Our goal is to provide jobs for people who live in North Carolina and hopefully even expand this operation in the future.
Broyhill Furniture Industries announced Thursday it will sell its Lenoir particleboard plant to Asheville-based North State Property Holdings LLC, a real estate company that plans to assume ownership in October and keep the factory running with most of its current staff.
The 193,600-square-foot plant — about the size of a big-box retail store — began operations in 1996. Less than two years earlier, a wood-dust explosion destroyed the previous particleboard factory on the site, killing two workers.
The plant now employs 52 people and is in the massive Broyhill complex, which contains several other buildings. One of them, the Pacemaker furniture plant, is shutting down; most of its 700 workers will lose their jobs this month.
For Broyhill, Thursday’s move signals a continued shift away from domestic manufacturing.
‘The primary reason for this sale is the changing dynamics of the global furniture industry,’ company spokesman Tom Lentz said in a news release. ‘Broyhill is no longer the primary user of particleboard produced in this facility and operating a supply facility is not part of our current business model.’
North State co-owners Phillip Delp and Todd Reep are both Western North Carolina natives, and Reep said Thursday they were drawn to the plant by its experienced work force and good physical condition. They approached Broyhill about a sale, he said, and beat out other bidders. He declined to give the sale price.
‘We really want to create a family atmosphere,’ Delp said. ‘Our goal is to provide jobs for people who live in North Carolina and hopefully even expand this operation in the future.’ Delp said he has some experience in the furniture industry, though this is a new type of venture for North State.
He said they also felt demand in the particleboard industry made it attractive right now, and noted they expect to sell mainly to cabinetmakers.
As part of the deal, he said, North State will also sell particleboard back to Furniture Brands International, Broyhill’s parent company.
