by Company believes added personnel put company on solid footing for when demand rises once again
TOLLESON, Ariz — Case goods and mattress manufacturer Legends Furniture’s recent announcement about nine new hires may sound like bad timing to an industry that has been besieged by slowing orders and cancelations from retailers around the country.
But the company said the hires are part of a plan to remain relevant by continuing to address the needs of customers moving forward regardless of the business climate.
“We want to be ahead of the game when things turn,” said Vice President, Sales, Tim Donk. “It could be six months or more, but it is going to turn. We have all been around long enough to know it will come back.”
Late last week the company announced nine new hires for its team, three of which are replacing retiring team members. The others are brand new positions.
The company’s finance department named Gail Stelling as director of finance. Reporting to Chief Operating Officer Shankar Rathnam, she comes to Legends from the Arizona Commerce Authority. The company also has named Tanya Pacheco and Desiree Gomes as AR and AP specialists. Both report to Stelling.
In addition, the operations department added Chim Nga as operations specialist and Tina Heying as logistics manager as well as Melissa Rodriquez and Cynthia Beaty in customers service and Linda Daniels as operations assistant.
The company’s human resources department also added Emily Servin as a human resources associate.
“We’re very excited about all of our new hires” Rathnam said as part of the announcement. “We were lucky to have found such a talented group of people. We are now well positioned for post-pandemic growth.”
The company also benefits from having a mix of imported and domestic product, allowing it to offer customers multiple options based on their needs. Having more personnel, thus complements this type of flexibility by having people in place to fulfill key tasks.
Donk acknowledged that while the company’s business remains solid, it has been flat compared to the prior breakneck growth the industry saw during the pandemic. However, he said the hires are part of a plan that the company has had in place for some time to keep certain new and existing positions filled.
“In the summer, when things are flat, we like to put things in place,” he said. “It gives you the ability to make strategic moves. We are doing this now because this is a good time — when things do start to turn, we are not going to have this lag.”
“We don’t see the same catastrophic future a lot of companies are looking at right now,” he added.
