The Ashley HomeStore chain of furniture stores is composed of corporate owned stores and independently owned stores with licenses to sell Ashley Furniture products exclusively, including mattresses and accessories.
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Ron Wanek is currently chairman of the board and Todd Wanek is currently President and CEO. They also have sourcing offices in India, Vietnam, Southern China, Muar, and Taiwan. Today the company maintains plants across the United States and also operates several factories (including its largest) in Pacific Rim countries such as Vietnam and China. In 2015, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration imposed $1.7 million in fines on Ashley due to unsafe working conditions at its Arcadia plant which caused over one thousand injuries to workers.
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īy 2000, Ashley Furniture Industries employed more people in Arcadia than the town's population. The chain grew in its first year to approximately 40 stores. That same year the company also branched out into retailing, licensing Ashley Furniture HomeStores to independent dealers. Gambling that motion furniture was a strong growth area, Ashley acquired Gentry Furniture, of Ripley, Mississippi in 1999. In 1994 Ashley acquired upholstery manufacturer Sklar-Peppler, and by the late 1990s the company was operating assembly and distribution plants in Seattle, Washington Pomona, California New Brunswick, New Jersey and Orlando, Florida. Sales had climbed to more than $44 million by 1985. The company's growing network included wholesalers such as Levitz Furniture and mass-retailers such as Sears, Kmart, and Montgomery Ward, in addition to smaller retailers. By the mid-1980s, Ashley offered a line of roughly 350 different furniture products, and had turned its design and manufacturing away from "heirloom pieces" toward products aimed at middle-income buyers. At first the two companies maintained their separate identities, with Arcadia focusing on production and Ashley on sales.īy 1982, the merged company's annual sales reached $12 million and it had moved its corporate headquarters from Chicago to Arcadia. Even though Arcadia started out as a small production plant for Ashley's lines in 1976, a group of investors bought out Weinberger, taking control of Ashley Furniture. In 1970, Ashley invested in the Wisconsin-based Arcadia Furniture, founded by Thomas Brosseau. Later the company opened a branch in Goshen, Indiana.
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Specializing in wooden occasional furniture, Ashley marketed goods made by local companies. Carlyle Weinberger founded Ashley Furniture in Chicago in 1945 as a sales operation.