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 Furniture and they were embarking on a top to bottom refresh of the brand. To check it out for myself I recently traveled to Hickory, NC to visit both Century and Cabot Wrenn.
Century Furniture is a large privately owned high-end residential furniture manufacturer with deep roots in Hickory, NC. Founded in 1947, Century was initially a selling agent but quickly moved into design and manufacturing of its own products – casegoods first and not long after, upholstery. Century’s history is one of solid growth, often through acquisition and always with its hometown philosophy at the forefront.
Eventually the acquisition oriented company organized CV Industries to act as the parent of its many divisions. As stated on its website, “In June of 2000, the Board appointed Alex Shuford, II, a son of the founder, to the position of president and CEO of parent company CV Industries. Also at that time, Robert J. Maricich was named president and CEO of Century Furniture. For the next seven years, Maricich and the CV Industries Board steered the company through a downturn when much manufacturing moved overseas and many U.S. factories closed their doors. Meanwhile, Century capitalized on its strengths and expanded its efforts in the professional design market while increasing their customers’ options for customizing the product.”
In 1981, not far from Century Furniture’s headquarters in Hickory, a master craftsman named Jimmy Moore, who had grown up turning wood into beautiful heirloom furniture, founded Hancock & Moore along with co-founder Jack Glasheen.
Hancock & Moore is known in the residential industry for spending hours hand carving, sanding, sewing and upholstering exclusive pieces using the same time-honored artisanal approach learned by Mr. Moore. To this day, Hancock & Moore may spend up to 80 hours handcrafting
a piece of furniture. Every sofa, game chair and bench bares the signature of the artisan who created it, reflecting the hard day’s work that went into its construction. To Hancock & Moore, custom-made furniture is the purest form of self-expression.
Cabot Wrenn was organized by Hancock & Moore very early on to take its handcrafted approach to the contract market. As such, Cabot Wrenn has used Hancock & Moore manufacturing and built a strong reputation and stable position as a high-end provider of traditional to transitional upholstered products and solid wood tables. Essentially, the slogan at Cabot Wrenn has been something like, “If you want furniture that will last more than a lifetime, with frames of solid wood and impeccable upholstery craftsmanship, look no further.” From a strictly commercial point of view that approach is definitely limiting, especially with the price pressure in the market today.
Meanwhile, in 2013, the aforementioned Alex Shuford II and his family bought out all other investors in Century Furniture, and named the third generation, Alex Shuford III its president. And to make a long story short, in 2015 Mr. Shuford led Century in the acquisition of Hancock & Moore.
At the time, in an interview with Furniture Today magazine, Mr. Shuford said, “Hancock & Moore is the finest leather upholstery manufacturer in the country, and I’ve spent my career appreciating the quality and integrity they build into their products.”
He also saw the Cabot Wrenn division as an entrée into the contract market, and accordingly he has empowered Cabot Wrenn president Ryan Stites to build the team that can capitalize on the combined strengths
and heritage of Century and Hancock & Moore to grow Cabot Wrenn’s market share in the commercial furniture realm.
Mr. Stites recently told me, “As the acquisition was going on, Alex and I had numerous discussions on how we could grow the company. I told him in order to grow substantially we needed someone to guide our product design and development – a professional with experience to look at everything from product design to marketing.
“He added, “As luck would have it, Mathew Agostinelli, who was leading product development at TK Studio (Teknion Studio at the time), was facing a sort of personal crisis of commuter burn-out. He’s a family man and his family is in Hickory, but getting to the TK Studio job was a commute of more than three hours each way, so he found himself spending weekdays in an apartment away from his family. Now his commute is about 10 minutes.”
Mr. Agostinelli came to Cabot Wrenn with a diamond pedigree starting with a degree from SCAD and continuing with successful stints in product development at Bernhardt Design and Teknion Studio.
He immediately got busy surveying the product line and getting to know the manufacturing capabilities of Century and Hancock & Moore to inform the design of the products that would be required.
So at NeoCon 2016 the company unveiled the first views of its new look with a completely redesigned showroom and a whole raft of new products designed to be more competitive, by combining more modern internal construction techniques with the vaunted upholstering talent of the craftsmen at both Hancock & Moore and Century, depending on which plant’s capabilities fit the product requirements.
Of course, a growth strategy requires that the manufacturing and product initiatives are matched with an equal sales and marketing drive. Once again the hometown, Hickory angle came into play. Nicole Bailey, VP of sales at Cabot Wrenn, is a talented sales and marketing professional living in Nashville, TN, and wanted to come back home to Hickory where she grew up. Her energy and pleasant personality seem a perfect fit for the team Mr. Stites is building.
We wish the new team well, from Mr. Shuford to Mr. Stites to Mr. Agostinelli, Ms. Bailey and the hundreds of support staff and manufacturing workers involved in keeping the tradition of building things alive and well in Hickory, NC.