By Richard Craver
JOURNAL REPORTER
The World of Bob Timberlake, the best-selling furniture line in industry history, will remain predominantly made in the United States, according to Lexington Home Brands.
The pledge to produce Timberlake’s premium line domestically resolves a thorny issue between Lexington, a company moving aggressively from U.S. manufacturing to international marketing, and a local businessman who believes that there is no substitute for American-made furniture.
But there is no guarantee that the Timberlake production will take place in Davidson County, where the bulk of the line has been produced since 1990, Bob Stec, the chairman and chief executive of Lexington, said this week.
“We will be making the World of Bob Timberlake line domestically this year, probably even in the first half,” Stec said Monday. “It’s possible that the production will be in Davidson County, but I can’t say that definitively today.”
The fate of the high-end collection had been up in the air for several months, even before Lexington ceased most domestic production of wooden furniture, primarily the premium Timberlake collection, when it closed Plant 2 in December.
The closing, which resulted in the loss of 360 jobs, was part of Lexington’s plan to ramp up the import component of its wooden furniture to 90 percent, according to Stec.
The Timberlake collection is Lexington’s most well-known line. Most wooden-furniture production of its other licensed brands, including Nautica, Southern Living and the Smithsonian, have been taken offshore in recent years.
Bob Timberlake, an acclaimed artist and designer who lives near Lexington, could not be reached for comment yesterday on Stec’s pledge to continue making the premium line here.
But his son, Dan Timberlake, said that Timberlake had been weighing the possibility of discontinuing it, rather than having it made all offshore, even though it has generated hundreds of millions in retail sales. Parts of the premium collection – wicker products and some chairs – are imported because domestic production would be cost prohibitive.
“I’m glad to hear these developments about continuing the line domestically, and I’m hopeful it will take place in Davidson County,” said Dan Timberlake, the chief operating officer of Bob Timberlake Inc. “It will be interesting to see how Lexington’s plans unfold for the collection in the near future.”
The discussions between Lexington and Timberlake stand out in an industry where more U.S. manufacturers are taking production offshore in pursuit of lower labor costs.
Since a management team led by Stec bought Lexington in April 2002 and pursued an international marketing strategy, the number of its employees has shrunk from 3,500 in the city of Lexington to just 580 in both Lexington and Hildebran.
Lexington has urged Timberlake for years to include more imported components in the premium line, which would allow prices to be lowered to attract more customers. Valuable as it still is, the premium line has been eroded by lower-priced imported knockoffs.
Timberlake resisted the pressure to import more components, partly because of concerns about whether the imported furniture could meet the quality that consumers have come to expect in the collection and partly because of his desire to keep as many furniture workers employed in the city of Lexington as possible.
“We want to do it (make furniture here) not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it can be done with the right quality right here in Lexington,” Timberlake said in an October 2003 interview with the Winston-Salem Journal.
Timberlake recognized the need to appeal to a less-affluent consumer, which is why he allowed Lexington to introduce two lower-priced imported lines since October 2004.
“I don’t mind telling you we had a difference of opinion on the domestic production,” Stec said. “But we both have a lot invested in ongoing business that neither one of us wants to go away, and all three lines are selling well.”
Stec said that Lexington is studying domestic manufacturing alternatives that include re-opening a plant or having a third-party supplier make the premium Timberlake line if its quality meets both parties’ standards. He said that Lexington has enough pieces in inventory to make it through the production transition.
“Lexington and Bob Timberlake have a long-term agreement for the future to design, market and produce furniture,” Stec said. “There is no plan to discontinue the original line from production and offering to the consumer.”
Still, Bob Timberlake the business has “evolved over the last few years into other businesses, resulting in far less dependency on the Lexington Home Brands furniture offering,” Dan Timberlake said. “Given our experiences over the last few years in furniture, we have decided to focus our brand and business in areas where we have more control over the product and customer relations. Those lie in the retail sector.”
