Jeff Linville — Furniture Today
PULASKI, Va. — Pulaski Furniture announced today it will


close its last U.S. factory by late April as it completes its move to a fully imported line.

The plant here has 260 employees and produces the company’s curio line.

“It is very difficult and painful to make this decision as we have made every effort for the past several years not to exit domestic furniture manufacturing,” said Lamont Hope, vice president of operations.

“This is part of a trend within the furniture industry that continues the shift of domestically manufactured furniture to offshore production, especially in Asia,” said Hope. “Our competition by moving production offshore has created such pricing pressure that our domestic operation can no longer compete.”

Last year, executives initiated lean-manufacturing techniques to make the plant more profitable and better able to compete with imports. At the time, the company said the 200-SKU Keepsakes curio line made up about a quarter of Pulaski’s annual sales.

Pulaski said the Keepsakes line will now be all imports.  The company said that the plant closing will not affect delivery to dealers, and said the warehouse, customer service and other operations will continue at its headquarters here.

Pulaski, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013, merged with SLF last summer under new parent company Home Meridian International.

The company closed another operation, its 120-employee Plant 12, two months ago. In 2004, the company sold its Ridgeway clock line and plant.