Jay McIntosh

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Where is Furniture Brands headed?

Furniture Brands International executives Ralph Scozzafava and Steve Rolls assured securities analysts in a conference call Thursday morning that the company would have positive free cash flow next year. This proved to be not very assuring at all to many investors, who sold off the stock in droves that day and sent its share price down more than 25%. Furniture Brands, the largest U.S. publicly hel... More

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On dog food and party goods

I just read about a couple of brand extensions that surprised me a little but make sense when you think about them.Biltmore, the Asheville, N.C.-based company that manages the Biltmore Estate and has licensed lines of home furnishings and other products based on the huge and lavish home, is getting into the party business with Biltmore Inspirations. As its press release says, "Biltmore Inspir... More

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China currency issue takes a back seat

It looks like those furniture importers were on to something when they said they didn’t expect anything dramatic to happen to the value of China’s currency anytime soon. This past Saturday, the U.S. government said it was delaying a report that could have spurred more debate, if not action, on the issue. People watching the situation were anxious to see if the Treasury report was going to label Ch... More

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"Furniture Wars" a good summer read

I just finished Mike Dugan’s book “Furniture Wars: How America Lost a Fifty Billion Dollar Industry” and I highly recommend it. Not to find out why Asia makes most of our wood furniture these days. That’s a two-word answer: Lower costs. No, what’s really interesting about “Furniture Wars” is its blow-by-blow account of the decades of infighting in the executive suites of many of the industry’s lar... More

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Confidence rubs off on furniture stocks

Most furniture stocks are enjoying price gains today, probably thanks to this morning’s report of higher consumer confidence. Retailers Pier 1 Imports, Cost Plus World Market and Havertys were all up more than 10% as of about 2:45 p.m. Eastern time. Manufacturer and retailer Select Comfort also was up close to 16% after a private equity fund said it would buy just over half the shares of the airbe... More