Wanek, Buffett sustain Forbes 400 losses
The long-running furniture industry slump has claimed another victim: Ron Wanek.
The chairman of Ashley Furniture has dropped off the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Forbes 400 list.
Wanek was No. 321 on the 2008 list with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, but his name appears only in a list headlined “Dropouts” in the magazine’s Oct. 19 issue.
No estimate of his net worth was given, but the magazine obviously believes it has fallen below $950 million, since that’s the entry point on this year’s list.
The decline in Wanek’s net worth, however, was pocket change compared to the damage done to Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway holdings include retail powerhouses Nebraska Furniture Mart, Star Furniture, R.C. Willey and Jordan’s.
Buffett’s net worth tumbled by $10 billion — that’s billion — since the last list was published, but he still made No. 2 on the new list with an estimated net worth of $40 billion.
But Buffett can’t blame his decline entirely on the furniture industry. His company’s holdings also include homebuilder Clayton Homes. And we all know the furniture business went into a tailspin right after the housing market tanked.
The only other person on the Forbes list with a furniture industry connection was designer Ralph Lauren, who as No. 61 with an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion.
Pumpido commented:
Give some credit to the guy. He managed to grow company to current state. You are in business and if you dont change you out
Ed commented:
I totality agree with the cheap route importing it. As far as mattresses though, milliondollarmattress.com does quality and nothing else. Wish they made furniture. All and all Mr. Buffet will do just fine. He's the man.
Big M commented:
I feel bad for Wanek, the guy who has destroyed the Furniture retail business selling trash (Trashley) that he calls furniture. Deflation was bound to happen with imports but this guy went to far the wrong way and sold everyone else out. What goes around comes around.
Rocco commented:
Perhaps we should hold a fundraiser to help these guys out. We could call it "FurnAid" I bet Willie Nelson would volunteer to perform.
John Q commented:
Just what we need, even more distribution of crappy imported furniture. Is this a snide comment or just the truth?
cutawad commented:
Snide comment by rep who should be out selling on the road.
Midwest Rep commented:
He'll surely recover, now that his products have hit the grocerie store isles, whats next, I heard the Shell station has an open bay!
