Durham sets new plant for making dining room
By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, March 31, 2003
Durham, Ontario — Durham Furniture will break ground in May on a new factory to make dining room furniture, a category the solid wood case goods specialist is entering at the April market.
John Scarsella, president and chief executive officer, said the C$35 million, 223,000-square-foot factory in nearby Chesley, Ontario, is part of the solid-wood case goods specialist's drive to double its sales over the next five years.
He said the facility will be "a state-of-the-art plant" with eight dry kilns and two finishing lines. Once complete, it will give Durham just over 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
Durham acquired 25 acres of land for the plant in an industrial park owned by the Town of Chesley. The plant, scheduled to be operational in spring 2004, will be next door to the 117,000-square-foot Chesley furniture plant Durham acquired about two years ago.
While it will produce some bedroom, the new facility will be primarily focused on dining room, a category Durham previewed during the March premarket in High Point.
Durham plans to add solid wood dining room to its existing Saville Row, English Harbour and Mission Revival collections. The offerings will include two tables for each collection with armchairs, side chairs, sideboards, buffets and china cabinets.
In Mission Revival, the suggested retail for a table, two armchairs, four side chairs and a china cabinet will be US$5,900. The offerings in Saville Row and English Harbour will carry a slightly higher price point, as they are made of maple while Mission Revival is ash.
While the designs are debuting now and will be tested at some stores this year, Scarsella doesn't anticipate shipping to Durham's North American retail network until next spring, shortly after the new factory is operational.
At the October market, Durham will add dining room to its Louis Philippe and Manhattan collections and also will introduce two bedroom suites.
Scarsella admitted Durham is swimming against the tide by investing in a domestic plant at a time when most manufacturers are shifting production offshore.
"We're not afraid to compete with imports. We compete with China every day and we do it with our technology and our people," he said, adding that over the past couple of years Durham has invested over C$10 million in new technology.
Durham will manufacture all its dining room pieces except chairs, the raw components of which will be imported from Italy and assembled and finished at the new plant in Chesley.
The Chesley building also will house a Durham showroom and education center. Last year, Durham brought 225 retail salespeople to its plant for product knowledge and sales training, a program Scarsella wants to expand.
"We believe that the more education we provide retail salespeople, the more we create opportunity for Durham to sell its product to the consumer," he said. Durham also trains dealer warehouse and delivery personnel to do touch-ups and minor repairs on its product.
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