Furniture plant closings hit Virginia region hard
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, May 24, 2010
STANLEYTOWN, Va. —
Stanley Furniture's plans to cease production of its adult case goods line here is the latest blow to a region that has been hard hit by global competition and the recession.
Stanley said it will maintain a corporate headquarters and distribution center here, employing about 140 people. It also will have an assembly and custom finishing operation in nearby Martinsville, Va., that employs about 90.
Still, the plant closing will eliminate some 530 production jobs in the last quarter of this year. Stanley will source its adult line from plants in Southeast Asia, company officials said.
Another furniture manufacturer, American of Martinsville, also closed its Martinsville factory April 16, eliminating 224 jobs. That plant made Barcalounger products.
These figures add to a string of job losses in the furniture industry in Virginia over the past 10 years. According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, 41 furniture plants have closed in Virginia since 2000, eliminating 7,237 jobs.
In Henry County, which is an hour north of High Point, six big plants have closed since 2000, costing 1,230 jobs. Among the companies that have closed plants are Bassett, Hooker, Pulaski, Ridgeway and Vaughan.
“What has taken place this week (with the Stanley announcement) is a continuation of what is going on with changes in the industry over the last several years,” said Mark Heath, president and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. “It hits an area like ours particularly hard because furniture has been so important to us.”
Furniture is not the only industry here that has faded away. Textile makers and other manufacturers also have shed jobs.
Heath said that in 1998, manufacturing represented 65% of the job base in his area. Today it is about 30%.
As of March, the Martinsville area had a 16.9% unemployment rate, by far the highest in the state. By comparison, Virginia had a 7.6% unemployment rate in March, and the U.S. had a rate of 10.2%.
Despite these grim numbers, officials say there are bright spots on the horizon.
Brent Sheffler, head of Advanced Manufacturing for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, said more companies are using modern manufacturing techniques in the region. He cited Swedwood, which produces furniture for Ikea in neighboring Pittsylvania County using new engineering techniques and automation in its lean manufacturing process.
Sheffler said the area has a valuable human asset in its “fourth-generation furniture workers in the area who have unique skill sets and a strong work ethic that are attractive to manufacturers.”
Furniture remains an important part of the local economy. Stanley still has its headquarters here as do Bassett and Hooker Furniture. While these companies also have shuttered plants in recent years, they still employ management and administrative support personnel in the area.
Still, a move is afoot to diversify the area's economy. Officials note that food processing, aerospace engineering, plastics and logistics are among a variety of industries that collectively employ hundreds of workers in the county.
Benny Summerlin, administrator for Henry County, said the area continues to have a high concentration of manufacturing, some of which is still subject to global competition. For that reason, he believes the area must be prepared for new economic opportunities.
“There are future opportunities there, but to really deal with this unemployment rate will take some time,” he said. “We have to position ourselves with our education system so that when there are new investments and new projects, we can compete with those projects. It is not going to be a quick turnaround, but we will try to win our share of projects.”
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