Ashley Furniture announced it will close its manufacturing plants in Colton, California, and shift the production of the upholstered furniture and bedding to its other plants in the United States. The company notified the 840 employees last week that the plants would close Oct. 25.

ATLANTA – The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America is trying to broaden its reach with woodworking companies, and spoke to Woodworking Network editors during the recent IWF exhibition about its efforts. The skills certification organization has registered about 1,150 passport holders, according to WCA’s Scott Nelson. Passport holders have a record of the skills they possess and have been tested for. Seventy-four machine types are currently included in the program. The machine-based certification is objective.

Thompson Mahogany Company would like to announce the hiring of Charlie Craig as Executive Vice President.

Employees at Golden State Lumber in Newark, Calif. have designated Teamsters Local 853 as their bargaining representative, the union says, voting in a three-to-one margin to organize.

The National Academy for Wood Education has a home. A location has been chosen in Colorado Springs. This was just announced at IWF.

La-Z-Boy's revenue remained essentially unchanged from this quarter last year. Casegoods revenue rose 7 percent, and the new American Drew AD Modern casegoods line is expected to take off.

The office furniture industry continues to show modest improvement through July, according to a quarterly survey of more than 700 domestic and international office furniture manufacturers and suppliers, conducted by Michael A. Dunlap & Associates LLC.

Global Shop Solutions, a developer of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for 40 years, celebrates a decade of consulting excellence under the leadership of Nick Knight.

Sauder Woodworking has recalled 8,000 dressers sold under the Storybook brand at Walmart.com. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission says the dressers are unstable unless they are properly anchored to the wall.