Bush combining N. American furniture units
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, April 13, 2003
Jamestown, N.Y. — Seeking to strengthen its home furnishings business, ready-to-assemble furniture major Bush Inds. will combine its two North American furniture divisions, Bush Furniture and Bush Business Furniture, into Bush Furniture North America.
David White, formerly president of Bush Business Furniture, has been named president of the new division.
Greg Bush, son of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul Bush and president of Bush Furniture, has resigned, although he will continue as a director and assist in the transition.
Bush Furniture North America will market furniture under four brand names: Bush Furniture, Eric Morgan, Bush Business Furniture and Rohr Furniture.
The Bush Furniture Europe and Bush Technologies divisions remain intact.
With soft demand contributing to sales declines over the past three years, Bush Inds. last month said it would close its St. Paul, Va., furniture plant.
Bush also said it would cut management staff throughout the company and phase out unprofitable lines in the Bush Technologies and Bush Furniture Europe divisions.
The company has eliminated 310 positions, 137 from the closing of the St. Paul factory, resulting in annual savings estimated to be in the range of $8 million.
Bush is converting its 1.15 million-square-foot Erie, Pa., factory to produce the Eric Morgan line of assembled case goods. The Jamestown plant will continue to produce RTA furniture.
In an interview at the High Point market, Paul Bush reaffirmed the company's commitment to the small office/home office category.
He also said the company would pursue aggressively any growth opportunities among home furnishings retailers with the Eric Morgan line.
Bush is revamping its merchandising and sales teams to focus on the specific needs of each channel it serves, he said.
"We're in a transition from being so dependent on very large accounts," Bush said. "We're taking our lumps now as we go through this transition, but we're very excited about what's happening."
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