Thomas Russell
Also plans Vietnamese warehouse

RICHMOND, Calif. — Case goods manufacturer and importer Brownstone Furniture is getting ready to open its first U.S. East Coast warehouse and its first warehouse in Vietnam this month.

Starting in mid to late April, Brownstone’s East Coast facility in Greensboro, N.C., will stock and ship bedroom furniture in the company’s Metropolitan, Gramercy, Soho, Lisbon, Bancroft and Heights collections.

With the new warehouse, the company expects to grow its East Coast business to 30% of revenues in the next year or so. Most of its sales now are to West Coast retailers, who are served out of a warehouse in Richmond, Calif., and one in Indonesia.

The Greensboro facility will reduce shipping times to East Coast dealers, who have had to wait about two weeks for furniture from the West Coast. They will receive deliveries in a week or less from the new warehouse.

“We are now in an industry that demands immediate gratification,” said Reed Kingsley, one of Brownstone’s owners. “We feel an East Coast warehouse will help with our customers on the East Coast.”

Depending on demand, he said, the facility eventually may stock and ship other lines and products such as dining room.

The Vietnam warehouse is part of a factory near Ho Chi Minh City where the company sources bedroom furniture. The facility will stock and ship mixed containers of bedroom in Brownstone’s Lisbon, Gramercy and Soho collections.

Like the Greensboro facility, it will start shipping in mid to late April, and also will reduce shipping times. For established lines, it now takes at least 45 days from order to shipment. Goods stocked in the warehouse could be shipped from Vietnam in as little as a week, Kingsley said.

Brownstone’s warehouse in Indonesia ships the company’s Metropolitan and Paloma bedroom lines. It will start shipping Bancroft by mid-July.

At the High Point market, Brownstone shows in the International Home Furnishings Center, D-1001.