Keller seeking to sell assets, exit furniture manufacturing
By Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, January 9, 2005
Louisville, Ky. — Keller Mfg. plans to sell its furniture assets and the Keller Furniture name and move into a new line of work.
David Richardson, chief operating officer, said the company is selling its customer list, 10 product groups, marketing materials, product inventory, Web site and High Point showroom. The company closed the last of its U.S. factories last year, selling a plant in New Salisbury, Ind., to Child Craft Inds.
The corporation plans to acquire a new business using its remaining cash and other assets, Richardson said.
"We are generally targeting service industries, light manufacturing and distribution companies," said CEO and President Keith Williams. "We are not targeting businesses in the furniture industry."
While it looks for a buyer, Keller will continue to take and fill orders for its furniture.
"We have established relationships with dealers and will continue to serve those dealers to the best of our abilities during this transition, and we will work with any buyer to make the transition as smooth as possible," Richardson said.
Keller, a longtime case goods and casual dining manufacturer, has gone through changes in the past 18 months after losing much of its sales base to imports.
After sales fell from $60.1 million in 1998 to $35.9 million in 2002, the company hired Williams and Ken Fonville in August 2003 to turn things around. Fonville was named president of a newly created product development arm, Keller Design Center, while Williams worked to move the domestic company toward a more blended strategy.
Keller had been a publicly traded company and went private in May 2004. It eventually closed all three of its U.S. plants in Indiana and Virginia, effectively ending its domestic production. It moved light assembly and finishing to a 100,000-square-foot facility here, which also serves as the new headquarters.
Keller's last quarterly statement before going private was for the period ending Sept. 30, 2003. It reported $17.7 million in sales for the first three quarters of that year and a net loss of $8.1 million.
At the time, Keller had cash reserves of $1 million and total assets of $21.4 million. Over the next year, operating losses ate into those assets, according to Richardson, who said assets as of this past Sept. 30 amounted to $4.8 million.
Williams said Fonville has resigned his post and his seat on Keller's board to pursue new opportunities. Williams will step down as CEO and president on Feb. 15 but will remain on the board, focusing on "identifying an attractive operating business to acquire." Richardson will become CEO and president.
Richardson said he would like to finalize the sale of assets this year and expects the sale and any new acquisition will both take several months.
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