STANLEYTOWN, VA  Stanley Furniture Company, Inc. (Nasdaq-NGS:STLY) says it will spend $4 million this year retooling its Robbinsville, NC factory.

Stanley Furniture believes manufacture of its children's Young America wood furnishings lines in the U.S. is prefered by American consumers. It is among several U.S. furniture firms restarting or expanding domestic production.

Stanley Furniture, midway in its transition to domestic production of furniture, says it spent $4.2 million on capital expenditures in 2011. Stanley says it is also spending $3 million over the next two years on customer management information systems.

U.S. furniture factories reviving

“We are committed to completing our efforts to reinvent a manufacturing process in Robbinsville, NC to compete globally and occupy a meaningful space in the children’s furniture marketplace," said Micah Goldstein, COO and CFO, as Stanley Furniture announced its first profitable quarter in three years.

The furniture maker avoided posting a net loss of $1.7 million for the fourth quarter save for $2.9 million it received as a party to anti-dumping fines against China-based furniture companies. For the year Stanley Furniture's net loss narrowed from $26.6 million in 2010 to $8.6 for 2011.

"In 2012 we are planning an additional investment of approximately $4 million to sufficiently automate this plant,” said Goldstein. To support sale and delivery of its products, Goldstein says Stanley Furniture will invest approximately $3 million over the next two years "in new systems that will make doing business with our company more desirable as we enter 2013."

Glenn Prillaman, president and CEO, says the Stanley Furniture product line is now profitable, operating on an exclusively overseas manufacturing platform. "However, we have not completed the transition of our Young America product line and have not yet become a profitable domestic manufacturer," Prillman said. "We believe we are roughly half of the way through this journey and, when completed, we will have an Internet-age brand ready for the younger consumer supported by a product offering difficult to duplicate from Asia."

Prillaman says Stanley Furniture will have a flexible manufacturing footprint that enables a more favorable cost structure, shorter lead times and higher inventory turns.