Alan Cole promoted to president at Hooker Furniture

Mike Delgatti to lead Hooker Upholstery division

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, August 23, 2011

Allen Cole

Mike Delgatti

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Case goods and upholstery resource Hooker Furniture promoted Alan Cole to president of the company and Mike Delgatti to president of Hooker Upholstery.

Cole joined the company in 2007 as executive vice president of upholstery, heading up both the Bradington-Young and Sam Moore divisions. A year later, he became president of Hooker Upholstery.

Delgatti joined the company in early 2009 as executive vice president of Hooker Upholstery.

In his new role, Delgatti reports to Cole. Cole reports to Paul B. Toms, Jr., who has held the role of president, chairman and CEO for the past five years and who remains chairman and CEO.

Toms told Furniture/Today that the change will help the company better manage its three divisions.

"I just think we need to do a better job coordinating between Sam Moore, Bradington-Young and Hooker Furniture on all aspects of marketing, product development, sales management and communications to the retailer and communications to the consumer," he said. "Having someone of Alan's caliber focused solely on that will make us a much stronger company."

"Alan has done a fantastic job of repositioning and strengthening our upholstery division while navigating through a severe economic downturn," Toms added in a statement. "At this point, we believe the best way to fully utilize his talents and leadership ability is through an expanded role of leadership for the entire company, focusing on the sales and marketing area."

Toms said that Delgatti's role will expand from sales, merchandising and marketing to now include operations of Hooker Upholstery.

"We've made tremendous strides under Mike's leadership in our product, presentation and overall position in the marketplace during the last two years at Bradington-Young and Sam Moore," Cole said in a statement. "Mike is highly experienced in what it takes to run a successful upholstery operation, and we are excited and confident that he will bring fresh strategic thinking to every aspect of our upholstery operations."

Before joining Hooker, Cole was president and CEO of Schnadig and before that was president of Berkline and Lifestyle Furnishings International, the former furniture division of Masco. Delgatti was president of Clayton Marcus and executive vice president of merchandising for occasional and upholstery at Broyhill. He also was vice president of sales and marketing at Southern Furniture.

Toms said that the changes will allow him to focus on strategy, shareholder relations and making sure "we have the right team in place." He said he will also continue to help oversee areas such as finance, human resources and the operations aspect of the company's import business.