Jeff Linville — Furniture Today,
CARSON, Calif. — Case goods manufacturer Good Cos. has ceased production and is selling off its remaining inventory.
Good Cos. becomes the second producer of furniture using particleboard to shut down this fall, with Thomasville announcing in October that it was closing its Founders line and clearing out inventory.
Good Cos. officials offered no comment on Thursday, but a customer service representative confirmed that the plant has closed. A source at the company estimated that the 2012 sales were between $50 million and $55 million.
A source close to the company said some changes in company direction over the past few years had been unsuccessful, with new product categories and new Asian imports drawing too little business to offset the costs, the source said.
Good Cos. and Founders are the latest of several U.S. producers of engineered-wood bedroom furniture that have closed in the past two years.
In October 2004, Michels & Co. shut down its promotional particleboard plant in South Carolina and terminated the Pilliod line. Hart Furniture ceased operations in May 2012. In August, Broyhill announced the sale of its 10-year-old particleboard plant in Lenoir, N.C.
Reasons for the closings have varied. Michels noted a general downturn in Pilliod’s business. Founders and Hart said Chinese wood furniture imports were eroding their sales. Broyhill said it wasn’t the primary user of the particleboard produced by its plant any longer and didn’t want to run the facility as a supplier to others.
On the other hand, several companies report that despite lagging sales this year, engineered-wood products are still performing well. Among these are Dynamic, Harden Mfg., Progressive, Sandberg, South Shore and Kathy Ireland Home by Standard.
Standard does about 40% of its business in engineered wood, said Todd Evans, vice president of sales and marketing. About 95% of that is medium-density fiberboard, a stronger and more-durable material than particleboard.
Business is down some this year, with lower price points seeming to take the biggest hit, but that is because 2012 had good growth, Evans said.
South Shore, which like Dynamic is based in Canada, said it is doing well thanks to strong sales in its home country.
