North Carolina furniture plant to add 100 workers

LENOIR, N.C.—Thomasville Furniture says it will add more than 100 workers to a North Carolina plant and increase production by a third because of increased costs of doing business overseas.

The company said its decision was caused by higher labor costs abroad and rising fuel and shipping prices.

Company officials said employment will increase to more than 800 workers by December. The Lenoir plant is Thomasville's last U.S. plant to make wooden furniture.

Company President Ed Teplitz told employees last week about the decision.

It's a reversal of the recent trend, where thousands of furniture manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas. Lenoir was one of the state's furniture-making centers, but in the last six years the area has been hit by layoffs and closed plants.

Thomasville has cut its domestic work force from about 8,000 in the late 1990s to 2,300 today. The firm also employs about 400 people at two upholstered furniture plants in Hickory.

The Thomasville plant in Lenoir stayed in business by doing contract work for government and hospitality clients as well as making a small amount of furniture for retail sales.

As production increases, more furniture will be made for the retail market, said Ann Vaughan, the plant's personnel manager. She said the Lenoir plant makes mostly bedroom furniture and side tables and entertainment centers.

Alan Wood of the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission said the announcement was encouraging, but that the county was moving from its earlier dependance on furniture plants.

"We've (added) a lot of diversity," Wood said. "But it's also nice to have the industry you've depended on for generations have some jobs growth, too."