Introducing the New Cabot Wrenn

by Robert Beck | August 15th, 2016

In this particular season with all the political talk about keeping manufacturing jobs in America or bringing jobs back to America, it’s nice to be able to recognize some companies that never left America in the first place. The Hickory, Highpoint, Winston-Salem triangle of North Carolina has long been the hardwood heartland of America‘s residential furniture industry. Many of the companies founded and headquartered there were also among the earliest American companies to discover cheap labor in China – first the Republic of China (Taiwan) – and then when Deng Xiao Peng began the “liberalization” of the mainland economy, they were pioneers in the move to even cheaper labor on the mainland. At NeoCon I was struck by the entirely new look of Cabot Wrenn. In discussing my observation with its president Ryan Stites he explained that Cabot Wrenn and its parent, Hancock & Moore had been acquired by Century …