Daily Journal
Mississippi Furniture Association

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By Dennis Seid
Daily Journal

TUPELO – For months, Mississippi Furniture Association President Ken Pruett has said the state’s $4 billion furniture industry needs to work together for the benefit of all. He helped reorganize the organization to do just that.


Pruett backed up those words Friday, when he and the MFA board agreed to send a letter to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board of the U.S. Department of Commerce to support the efforts of Lane, Bauhaus and H.M. Richards to get tariff relief on some fabric that is used in their furniture production.

The companies are asking the federal government for Foreign Trade Zone status for its Tupelo-area plants, which reside inside Foreign Trade Zone 158.

Their applications request that they be able to receive foreign-made microdenier suede fabrics duty-free. Duties run as much as 17 percent on the material.

The FTZ Board has asked for public comment by Oct. 2, and Pruett said it only made sense to support fellow furniture makers, even though Lane and Bauhaus are among the largest companies in the industry.

“We need to set a precedent,” he said. “Unless we can eliminate the tariff, there’s nothing we can do for our smaller companies.”

The application would apply only to the microdenier suede fabric, but Pruett said if duty-relief is given, it will be far easier in the future to ask for relief on other fabrics later.

“We’re not supporting one member over another and giving them an advantage over the rest of us,” Pruett insisted. “But we have to build a framework and go from there. We eventually want Foreign Trade Zone status, or at last the benefits of membership, for all of Northeast Mississippi because the furniture industry is across the region.”

Said board member Jim Sneed, who also is CEO of Affordable Furniture in Algoma: “We need it to help all of us.”

Meeting with officials

The MFA is planning a meeting Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. at the Tupelo Furniture Market for manufacturers, vendors, suppliers and other industry stakeholder. It has invited state legislators, political candidates and other leaders for a “non-political” meeting.

“This is not a political speaking event,” Pruett said. “This is chance for us to outline our goals and plans to our industry and to our elected officials – and ones who want to get elected.”

Pruett also asked board members to spread the word about the association and its need to have more members.

“It’s going to take all of us to protect the industry,” he said. “Nobody can do it alone, but together, we can have a voice. We’ve been quiet for too long or not speaking with the same voice.”

 

Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 8/11/2014, section B , page 5