HIGH POINT — United Furniture Inds. has terminated all employees. The company, which has operated under the Lane brand in recent years, sent an e-mail, overnight, that immediately terminates all employees, with the exception of over-the-road drivers currently out on delivery.
Furniture Today obtained a copy of the email sent to employees: Furniture Wood
“At the instruction of the Board of Directors of United Furniture Industries, Inc., and all subsidiaries (the “Company”), we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances the Company has been forced to make the difficult decision to terminate the employment of all its employees, effective immediately, on November 21, 2022, with the exception of over-the-road drivers that are out on delivery. Your layoff from the Company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA.
Over-the-road drivers that are out on delivery will be paid for the balance of the week. Whether or not you have completed your delivery, please immediately return equipment, inventory, and delivery documents for those deliveries that have been completed to one of the following locations: Winston-Salem, N.C., Verona, Miss., or Victorville, Calif. location. To be clear, do not complete any additional deliveries.
We regret that this difficult and unexpected situation has made this necessary. Additional information will be provided shortly.
Thank you for your service and dedication. UFI/Lane Corporate Communications”
According to now former employees who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the uncertainty of the company’s next steps, an initial communication was sent out just before midnight on Nov. 21, which instructed employees not to report to their work location in the morning. That communication was subsequently rescinded and replaced by the notification above.
Furniture Today has contacted several Top 100 furniture retailers to see if they had been contacted by the company. Those responding thus far have indicated they received no advance notification nor any communication from the company as of this writing.
In June of this year, the company terminated its CEO, CFO and executive vice president of sales, and named former Standard Furniture President Todd Evans as CEO. The company subsequently restructured its sales organization and named Ruff Thomas and Keith News to sales leadership roles, with Thomas named president, sales for Lane’s domestic division and News named to the role of president, sales for Lane’s import division.
One month later, the company laid off 300 employees and closed or repurposed several facilities. This included closing its metal stamping facility in High Point; transitioning a manufacturing factory in Amory, Miss., to a warehousing-only facility; and transitioning a Winston-Salem, N.C., operation to an East Coast distribution center.
This is a breaking story. Stay tuned to furnituretoday.com for updates.
I’m Bill McLoughlin, Editor in Chief at Furniture Today and Editorial Director for BridgeTower Media's Home Furnishings Division. In the more than 25 years I’ve covered retail I've seen tremendous changes in the way people shop and the way companies serve the consumer. My goal is to share that experience and the insights gained along the way. This is an industry made great by its people and I look forward to meeting and conversing with as many of you as I can. Your comments are always welcome and encouraged.
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