Case goods manufacturer DeFehr Furniture, Winnipeg, Manitoba, will close two of its three furniture manufacturing plants in the province, according to a Canadian Press report Friday. The company cited the strong Canadian dollar and a troubled U.S. housing market for the decision.
The closures, which include Logic Division plants in Winnipeg and Morden, will result in the loss of between 80 and 85 jobs, the report said. Around 200 workers at the Winnipeg plant will move to a factory in East Kildonan.
“Over the course of the last year or two, the Canadian currency has gone from 82 cents to about $1.10,” DeFehr said in the report. “That change made it impossible to be competitive selling our product into the United States.”
DeFehr Furniture is one of the units formed when Winnipeg-based Palliser broke into four operating companies in August 2006. The others are upholstery maker Palliser Furniture; Casana Furniture, which imports case goods; and EQ3, Palliser’s retail concept.
The Western Home Furnishings Association will hold an an informational webinar presented by the California Air Resources Board, Sept. 25, 10-11 a.m. (PDT) in order to to bring furniture retailers up-to-date on California’s new composite wood product regulation.
Beginning January 1, 2009, any composite wood product, or finished good such as furniture or cabinets containing composite wood products intended for the California market, must meet California’s clean air emission standards limiting formaldehyde emissions. The regulation addresses three types of commonly used composite wood products--hardwood plywood, particleboard and medium-density fiberboard. Responsibility for compliance will run through each link in the commercial chain of control and each will be held liable and subject to enforcement actions.
The webinar will focus on describing the basic elements of the regulation, retailers’ compliance requirements, and enforcement program update. Space is limited.
Click here to reserve a space for the webinar
For more information on the new regulation or the webinar visit the WHFA Web site, www.whfa.org; or contact Sharron Bradley at (800) 422-3778 or sbradley@whfa.org
Furniture retailers and scores of people in Wenatchee, Wash., are joining forces for an Oct. 9 golf tournament and auction to help defray medical costs for the lengthy cancer battle of Debbie Herron, wife of Sav-Mart General Manager Kevin Herron.
Debbie Herron will be undergoing a bone marrow transplant later this month, and friends in the furniture industry are helping organize the fundraiser at the Wenatchee Country Club. In an appeal for participants and sponsors this week, Marty Cramer of Cramer’s Home Furnishings in Ellensburg, Wash., wrote, “For those of you that have been involved in this kind of battle, you know that, even with insurance, the medical costs are overwhelming.”
Event organizers are seeking golf event sponsorships and product donations for a dinner auction.
Debbie Herron, 42, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in March after previously having battled cancer in 2001 and again in 2004, according to a recent article in the “North Country Rider,” a publication dedicated to her passion, riding horses. She has endured at least four rounds of chemotherapy since March and will report to the Seattle Cancer Care Clinic in late September for two stem-cell surgeries. The publication said out-of-pocket costs could exceed $100,000, and she will have to have to remain in Seattle for six months and not be able to work during that time due to the procedure’s impact on her immune system.
The cost for the golf tournament, which starts at noon on Oct. 9, is $150 per person, including an awards dinner, and because of a generous donor, all proceeds will go to the Friends of Debbie and Kevin Herron benefit fund. For more information, contact Cramer, marty@cramershomefurnishings.com
Levin Furniture, Smithton, Pa., has selected RedPrairie Corporation’s warehouse management system in order to gain distribution efficiency through faster and more accurate order fulfillment and increased productivity. The RedPrairie WMS will integrate with Levin’s existing Escalate retail operating system.
The system from RedPrairie, Milwaukee, Wis., a leading operations and management software solution vendor, replaces an outdated legacy warehouse solution. The new RedPrairie solution will provide system-directed tasks to improve picking and putaway accuracy and employee productivity. The solution will also enable Levin to benchmark results for warehouse workers to further optimize efficiency.
Levin Furniture will gain several new features including task interleaving, wave picking, and aisle locking.
Ward Dingmann, vice president of operations for Levin Furniture, said, “The RedPrairie WMS was the logical choice for us. They have a proven track record in the furniture industry, and the WMS has the features we need to automate functions and tasks to be more efficient with our warehouse operations. This will prepare us to control current costs and support our expansion in the future.”
Levin’s Furniture has to 12 stores in Western Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio, employing approximately 750 associates.