ST. LOUIS, MO – Furniture Brands Int’l. Inc. announced the hiring of a new President of the Designer Group, as well as the closing of eight stores.

Dan Bradley has been named president of the Furniture Brands Designer Group, effective Nov. 5. In his new role, Bradley will be responsible for the Henredon, Maitland-Smith, Laneventure, Hickory Chair and Pearson businesses. He will work with the presidents of those brands to strengthen the designer-based businesses, focusing on building the company’s brands and creating the most effective, efficient and capable organization possible. Read more.

Furniture Brands also announced that it will close four company-owned Broyhill stores and the four company-owned Lane stores in the St. Louis metropolitan area. This will include the closing of the Broyhill and Lane stores in O’Fallon, Manchester and Brentwood, MO, as well as O’Fallon, IL.

Furniture Brands Vice-Chairman of the Board and CEO Designate, Ralph Scozzafava, said, “As part of our recently-announced strategic plan, Furniture Brands will realign its retail distribution system. Thomasville and Drexel Heritage will focus on expansion of their network of company-owned and dealer-owned single branded stores. Broyhill and Lane, on the other hand, will focus on distribution in traditional furniture retailers and mass merchants. The store closings announced today are in furtherance of that strategy.”

The store closing process will begin immediately and is expected to conclude by year end. The jobs of all the associates working at these eight locations will be eliminated, as well as certain positions at the warehouse facilities and the Furniture Brands general retail offices in St. Louis, a total of 83 jobs. Read more.