Klaussner Home Furnishings executives acquire company

Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, April 1, 2011

Join Ray Allegrezza as he interviews Klaussner Home Furnishings CEO Bill Wittenberg about the recent management buyout. Click on the image above to see the video.HIGH POINT — Klaussner Home Furnishings CEO Bill Wittenberg, Chief Financial Officer Dave Bryant and a team of senior managers purchased the company today in a management buyout from owner Hans J. Klaussner.

The buyout was funded by an asset-based loan from Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Speaking in Klaussner's new High Point Market showroom here, Wittenberg told Furniture/Today, "I am very excited for our associates, our retail partners and for our highly experienced Klaussner management team."

Wittenberg said that he, Bryant and the executive team were happy that the company is now owned by the same team that is successfully running it today.

"We have no offshore investors nor do we have any private equity investments from firms that have little or no understanding of the furniture business," Wittenberg said.

While unable to disclose the amount of the asset-based loan, Bryant stressed that the fact that funding was secured within 60 days of sending a letter of intent to Hans Klaussner in Germany underscored the financial strength of the company.

"Sadly, it seems like these days, the only companies that are being sold are those that are being given away," Bryant said.

Wittenberg added that the sale of the company to management was one of the things that Hans Klaussner always had planned for.

"It was Mr. Klaussner's desire to see his company owned one day by senior operating managers, and today that day arrived," Wittenberg said.

Since the founding of the U.S. company in 1963, Klaussner Home Furnishings has grown to become one of the country's largest furniture makers. Furniture/Today ranked it as the fourth largest residential furniture manufacturer for the U.S. market in 2009, with estimated sales of $500 million.

It has approximately 1,800 employees and manufacturing and warehouse facilities in North Carolina and Iowa, along with an import infrastructure in Asia.