GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Baker Furniture, a company founded in southwestern Michigan more than 100 years ago, will move its Grand

Rapids headquarters and warehousing operations to North Carolina, bringing 70 jobs.

The company announced Tuesday that it will consolidate its operations in Grand Rapids and Hildebran, N.C., where it now has a manufacturing and warehousing site, at a 344,000-square-foot facility in Hickory, N.C. Hickory is about six miles from Hildebran.

The changes will take place in phases during the next two years, the company said in a statement.

Baker is part of Kohler Co., a privately held business based in Kohler, Wis. Baker, which designs and makes wood and upholstered furniture, has factories in Hildebran; High Point, N.C.; and Mocksville, N.C.

With the move, all of Baker’s U.S. manufacturing and distribution operations and most of its administrative offices will be in North Carolina. The company will get a $76,000 state grant for bringing the jobs, the office of Gov. Mike Easley said Tuesday.

Kevin Ward, president of subsidiary Baker Knapp & Tubbs Inc., said having its operations close to each other has helped the company’s success.

“The fact that this is the end of a chapter in the story of Grand Rapids is sad,” Max Shangle, a professor and chairman of the furniture design program at Kendall College of Art and Design, told The Grand Rapids Press.

For decades, Baker — which began in Allegan as Cook, Baker & Co. in 1890 — helped solidify Grand Rapids’ national reputation as a leading producer of furniture. It closed a Holland plant in 2004.

Just two residential furniture companies remain in Grand Rapids. They are Kindel Furniture Co. and Hekman Furniture Co.