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Harden Furniture to sell most of its timberland

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, December 22, 2011

MCCONNELLSVILLE, N.Y. — Case goods manufacturer Harden Furniture is selling off most of its company-owned forest acreage, pieces of which have been in the family business for the past 100 years.

This photo, taken from the LandVest Web site, shows a section of property that is included in the 9,000-plus acres up for sale. Harden Furniture is divesting the property largely to focus on its core furniture manufacturing business.

The company is looking to sell more than 9,000 of the 10,000 acres it owns - which is within a 50-mile radius of its furniture plant and headquarters here.

The company has sold smaller parcels of timberland land over the years, but has not undertaken such a large scale sale of its timber acreage in his 30-year career, said Greg Harden, CEO.

He said the goal is to have a less complicated business model that primarily focuses on manufacturing furniture.

Over the past 10 years, the land has produced roughly 15% of the lumber the company has processed in its saw mill for furniture production, Harden said, noting that the company also has its own trucking fleet.

He said the deal is part of an effort to separate the furniture manufacturing side of the business from the timber assets.

Earlier this year, Harden Furniture took the timber assets and other miscellaneous assets, including company debt, and placed it in an entity called Oneida County Timber LLC.

Oneida County Timber consists of 13 stockholders of varying ages - from their 20s to their 80s - who along with Greg Harden made up the ownership of Harden Furniture. As part of the separation process, Harden, in turn, made a cash investment in Harden Furniture that made him the sole owner of the furniture company this past September.

"We wanted to make sure the furniture business will be adequately capitalized," Harden said. "It puts us in a better position. Our liquidity is better after the transaction than it was before."

Proceeds from the sale of the timber acreage will go to Oneida County Timber, which effectively allows the 13 stockholders to redeem their shares in the business, he explained.

The acreage is listed through LandVest Timberlands, a real estate firm that specializes in forest acreage, for about $10 million, Harden said. According to the listing, the property is divided up into 23 separate tracts ranging in size from 26 to 3,022 acres.

Bids are being accepted until Jan. 31, Harden said.

"We have not done this before, and LandVest is confident there will be a very active interest in them," Harden said of the acres up for sale. "So far we have had a lot of folks touring the properties and there seems to be a lot of interest."

While the sawmill and trucking fleet remain part of the vertically integrated company, furniture manufacturing remains at the core of the company's structure moving forward.

"We are certainly very committed to the furniture business, and I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't committed to it," Harden said of his investment in the company, which he declined to disclose.

Harden Furniture dates back to 1844 and employs 270, down from about 440 in late 2008 and a peak of more than 500, according to the Rome Sentinel.

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Harden plans to sell 9,000 acres of timberland

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