The FDM 300 is not a static group ofcompanies. These 300 largest North American cabinet, furniture, millwork andfixture manufacturers had their third year of sales gains, but there were stillclosings, consolidations and name changes.

Sales for the FDM 300 reached$43.325 billion in 2014, by our estimate. That's an increase of 9.3 percentover the 2013 mark.

A year ago, we calculated annualsales for this group of 300 companies to be $39.630 billion for the year 2013,an increase of 5.3 percent over sales reported and estimated for the year 2012.

The FDM 300 is a group of the 300 largest cabinet,furniture, millwork, store fixture, office/contract and component producers inNorth America. A detailed list of the top 25 companies and a summary of all 300companies is included in our coverage in this issue.

Additional information can be found at www.fdmcdigital.comby clicking on the FDM 300 tab or searching for a specific company.

Here is a summary of recent closings, consolidationsand other major changes.

Chromcraft Revington closes

The largest company to close in 2014 was Chromcraft Revington, a furniture manufacturer with a large plantin Senatobia, Mississippi. The company, with $56 million in sales in 2012, hadbeen bought by Sport-Haley Holdings in 2013. The company closed operations in2014, and its assets were sold to a Chinese company called Amtech, which we’vebeen unable to reach.

Chromcraft Revington wasbased in West Lafayette, Indiana. According to past FDM 300 data, the companymade residential and contract/office furniture, including  dining room furniture, bedroom furniture,occasional furniture, office seating, conference tables and upholsteredfurniture.

Inwood OfficeFurniture closed its operation in November, citing a decline in demand forwood office furniture. According to reports in the Evansville Courier &Press and the DuBois County Herald.

The Jasper, Indiana, company had 85 employees. Inwoodchairman Glen Sturm said that changes in the economy, work styles andtechnology hurt the market for the company’s products. Sturm characterized theclosing as an orderly wind down, with all employees and vendors paid in full.According to FDM 300 data, the company made contract/office furniture,including occasional furniture, office chairs, office seating, desks,conference tables, bookcases, and school lab furniture

Techline USA LLCoperated a large plant in Waunakee, Wisconsin, where it employed 110 peoplemaking medical and modular casework, contract/office/medical modular furniture,desks, filing/storage, office systems, conference tables, bookcases andcommercial cabinets. We had estimated annual sales of $20 million a few yearsago. Techline was purchased by Stevens Industries, a Teutopolis, Illinois,manufacturer of laminated panels, furniture and cabinets; juvenile, lab,educational and library furniture; mobile cabinets and workstations, andmillwork.

Brown JordanInternational Inc. purchased TropitoneFurniture Co. Inc., an Irvine, California maker of outdoor furniture andcasual outdoor patio furniture. Brown Jordan is based in St. Augustine,Florida, and has plants in Manatee Co., Florida, and Temecula, California. Thecombined company expects to generate $400 million in sales in 2014.

CSC Worldwide,formerly known as Columbus Show Case Co., closed in late 2013, according topublished reports in the Columbus Dispatch.

The company made grocery and clothing store retail displaysand had been in business since 1895.

In the FDM 300, the company had $30 million in sales with160 employees at its Columbus location.

Southwood FurnitureCorp. of Hickory, North Carolina, reportedly closed its factory and HighPoint showroom in 2013. We were not able to reach a successor company with thesame name in late 2014. In the FDM 300, Southwood made residential and contractoffice furniture in a single Hickory location, with 100 employees.

Zsemba Apron &Upholstery filed for bankruptcy in May 2014, according to published reportsin the Toronto Star. Thecompany was reportedly suing Ikea because the retailer changed standards andcut prices it paid to suppliers. DSL Commercial auctioned the 300,000 squarefoot upholstery and furniture factory in Woodbridge, Ontario, in June 2014.

Zsemba had been listed in the FDM 300 for several years, ineffect replacing Distinctive Designs, another Canadian company whose designs wereacquired by Zsemba. According to past FDM 300 data, the Vaughan, Ontario, companymade private label upholstery, futons, mattresses, headboards, juvenilefurniture and employed 240 several years ago. 

Harden Mfg. Corp.has reported layoffs and a sale of assets, according to a report in FurnitureToday.

The promotional bedroom furniture manufacturer was based inHaleyville, Alabama. We were unable to confirm these changes or reach thecompany. Several years earlier, we had estimated sales of $55 million with 300employees. The company made residential furniture such as bedroom, occasional,dining furniture, entertainment, and curios.

L&P sells store fixture group

Lozier Corp.,a major store fixture manufacturer, acquired the Leggett & Platt Store Fixtures Group. The combination willresult a large expansion of manufacturing and distribution for the Omaha,Nebraska. Lozier has manufacturing and distribution locations in McClure,Pennsylvania, Scottsboro, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri.

Heritage House Group, the former Furniture BrandsInternational, closed a number of Lane and Thomasville manufacturing anddistribution locations, auctioned some 17 properties, and moved its headquartersfrom Clayton, Missouri, to High Point, North Carolina. There are a number ofactive plants in operation and such well-known brands as Broyhill, DrexelHeritage, Henredon, Hickory Chair, LaBarge, Lane, Maitland-Smith, Pearson, and Thomasville.

Stanley Furniture Co. Inc. closed its Young America furniture line and itslast U.S. plant in Robbinsville, North Carolina. The company importsresidential wood furniture from Indonesia and Vietnam.

La-Z-Boy closed its Lea Industries division, which supplied youth bedroomfurniture. La-Z-Boy also is ending casegoods production in the United States,and is closing the Hudson, North Carolina, plant that made Kincaid Furnitureproducts.

Jofco had mergedinto JSI, which in turn merged into the Jasper Group. The Jofco name has beenphased out, and the Jasper Group includes Jasper Desk, JSI and Klem Hospitalityand employs 850 people in six manufacturing plants.

What’s ahead for 2015? By most accounts companies are expecting to build on 2014’s salesgrowth, but we already received information on the first closing at the end of2014, Vaughan Furniture is a  former FDM300 company that became an importer, is closing its Virginia operation.

What’s in a name change?

Archon WoodworksInc., Wood Lake, Minnesota, is the new name for Hoffco Inc. The company hasfive brands that support a group of wood products and related services. Thereare two manufacturing plants, in Wood Lake and Omaha, Nebraska. The new websiteis www.archonwood.com.

Custom Wood Productsin Roanoke, Virginia, was listed in 2013 as SugarLoaf Cabinet Group, part of agroup of four companies. In 2014, SugarLoaf is not in operation and twocompanies, Custom Wood Products and New River, survive as cabinet companies inRoanoke. Custom Wood Products also returns to the FDM 300 under that name.

Swedwood, the Virginia subsidiary of Ikea that makes RTAfurniture for the retailing giant, is now known as Ikea Industry.

Holiday Kitchensis the new name for Mastercraft Industries Inc., the Rice Lake, Wisconsin,maker of kitchen cabinets, vanities and millwork. Holiday Kitchens waspreviously used as a division and product line name.