Vaughan Furniture looking young at 85

Plans many intros at High Point Market

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, October 16, 2008

GALAX, Va. — Case goods specialist Vaughan Furniture is celebrating its 85th year in business with a new management team, a new all-import business model, new warehouses and a new product assortment that nearly doubles its previous lineup.

This dining room is part of Vaughan Furniture’s South Hampton collection. Made with cherry veneers and hardwood solids, it has a hand-rubbed, 18-step satin cherry finish.

And at next week's High Point Market, the company will have its largest product introduction ever with nearly 500 new SKUs.

Six new collections will include bedroom, dining room, occasional and home entertainment furniture. Five others are bedroom only, and two have youth furniture.

Styles range from transitional and contemporary to traditional and are in a variety of price points. Retail prices for four-piece groups with a bed, dresser, mirror and nightstand retailing from $1,399 to $2,999.

The assortment is a dramatic leap for a company whose line was 60% domestic before it started to cease production at its last plant in Galax, Va., in late May.

Around this same time, the company announced that Bill Vaughan was relinquishing his role as CEO to Taylor C. Vaughan, who began his career with the company in 1976 and was named president last year. Bill Vaughan left active management but remains on the company's board.

This past spring, the company also hired former Huntington Furniture and Samuel Lawrence Furniture executive David Miller in the new post of senior vice president of merchandising. Other top executives include David Vaughan, senior executive vice president; Roger Porter, senior vice president of sales; and Michael Stevens, senior vice president of administration.

While the company's line was largely domestic before it closed the Galax factory, Vaughan had imported finished goods as early as 1983, starting with 18th-century style dining rooms out of Taiwan.

It later began importing from China, and continues to source from there and also from Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

This year, the challenge for management was to determine how to source an all-import line. The company is slowly phasing out of domestic goods as it sells its inventory.

The task of lining up the source factories largely fell to Michael Burcham, vice president of Asian operations, and his team of logistics and quality control experts based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where the company has had an office for about four years. Vaughan's senior management also has traveled overseas and stays in constant contact with Burcham.

"We used existing factories and suppliers from overseas and we prospected with new ones as well," said Taylor Vaughan. "It's an ongoing process. You never stop looking for new sources."

Burcham's task was to see what "factories were suitable to make the products and make the quality and types of finishes we like," Vaughan said. "Some factories don't make dining room, or the finishing lines don't have enough steps in the process."

Retailers can buy Vaughan's goods container or via warehouses in Jefferson, Wis., Garland, Texas, and the Los Angeles area. The Jefferson and Garland facilities came online this summer and the L.A. facility will have goods flowing late next month. The company also has a warehouse in Galax.

The goal of the new warehouses is largely to service smaller dealers. Goods will flow out of the facilities in seven to 10 days from the time of the order.

Vaughan does some 75% of its business east of the Mississippi, and the company believes the new warehouses will help it open more West Coast accounts.

Miller said he enjoys his new role with the company and believes the new product will continue the company's reputation for providing value.

"I see this as a new opportunity to reinvent a company," Miller said. "Vaughan, in the past, was one of the biggest powerhouses in the business. Transforming it from a domestic manufacturer to an international marketing company is a challenge and I am having fun doing it."

Taylor Vaughan admitted that closing the 250-employee B.C. Vaughan factory in Galax wasn't easy, given that many management and factory employees call Galax home. But while painful, the transition was necessary to deal with the drop-off in demand for domestic goods, he believes.

He said the company's manufacturing and design background gives it an advantage in the marketplace. The company was formed in 1923 by Taylor G. Vaughan Sr. and his brother Bunyan C. Vaughan.

"We can't lose sight of what got us here," he said. "We have 85 years of experience."

"Everything going on in the company is positive," Vaughan added. "We are proud of who we are, who we were, where we're headed and what we've done. We're looking forward to the future."

At the High Point Market, which opens Monday, the company will show this fall's lineup in a 28,000-square-foot showroom in Plaza Suites, space 210. The company had previously shown in a 17,000-square-foot space in the International Home Furnishings Center.