Stanley Furniture Closing Robbinsville Plant (North Carolina)

HIGH POINT, NC - Stanley Furniture Company, Inc. today reported it will cease domestic furniture production in the factory that supports its Young America brand.

“We have a healthy Stanley business that is making money. It is supported by a wonderful heritage, strong product in the field and future pipeline, and we are looking forward to the prospects of focusing our team solely on the growth and profitability of this brand in the short-term”

“We have decided to cease manufacturing operations in Robbinsville,” said Glenn Prillaman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “After a thorough review of both our own operations and the current marketplace for nursery and youth furniture, management and the Board concluded that the Young America business could not achieve an acceptable level of revenue within an adequate time frame to assure sustainable profitability and has decided that it is time for our company to focus its efforts on our profitable and growing Stanley brand,” continued Prillaman.

The company will honor all orders for Young America products placed on our before April 28, 2014. “What is important now is that we exit our domestic operation in a way that minimizes the impact on our retail customers, and that we do all we can to help our approximately 400 associates in Robbinsville with this difficult change for them and their families. Additionally, we have retained services to assist in maximizing value from assets related to the Young America brand,” commented Prillaman.

Orders for the company’s Stanley brand were up double digits in the first quarter, even with the weather-related challenges that plagued retailers across the country. “We have a healthy Stanley business that is making money. It is supported by a wonderful heritage, strong product in the field and future pipeline, and we are looking forward to the prospects of focusing our team solely on the growth and profitability of this brand in the short-term,” concluded Prillaman.

The company ended its first quarter with approximately $16.7 million in cash and remains debt free. The results of the first quarter and impact of the restructuring will be discussed in detail on the upcoming conference call.

To allow for sufficient evaluation of restructuring charges, the company will delay its release of first quarter results until after market closes on April 30, 2014 and will hold its conference call on the following morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The Annual Shareholder’s Meeting remains scheduled for April 17, 2014.

Established in 1924, Stanley Furniture Company, Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of wood furniture targeted at the premium segment of the residential market. Its Stanley Furniture brand is supported by an overseas sourcing model and is distributed throughout the upscale market competing through superior product design, finish, styling and piece assortment. The company’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol STLY.

“We don’t want a self contained Market

We want global market to sell In to”

Until the no tariff movement of the 1990’s we had protective tariffs and were freely trading with other nations around the globe. Tariffs do not preclude selling into foreign markets.

I have yet to see any analysis that suggests there was a net economic benefit to the United States from eradicating tariffs and quotas through the WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, and the other “free trade” agreements of the last 25 years. I have observed the economic devastation, declining standards of living for the first time in our nation’s history, and the gutting of the US industrial infrastructure that has occurred since 1990. I also know our national security has been harmed by the loss of manufacturing self sufficiency.

“(Our overlords are also doing EVERYTHING they can do keep inflation at an absolute minimum,”

The purpose of the massive money printing by the Federal reserve is to stave off deflation, not prevent inflation. Expanding the money supply without a corresponding increase in productivity and economic output will ultimately result in inflation. The administration’s current push for a large hike in the minimum wage is also inflationary.

With respect to raising prices, when manufacturers moved production to Asia and realized cost decreases of 30-50%, did they reduce prices to the consumer by an equivalent amount? No, they realized higher margins and retained them as profits. Those profits were invested in building China into the industrial powerhouse it is today. The American consumer did not see the benefit of lower costs in the form of lower prices.

If the consumer did not benefit from lower prices when production moved offshore, why would consumers necessarily experience price increases if tariffs are increased back to historical (1980’s) levels? Perhaps importers and foreign factories will accept lower margins to price competitively. Perhaps newly constructed US factories with new equipment and motivated US workers will be more productive than Chinese factories. Perhaps the Chinese government will increase export subsidies to Chinese factories in order to help the factories offset the cost of the tariffs. To the degree the Chinese government must divert resources from its rapid military buildup we benefit.

Foreign factories selling into a large no tariff market accrue significant benefits particularly when the taxpayer bears the many of the infrastructure costs of imports. Harbors and ports are maintained with tax dollars, waterways are dredged with tax dollars, the Coast Guard provides protection and rescue services to ships bringing goods into our ports, the cost of customs and homeland security inspections of imports is borne by the taxpayer. The presence of the US Navy makes the major shipping lanes around the planet safe for ocean transit. US citizens and US companies pay taxes for the roads inside the US used by foreign factories to ship their goods to warehouses and retail locations inside the United States. Why should the US taxpayer and US companies bear these costs for foreign factories? Let them pay for these services, as well as access to one of the largest markets on the planet, via tariffs.

Finally, I personally would prefer to pay a couple of dollars more for a toaster or shirt if it were made in an American factory by an American worker who was enjoying a middle class lifestyle and paying taxes than to pay the same amount or more in taxes to fund welfare benefits for the unemployed, not to mention the subsidies of foreign imports paid for with tax money described above.

The true unemployment rate today in the United States is about 20% if you count all of the able bodied people of working age who the government claims have dropped out of the workplace thanks to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs and jobs in the supply chains that used to support those factories. Bring the factories back to give these people a chance at decent paying middle class jobs and you’ll see welfare rolls decline as well as government spending on social services

“The true unemployment rate today in the United States is about 20% if you count all of the able bodied people of working age who the government claims have dropped out of the workplace thanks to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs and jobs in the supply chains that used to support those factories. Bring the factories back to give these people a chance at decent paying middle class jobs and you’ll see welfare rolls decline as well as government spending on social services”

I’ve been following the out of the workforce numbers and those numbers are shocking really. 80.9 million jumped to 90 million in Obama’s first four years and now it’s up to 101 million as of March. 9 million the first four years and 11 million this last year alone. A service economy is unsustainable for our country should be pretty obvious.

profitability is unsustainable.

Please post some examples of an UNPROFITABLE manufacturing company that moved to China or elsewhere and then became profitable again. Every company I've researched was making a 5-7% margin already on manufactured goods made in the USA. The motive to offshore was for MORE profit.

FREEPERS don't listen to this snake oil salesmen, ONLY 10%(and shrinking- a good thing) OF THE USA's MANUFACTURING WORKERS ARE IN A UNION.

The goal of the gloBULList anti-American off shoring Free Traitors is to make as much money as possible creating huge unemployment and laying the seeds of socialism in the USA. As long as they get theirs before the socialism really kicks in they are good. They could care lees about the Constitution or Conservative values, they are libertarians and look at the USA as an economic zone of trade.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.