Gary Evans — Furniture Today,
PONTOTOC, Miss. – Midpriced upholstery producer

Genesis/Artisan Furniture has been contracted by Ikea to make the giant Swedish retailer’s best-selling living room group in the United States.

Until now, the product has been made in Mexico or Asia, and this represents the first time Ikea has used a U.S. company to make upholstery for the market here, said Bob Balekian, Genesis’ president.

“In pursuing this complex contract, we did not approach it as just more business,” according to Balekian. “Both the management, the employees and the suppliers looked upon it as a crusade to prove that American manufacturing can compete in our own country, and we did,” he added.

Balekian said Ikea’s choice of Genesis came after a year of inspections, testing and negotiations.

Balekian said that when Ikea bids a collection worldwide, all the wood must be verified to be from managed forests, the foam must be free of certain ozone-harming chemicals, all employees must be fairly treated and many other levels of social responsibility must be met.

Genesis, with plants here and in North Carolina, has plenty of capacity to handle increasing business from Ikea, Balekian said. The company plans to build a frame operation to support the program.

The product that will be manufactured for Ikea is called Ektorp, a skirted, roll-arm group named after a Swedish city.