Posted on 06/09/2005 11:17:22 AM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Furniture Brands International Inc. is giving further details of its planned closing of its Thomasville Furniture Industries' plants in Davidson County and sister plants in western North Carolina, resulting in the elimination of more than 1,200 jobs in the state this year.
The Thomasville Furniture layoffs will now exceed 600 workers, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday.
As part of those layoffs, the company is shutting down its 373,000-square-foot Plant A in downtown Thomasville. The company will also close its wood preparation centers in rural Davidson County, which collectively have another 436,600 square feet of industrial space.
The Thomasville Furniture closings and layoffs will take place by late November.
St. Louis-based Furniture Brands announced its decision to close most of the Thomasville operations on Tuesday and shift that furniture-making work to China and other Asian countries.
Furniture Brands is also shutting down many of its operations in Lenoir that are part of its Broyhill Furniture division, where 484 people will lose their jobs.
The Broyhill closings will involve the company vacating a 419,000-square-foot plant along with a 390,000-square-foot plant.
The Broyhill division will also convert its Rutherfordton plant from an upholstery factory to an import warehouse. That will eliminate another 160 jobs.
The Broyhill job cuts will come by late September.
> Furniture business falls victim to 'China price'
Could also be sloppy marketing decisions.
Isn't this the house that is hawking brands named
after dead celebrities whose names don't conjure
up visions of a particular design style?
That Hemingway stuff is particularly silly. The
ads neglect even to mention that the guy, umm,
wrote some books.
If they are gonna name random stick designs after
shotgun-swallowing writers, perhaps they need to
add a Hunter S. Thompson line.
I wonder when they'll be introducing the Chairman Mao line.
all to china. and these workers will be lucky to find jobs for half the wage they are earning now, unless they land government jobs.
My daughter works for a Thomasville retail store and sales are up. Hmmm...
How much are they earning now?
"My daughter works for a Thomasville retail store and sales are up."
Sooner or later, all those new houses had to be furnished. Can't make it on lawn chairs, sheets for curtains and an air mattress forever, LOL.
"How much are they earning now?"
Depends on skill level, etcetera, but I'd say between $15.00 and $22.00 per hour.
I don't care what anyone says, I do not believe it costs $1500 to make a couch.
Not to mention $5000 for a casket.
Time for Walmart to expand.
I don't know for sure, $15-$20 an hour? $18 an hour is $35K per year, I have to imagine that service jobs in that locale won't pay that. here in the northeast, a tradesman (electrician, plumber) working at a Lowes or Home Depot can make almost $20 an hour, my friends son works at one.
Have you ever tried? Think again. Making things costs a lot of money, something free traitor's know nothing about! No, I didn't spell traitor wrong.
We live in a suburb that is growing quickly and where people have money. Yes, people are willing to spend to furnish those houes. My husband and I, OTOH, look around there and decide that we can't afford the furniture, even with her discount.
The only really poor business decision was to keep workers instead of completely automating the process. Not sure that can be done and still make quality furniture.
These business journals always come up with the same line of gar-bhage: it was the lack of foresight by the company/industry/whatever that caused this.
While certain decisions might be, there is simply no competing with a labor rate that is just above servitude.
As it is, the companies themselves are just going to use Chinese or Asian labor to make their product: little or no benefits to be paid, few or no OSHA regs to deal with, little or no pollution guidelines to handle...the company wins and the poor workers lose to shove chicken in a box.
Its the same thing that happened to textiles. Those plants scrambled to automate their businesses, laying off thousands as the machines became more and more autmated to where a plant that once used 2000 workers now employed a skeleton staff just to feed the yarn.
But they are gone, too, even with a virtually automated system.
"But they are gone, too, even with a virtually automated system."
Better not tell than to Alamance County, NC. They just approved $300,000.00 in expansion incentives for Kayser-Roth Corporation, a textile manufacturer.
You can use the express check-out lane there also.
Right, keep buying that cheap Chinese furniture at Walmart and Target. Pretty soon we are going to lose the entire U.S. furniture industry, just like we have lost our shoe and textile industries. And nobody will know what high-quality, solid wood and well-upholstered furniture looks like.
No, it's the Chinese slave labor pay.
My son in law was looking at a china cabinet last year and it was a N.C. "brand"... but said "made in Croatia".
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