Furniture Today,
Company will work to stabilize operations, decide what fabric lines to continue

VALDESE, N.C. — Upholstery fabric supplier Valdese Weavers completed its acquisition Friday of the Circa 1801/Doblin, Home Fabrics and Mastercraft Contract/Guild 360 operations from the bankrupt Joan Fabrics.


Valdese did not purchase the rights to Mastercraft’s residential fabrics, another Joan segment.

Mike Shelton, Valdese president and CEO, said in a statement the company will work to stabilize operations in the acquired divisions, making investments in the financial and material resources necessary to achieve that stability.

“These companies have been operating in a distressed environment under previous ownership for the past few months, and we have identified in our transition plans what we feel is necessary to be able to service our customers properly,” the statement said. “Today, everyone in our company has ‘hit the ground running’ to accomplish this end.”

Valdese also issued a status report on the operations:

+ Circa 1801/Doblin will continue with it established management team of John Lenox, Margaret Coffin and Bill Garner. The company has a backlog of past-due orders and the company will work them down to normal delivery as soon as possible.

+ Home Fabrics, unlike the Circa 1801 business, has “suffered tremendously,” Valdese said. “Prior ownership attempted to move the Home Fabrics business to the Circa 1801 facility during the past few months. The decline of the business coupled by the complexity created at the Circa 1801 facility by the move has created an unmanageable situation that must be dealt with immediately,” the company said.

Valdese added that it will evaluate the business and will notify customers of the status of the Home Fabrics patterns going forward.

“Our strategy for Home Fabrics will be to combine the existing business that we will carry forward with our Wesley Mancini by Valdese Weavers brand to create Home Fabrics by Wesley Mancini. Wesley had a 30-year heritage designing the Home Fabrics product line prior to joining Valdese Weavers. It is only logical to combine these brands to re-establish Home Fabrics in the marketplace with Wesley Mancini’s fashion and design inspiration, and then support the business with all of the resources necessary,” Valdese said.

+ The Mastercraft Contract/Guild 360 business will be merged into the Valdese Weavers Contract brand under the management team led by Blake Millinor. Valdese did not buy any manufacturing assets of the unit, but secured an agreement to operate at Joan’s Siler City and Eagle Mountain facilities for 60 days to prevent any disruption of order fulfillment.

As with Home Fabrics, Valdese will analyze which of the division’s fabric lines it will continue to produce, and announce its decision to customers immediately.