Hickory White keeps domestic plant humming
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, December 18, 2005
Hickory, N.C. — Hickory White might not have the newest plant on the block, but the company says a highly skilled, flexible work force and a focus on traditional strengths in cabinetry and finish are helping expand business for its U.S.-made case goods.
An imported group, King's Row from 2002, remains a best seller, but Hickory White's current emphasis is on its domestic line, which has undergone a major revamping in the past four High Point markets. The company is promoting the U.S.-made collections for their custom finishes and ready availability.
Starting in April 2004, the company, a division of Sherrill Furniture, has introduced seven collections: American Home, British Club, Metropolitan Classics, European Home, English Manor, Continental Classics and Sky Loft.
While British Club and English Manor come from the same source as King's Row, the high-end Theodore Alexander plant in Vietnam, the other five are made in Hickory.
"A number of the collections had gotten fairly old," said Jim Adams, CEO of Sherrill's wood divisions. "We've taken some of the older patterns out of the line to the point where we have 10 collections, which is about what we've always had,"
Theodore Alexander's product accounts for 45% of Hickory White's sales. But a domestic strategy built around short cuttings, quick delivery and finish options — and an eye toward custom work for other manufacturers and support of sister companies' needs — is keeping the Hickory plant running near capacity.
Along with focusing on core strengths, Hickory White's ability to keep its 500,000-square-foot, 295-employee plant humming relies on its relationship with Sherrill, which acquired the case goods maker out of bankruptcy in 1997.
Hickory White achieves efficiencies through shared use of production at sister-company plants in the Sherrill organization, most notably CTH Sherrill Occasional here, as well as sourcing collections and hardware from Theodore Alexander. Sherrill is TA's exclusive North American distributor.
"We've gone the past 18 months without any significant downtime, and some parts of the plant are working overtime," Adams said.
For its part, Hickory White offers Sherrill an array of skills and equipment, most notably lathe making, turned components for other divisions, and veneer pressing, that are harder and harder to find stateside.
Since the number of domestic producers performing some of those functions has declined in the past few years, Hickory White has been doing outside contract work, creating even better plant utilization. The company has its own lumberyard, kiln driers and rough mill, and those operations also feed other Sherrill companies.
The driving force behind those synergies, says Adams, is the commitment of Buddy Sherrill, the parent company's president and owner, to keeping jobs in North Carolina.
"His goal is to keep these factories open and to keep product made in America at the forefront of the marketplace," Adams said. "He's devoted to his employees and to keeping their jobs here in North Carolina."
Quality control was another reason Hickory White started emphasizing domestic goods, limiting imports to a tried-and-true relationship with Theodore Alexander. A few years back, the company had a bad experience with Chinese sourcing.
Mike Powers, Sherrill's chief financial officer, said the import episode occurred a few years after Sherrill acquired Hickory White out of bankruptcy. At the time of purchase, the case goods company essentially had no dealer base, he said.
"We bought the company in 1997 and had it breaking even by 2000," said Powers. "We had to go in and rebuild everything."
In 2000, Hickory White experimented with Chinese imports, a move that became a disaster from a quality standpoint.
"It was very tough for us in 2001," Powers said. "Those (retail) floors bought so hard to regain, we lost again."
Hickory White's domestic moves have been well received in the marketplace, he said. Powers said Hickory White's sales will rise 23.8% in 2005, up from last year's $26 million. That's about 20% of Sherrill's overall revenue.
"The numbers don't tell the whole story," Powers added, noting that Hickory White sales have been higher in the past. "What we're proud of is the turnaround in the line and the acceptance of the product."
Along with offering an array of finishes domestically, Hickory White is concentrating on service.
"On domestic and import product, we can ship within two weeks for most orders and custom finishes within 30 days," Adams said. "Ninety percent of the product ships within a month."
There's also a strong commitment to inventory on Theodore Alexander-sourced goods for Hickory White, with seven or eight containers arriving weekly in Hickory weekly for service out of the warehouse.
"The biggest thing going for us is that when you combine our domestic options with the three imported collections, it's a different mix than what customers can typically find with one company," Adams said.
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