US furniture manufacturer rationalises production to cut costs
The troubled US furniture group, Furniture Brands International Inc. said last week that it was looking to slash more than 1,000 jobs, merge its two main units and shut down three facilities in order to cut costs
Senior vice president Lynn Chipperfield said the St. Louis-based company said the operations of Action Industries, an upholstered furniture manufacturer, and The Lane Co., which makes wood furniture, would be consolidated into its Lane Furniture Industries subsidiary. The Lane division's three manufacturing facilities and its headquarters in Altavista, Va., will be closed. Some administrative functions will be relocated to Tupelo, Miss.
The company, whose brands include the leather furniture brand Broyhill and Thomasville, also warned that second-quarter earnings would fall short of Wall Street estimates, with revenue down 12 to 15 percent on last year’s figures
