by Company officials detail plans moving forward for former Klaussner upholstery manufacturing operation in Candor, North Carolina
CANDOR, N.C. — With its purchase of some 400,000 square feet of production space in a former Klaussner plant here, furniture importer Classic Home is adding a U.S. manufacturing component to its business, while also expanding the domestic capabilities of its Braxton Culler division.
The newly formed Peachtree Works, named for the community here known as the peach capital of North Carolina, began operations in early November in one of three facilities on the 70-acre campus.
The first phase of the project in early November started out building frames for Braxton Culler using parts from other producers. This month the facility was expected to start building those components in-house.
“The initial goal was to help Braxton Culler become more vertical,” Donnie Lesley, senior vice president operations of Braxton Culler told Home News Now. “We depend on a lot of suppliers for our product, and with this the opportunity came about to make our own frames. That is what got this whole thing started. We closed on the property at the end of July and since then we started talking about making components and frames and things like that. And now there is a lot of discussion about producing finished goods here as well.”
By making its frames in-house, the company ultimately will be able to control costs and turnaround times for a key component used in its upholstery line.
In addition to the real estate in Candor — roughly a 35-minute drive south of Braxton Culler’s plant in Sophia — the company acquired equipment in the facilities including more than 15 CNC routers for wood component production.
“The thought process was that this is a great property with its three separate manufacturing facilities,” Lesley said during a recent call from the campus. “The one that piqued our interest is the one that I am in right now that they call the frame shop. It houses the 17 large-scale routers for wood cutting. The production capacity here is unbelievable in terms of the number of frames we could manufacture over the course of a year.”
The facility would initially employ anywhere from 25 to 50 workers, Lesley noted, including many with prior experience at Klaussner who have voiced interest in coming back to work in the facility.
In addition to producing frames for Braxton Culler, the facility could produce frames for other upholstery manufacturers, while also making wood components for other industries, Lesley said, noting this would “give us a little bit of diversity instead of being completely tethered to the furniture industry.” Examples, he said, could include seat boards for RVs, golf carts and boats and even wood products such as fence posts.
In the other two facilities, the company anticipates starting finished goods production for Classic Home sometime in the next few months or so. This would bring a domestic avenue of upholstery production to a company that primarily imports its product mix from Asia.
The set-up in Candor would be a mass production model that makes upholstery not only for the Classic Home line but also private-label product for major retailers. By comparison, Braxton Culler’s facility in Sophia, North Carolina, produces — and will continue to produce — custom bench-made product in smaller quantities that can either be branded as Braxton Culler or branded as private label for certain retailers.
“In that regard we would be creating stock for Classic Home as well as selling direct to retailers,” Lesley said, noting that the product made for Classic Home would fall under that label. “And then we would be very flexible and open to discussions on branding for different retailers and whether it is private label. Classic Home already does quite a bit of private-label work for major retailers. So it would really follow that kind of model.”
He noted that as the plans for this expanded domestic operation have been in place for some time, the decision was not made because of tariffs. However, the tariff situation is making it timely for the company and its customers.
Lesley noted that the domestic model for Classic Home in particular offers another avenue of product “that is not as dependent on imports and the inventory risk and length of acquisition through the supply chain. There also should be some cost benefit once you take into account the different types of tariffs that are in place in the current political environment. And by the time you start comparing this to the goods that have tariffs and shipping costs attached to them, it looks like we are going to be very competitive. It will allow a little more stability in that regard as well as the ability to make a few extra fabric choices with the upholstered goods and mixing that up with the line they already offer.”
Thus, he believes the investment will be good both in terms of making Braxton Culler more vertical in its operations and expanding the Classic Home line with a domestically produced upholstery mix.
“There is momentum for domestic manufacturing all over, but specifically in this area of North Carolina,” he said. “It is super exciting to see the momentum that has been building.”
