by Combined capabilities of both companies offer retailers a domestic manufacturing powerhouse with a strong solid wood and mixed materials story
MORGANTON, N.C. — When furniture manufacturer Charleston Forge first purchased West Virginia-based case goods manufacturer MacKenzie-Dow around September 2023, it was an opportunity to bolster its own business with a case goods line from a well-known and respected solid wood furniture producer.
It also aimed to further utilize production facilities the company acquired in 2021 that long produced dining tables for Wright Furniture and later became a wood furniture producer run by Tim Stevens. Charleston Forge originally had a 50% stake in the operation, but earlier this year acquired the remainder of the business as Stevens sought to retire, although he continues to have a small role in operations.
Blue Ridge Woodworking has about 23,000 square feet of space, including a 5,000-square-foot addition completed earlier this year and a separate finishing operation just a mile away. The plant employs just over a dozen workers.
For the past several years, Charleston Forge has used this facility to make wood tabletops for its own line of occasional tables, as well as wood tops for tables seen at Starbucks, a key hospitality client.
With the purchase of MacKenzie-Dow and its various assets including CNC machinery, the facility can produce an even more extensive line of solid wood furniture. This includes not only dining and occasional tables, but also beds and companion case pieces for the bedroom and dining room.
Charleston Forge President Dan Minor acknowledges that the first six to seven months of the transition — including moving equipment from West Virginia to North Carolina and training workers to produce new lines of furniture beyond core tabletops — was a challenge.
But the effort has been worth it as the business further utilizes the capacity of the Blue Ridge Woodworking operations about 45 minutes south of the Charleston Forge headquarters in Boone, North Carolina. In spite of the drive, the two operations work closely, with the Morganton plant producing and finishing wood pieces and components. It ships these to Boone, where they are then packaged and shipped to the customer as finished product or used as components for the Charleston Forge tables, credenzas, desks and stools, to name several core products.
Minor said the wood operations also continue to do projects on an OEM basis for other customers.
“It’s a nice business,” Minor said. “It’s not a huge business, but it’s profitable and it’s good.”
Of the merger between the two companies, he said, the unique capabilities of the two companies will complement each other, with the wood portion of the business continuing to supply Charleston Forge and Charleston Forge offering its capabilities in metal and glass for a mixed-media story at MacKenzie-Dow.
“Being able to mix all those three elements allows us to create a very unique product,” he said.
It also continues the legacy that MacKenzie-Dow has long provided in solid wood case goods, offering a product mix that will bolster the business well into the future.
“When this came along, it just made sense on so many different levels in terms of what we can offer,” Minor said. “Having a full case goods line has increased our sales and more importantly it gives us an opportunity to give our customer a custom product for their home.”
As a domestic producer that just celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, Charleston Forge also expects the enhanced domestic production to help it gain further attention in the marketplace with an essentially tariff-free made-in-the-U.S. product.
“What Charleston Forge has done for more than 40 years, now we can do with MacKenzie-Dow,” Minor added. “It is about taking the gloves off and letting us create just about anything we want to. I don’t know many people that can do that.”
Below are some additional images Home News Now captured during its plant tour.
