Hooker Furniture Corp., a home furnishings manufacturer, announced Wednesday that it plans to close its last remaining wood furniture plant in Martinsville, Va., by the end of March 2007.
The closure is due to a drop in orders and sales for Hooker's domestically produced wood furniture and a rise in demand for its imported wood and metal furniture. The plant closing also reflects the industry's trend towards the offshoring of furniture.
The Martinsville plant, which manufactures bedroom and home entertainment furniture, has about 280 employees who will lose their jobs. Although the plant will close, warehouse operations will continue.
Hooker expects to reduce fixed operating expenses by $2.8 to $3.5 million per year by closing the Martinsville plant.
Hooker will continue to operate its corporate headquarters and central distribution center, in Martinsville, along with two upholstery assembly plants and two upholstery supply plants operated by its Bradington-Young subsidiary in North Carolina, and warehouses located in Virginia, North Carolina and China.
In other furniture activity, IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings retailer, has announced plans to build a 345,000 square foot store in Charlotte, N.C.
Construction could begin as early as the summer of 2008, with an expected opening in the spring of 2009. About 400 workers will be employed in the Charlotte facility when it opens.
IKEA currently has a presence in the southeast in Atlanta, and has stores under construction in Florida.
