Thomasville Furniture Industries was a furniture manufacturer based in Thomasville, North Carolina, with dedicated galleries in more than 400 retail furniture stores. Additionally, there are 30 Thomasville Home Furnishing stores which carry only Thomasville products. The company had been a subsidiary of Clayton, Missouri-based Furniture Brands International since 1995. Heritage Home Group bought most of that company's assets in 2013 and announced Thomasville Furniture would cease operations in 2014, marking the end of an industry in the city.
Thomasville Cabinetry is crafted by MasterBrand Cabinets, Inc. a division of Fortune Brands Home and Security (FBHS). MasterBrand Cabinets produces Thomasville branded product for Thomasville Furniture Industries at several North American facilities, and sells the Thomasville Cabinetry brand exclusively through The Home Depot. Schrock Cabinetry of Illinois, for example, is one manufacturer that makes cabinets sold by the Home Depot with the Thomasville Cabinetry name stamped in it.
The famous Big Chair, an 18-foot reproduction of a Duncan Phyfe design (first erected in 1922 and rebuilt in 1951) still stands in the town square as a symbol of the mutual success of a now famous chair company - and the town that cherishes its nickname, "Chair City".
Thomasville Furniture began as Thomasville Chair Company in 1904, making 500 to 1000 chairs a day by 1905. Thomas Jefferson Finch and Charles F. Finch of Randolph County bought the company in 1907.
Lambeth Furniture began in 1901 and was sold to Knox Furniture in 1928 and Thomasville Chair in 1932. [1]
B.F. Huntley Furniture began in 1906 on Patterson Avenue in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and grew into the largest bedroom and dining room furniture manufacturer in the country. Its Winston-Salem plant burned in 1956, though a two-story office building built in 1921 remained and became part of a new plant. In 1961, Huntley Furniture and Thomasville Furniture Co. merged to become Thomasville Furniture Industries. [2]
In 1968, Thomasville Furniture became part of Armstrong World Industries, which sold the company to Interco (later Furniture Brands International) in November 1995. [3]
Starting with the Spring 2011 High Point Furniture Market, Thomasville Furniture Industries moved its showroom space from Thomasville to the International Home Furnishings Center. [4] The five-story 225,000-square-foot former headquarters building, which was built in 1958 on East Main Street in Thomasville and also housed Drexel Heritage, was listed for sale in 2013. The 100 people still there were to be moved to Eastchester Drive in High Point, where Maitland-Smith and Henredon were located. [5]
On January 21, 2014, the company's new owner, Heritage Home Group, announced that it would cease all operations on March 21. 84 jobs would be lost in Thomasville. [6] Parent company Heritage Home Group, however, moved to the city while work was being completed on its planned High Point headquarters. [7]
With the sale of Lane Furniture, Heritage Home Group announced in 2017 that it would reorganize into three groups. Thomasville & Co. would include the Thomasville, Drexel and Henredon brands. [8]
Heritage Home Group planned to sell Thomasville & Co. to one buyer. [9] On August 31, 2018, Authentic Brands Group of New York City, known for buying businesses in trouble but also for outsourcing, made a bid. [10] Thomasville Furniture was listed as an Authentic Brands business in 2024. [11]
The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) is an American tobacco manufacturing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded by namesake R. J. Reynolds in 1875, it is the largest tobacco company in the United States. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco.
High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph, Davidson, and Forsyth counties. High Point is North Carolina's only city that extends into four counties. As of the 2020 census the city had a total population of 114,059. High Point is the ninth-most populous in North Carolina, the third-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad, and the 259th-most populous city in the U.S.
Thomasville is a city in Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 27,183 at the 2020 census. The city was once notable for its furniture industry, as were its neighbors High Point and Lexington. This Piedmont Triad community was established in 1852 and hosts the state's oldest festival, "Everybody's Day".
The Piedmont Triad is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. This close group of cities lies in the Piedmont geographical region of the United States and forms the basis of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area (CSA). As of 2012, the Piedmont Triad has an estimated population of 1,611,243 making it the 33rd largest combined statistical area in the United States.
G Plan is a British furniture brand. It began as a pioneering range of furniture in the United Kingdom produced by E Gomme Ltd of High Wycombe. The success of G Plan led to E Gomme becoming one of the UK's largest furniture manufacturers, with profits increasing sixfold between 1952 and 1958 when it was floated as an IPO. Since 2005, G Plan has been a subsidiary of Sofa Brands International.
La-Z-Boy Inc. is an American furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan, United States, that makes home furniture, including upholstered recliners, sofas, stationary chairs, lift chairs and sleeper sofas. The company employs more than 11,000 people.
Masco Corporation is an American manufacturer of products for the home improvement and new home construction markets. Comprising more than 20 companies, the Masco conglomerate operates nearly 60 manufacturing facilities in the United States and over 20 in other parts of the world. Since 1969 it trades on the NYSE. Under the leadership of Richard Manoogian, the company grew exponentially and subsequently joined the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. corporations.
Armstrong World Industries, Inc. is a Pennsylvania corporation incorporated in 1891. It is an international designer and manufacturer of wall and ceiling building materials. Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, AWI has a global manufacturing network of 26 facilities, including nine plants dedicated to its WAVE joint venture.
WMFR is a radio station airing a country music format. Licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, the station serves the Piedmont Triad area. The station is owned by Triad Media Partners.
Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. is an American home furnishings manufacturer and retailer, headquartered in Arcadia, Wisconsin. The company is owned by father and son team Ron and Todd Wanek. Ashley Furniture manufactures and distributes home furniture products throughout the world.
First Bancorp is an American bank holding company headquartered in Southern Pines, North Carolina that operates as First Bank in North and South Carolina.
The Reynolds Building is a 314-foot (96 m) Art Deco skyscraper at 51 East 4th Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was completed in 1929 and has 21 floors with 313,996 square feet (29,171.2 m2) of space. For much of its history the building served as headquarters for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. After a sale to PMC Property Group in 2014, the building went through an estimated $60 million in renovations. In March 2016, The Residences @ the R.J. Reynolds Building, apartments located on the top 11 floors, opened. The first six floors opened as the Kimpton Cardinal Hotel in April. Katharine Brasserie & Bar, a restaurant named for Katharine Smith Reynolds, followed in May.
Furniture Brands International, Inc. was a home furnishings company, headquartered in Clayton, Missouri. The company began in 1911 as International Shoe Company with the merger of Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company and Peters Shoe Company. In 1966, the company changed its name to Interco as the result of diversification, and once the company exited the shoe business, adopted the name Furniture Brands International. Some of the brands it owned in the furniture industry included Broyhill, Thomasville, Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Hickory Chair, Pearson, Laneventure, and Maitland-Smith. In 2013, Furniture Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell most of its divisions. New owner KPS Capital Partners announced the formation of Heritage Home Group on November 25 of that year.
Stanley Furniture is an American furniture manufacturer based in High Point, North Carolina, United States.
Lumos is a telecommunications provider, based in Waynesboro, Virginia; and High Point, North Carolina, United States, offering residential and business optical fiber internet services, VOIP telephone, web hosting, and digital television. The company announced a merger with North State Communications effective August 15, 2022.
Market Square is a furniture showroom complex in High Point, North Carolina, owned by International Market Centers which is the largest building in North Carolina on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and the sixth largest in the United States. Known also as Tomlinson Chair Manufacturing Company Complex, it was listed on the NRHP under that name. The former manufacturing complex includes the oldest factory building in the city, and its renovation has been credited with making High Point a successful furniture exhibition center. A 16-story addition in 1990 is one of the city's tallest buildings.
Furnitureland South in Jamestown, North Carolina is the largest retail furniture store in the United States with 1.3 million square feet and $180 million in sales as of 2004. Called "the Walt Disney World of Furniture", the store is known for its 85-foot-tall highboy, and is the first of the group of stores which in 2004 came to be known as "Furniture Row" as well as "Gateway to the Furniture Capital of the World."
Heritage Home Group LLC, formed to purchase most assets of the defunct Furniture Brands International, was a High Point, North Carolina–based home furnishings company. It owned the brands Broyhill, Lane, Thomasville, and Drexel Heritage.
ITG Brands, LLC is the third-largest American tobacco manufacturing company in the United States. It is an independent subsidiary of multinational Imperial Brands. ITG Brands markets and sells multiple cigarette and cigar brands and sells blu eCigs. The company was created in 2015 and has its production, headquarters, and regulatory compliance facilities located in Greensboro, North Carolina.
James Edgar "Ed" Broyhill was an American industrialist and the founder of Broyhill Furniture Industries, Inc.