savings of $13 million.

The 325,000-square-foot Thomasville Furniture Plant C in Lenoir will close in July and result in 100 lost jobs. In Troutman, the 160,000-square-foot Thomasville Plant 3 and 79,000-square-foot Thomasville Plant 4 are being closed in August and will result in 200 lost jobs. Read more »

Furniture Brands International, Inc. announced the elimination of approximately 80 executive and administrative employees across the entire company; the closure of 3 manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, resulting in the elimination of approximately 150 employees; and the elimination of approximately 100 employees related to ongoing manufacturing operations across the company.

The company estimates this move will generate annualized savings of approximately $13 million.

Workforce Reduction
The eliminated executive and administrative positions represent approximately 5 percent of the company’s non-manufacturing workforce. Read more »

Furniture Brands International Inc. said today it will close three manufacturing plants in North Carolina, including one in Thomasville.

Thomasville Furniture will consolidate its Plant C case goods operation, located in Thomasville, into its Lenoir case goods plant. Plant C is a 325,000-square-foot facility and employs about 100 people. The plant will cease manufacturing in July.

Thomasville Furniture will also consolidate its Plant 3 and Plant 4 upholstery operations, both located in Troutman, into its Plant 9 upholstery operation in Hickory. Upholstery Plant 3 employs about 165 people; Plant 4 about 35 people. Plant 3 will cease manufacturing in July; Plant 4 in August. Read more »

Furniture Brands International, Inc. announced the elimination of approximately 80 executive and administrative employees across the entire company; the closure of 3 manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, resulting in the elimination of approximately 150 employees; and the elimination of approximately 100 employees related to ongoing manufacturing operations across the company.

The company estimates this move will generate annualized savings of approximately $13 million.

Workforce Reduction

The eliminated executive and administrative positions represent approximately 5 percent of the company’s non-manufacturing workforce. Read more »

The Furniture Foundation announced that it has allocated $134,000 for scholarships, education and research at four colleges and universities for the 2007-2008 school year.

Recipients include Appalachian State University, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University and Lenoir-Rhyne College.

Appalachian State’s grant will provide scholarship funds to be awarded to students enrolled in the school’s Furniture Industry Studies program. The grant to Mississippi State University will support the Institute for Furniture Manufacturing and Management, while the allocation for North Carolina State University will support the Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center. Read more »

The huge irony was not lost on Kevin Sauder.

As president and chief executive of Sauder Woodworking Co., the $700 million ready-to-assemble furniture giant in Archbold, Ohio, he made tough calls in recent years to move some production to Asia to cut costs and stay competitive.

Then, last July, who should show up on his corporate doorstep but Ikea officials, who had a similar problem. The Swedish retail giant had to cut costs – and planned to do so by moving cabinet frame and shelf production from Europe to America.

“Ikea designs in Sweden, runs the costs of shipping, resources, materials, and labor, and found that it was cheaper to make furniture in Archbold for distribution than to make it at its Poland plants and ship it to the U.S.,” Sauder said.

“We are to Ikea what China is to a lot of furniture companies.”

Global competition has been tough on many industries, but it has struck the $22 billion domestic furniture industry especially hard in the last 10 years. Read more »

Almost 40 years ago, when Irene Marsh was a young woman, she took a few months of computer science courses. But when Ms. Marsh realized that would not help her find a job in this Appalachian furniture region, she dropped out and went to work in a factory making tabletops.

Then, like thousands of other furniture makers here in the last five years, she lost her job to workers overseas, after 37 years at one company. But Ms. Marsh, who recently sat with a mouse and keyboard in a basic-skills classroom at Caldwell Community College a few miles south of here, may yet have her chance at a computer job.

Last month, the Internet search giant Google announced that it would take advantage of the area’s underused electric power grid, cheap land and robust water supply to build a “server farm” — a building full of computers that will become part of the company’s worldwide network.

Google says it hopes laid-off furniture workers, most of whom never graduated from high school, will be among the 250 employees at two facilities on the 215-acre site, much of which was once a lumberyard. Read more »

Furniture Brands International Inc. said Monday that Jeffrey Cook was named president of its Broyhill Furniture Industries Inc. subsidiary.

Cook succeeds Harvey Dondero, who resigned in June 2006. Dondero had been on the job about 14 months, taking the post in April 2005 after Dennis Burgette resigned. After Dondero’s resignation, Furniture Brands’ president and chief operating officer, Tom Foy, took over the president and CEO duties on an interim basis. Read more »

Furniture Brands International has named Jeffrey Cook as the new chief executive officer of Broyhill Furniture Industries.

Cook, who has been president and CEO of Magnussen Home Furnishings since 1998, will take over the Lenoir-based Broyhill brand following the departure last year of former CEO Harvey Dondero, who is now the chief executive of the World Market Center in Las Vegas. The company has been under interim management since. Read more »

THE HUGE irony was not lost on Kevin Sauder.

As president and chief executive of Sauder Woodworking Co., the $700 million ready-to-assemble furniture giant in Archbold, he made tough calls in recent years to move some production to Asia to cut costs and stay competitive.

Then, last July, who should show up on his corporate doorstep but Ikea officials, who had a similar problem. The Swedish retail giant had to cut costs — and planned to do so by moving cabinet frame and shelf production from Europe to America.

“Ikea designs in Sweden, runs the costs of shipping, resources, materials, and labor, and found that it was cheaper to make furniture in Archbold for distribution than to make it at its Poland plants and ship it to the U.S.,” Mr. Sauder said.

“We are to Ikea what China is to a lot of furniture companies.” Read more »