Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
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Vietnam, Watergate, a gas crisis, and high unemployment numbers — they were just a few of the headlines that defined a decade and crippled a nation in the 1970s.
The American dream of owning a home, having a great job, and living comfortably were becoming blurred, as nightmares of record inflation and unemployment stifled the country's economy.
It was the decade of great optimism and uncertainty of what would lie ahead for a struggling society and its depressed economy.
Emerging as an industry leader
For Thomasville Furniture Industries (TFI), the 1970s were a time to make more moves to solidify itself as an industry leader and cash in on its great expansions of the 1960s
The first step was going international, starting a new product grouping called “From the Four Corners” in 1971 — a unique collection of imported furniture and decorated accessories.
But TFI President Tom A. Finch decided that the company would still need to do more to stay atop the furniture industry.
So in 1972, TFI President Tom A. Finch announced plans to build a $2.8 million four-story structure on East Main Street to adjoin the company's two existing showrooms. It was a move designed to expand not only the showroom, but allow for the company's offices to be located in a central location. By its completion in 1974, the entire complex stretched a city block, and bolstered 100,000 square-feet of showroom space. The building allowed TFI to display all of its varied furniture lines under one roof for the first time, and solidified central North Carolina as one of the top places in the nation for furniture markets.
Also that year, the company opened a new 350,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Appamattox, Va., which housed some of the most modern technology available in the industry at the time. The facility allowed for several new concepts in furniture manufacturing, producing bedroom and functional furniture under a new line called Armstrong Furniture.
In 1977, TFI leased a 191,000 square-foot facility nearby in Brookneal, Va. to produce living room furniture. The facility became TFI's 22nd plant.
A year later, the company received a marketing overhaul, creating a sales group for each of its product line, a move directed to keep with the company's commitment to provide better service to its customers.
TFI celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1979, and did so with another leadership change when Tom A. Finch left to become chairman of the company's board of directors. L.E. Bish, a company vice president since 1950, took over as president.
The Odd 80s
The 1980s was a decade that provided a series of strange events for TFI.
The company withstood numerous union battles, tough economic times, plant closings and openings, partial work weeks, reduced hours, a hostile takeover battle, and the loss of a long-time president.
The decade started with great concerns about a declining furniture industry and tough economic times. Those economic pressures lead TFI to discontinue the manufacturing and marketing of its Founders line of upholstered furniture in Hickory in Feb. 1980. The move impacted 85 employees.
A recession in demand for high-end contemporary wooden furniture also forced the temporary closing of TFI's Pleasant Ridge plant in 1981. The plant remained closed until 1986.
Hard times also lead to TFI cutting back on its workforce by implementing four-day work weeks that year for employees, and shutting plants down for a week at a time periodically to offset the effects of an economic slowdown.
In 1984, former TFI president Tom A. Finch lost his battle with Alzheimer's disease, removing the Finch name from the company the family built. Finch, who served as president from 1961 to 1979, was remembered fondly for his oversight of the company's massive expansion in the 1960s and 70s.
“He was certainly marketing-oriented, and he was simply an inspiration for all who worked with him,” former TFI president Fred Starr told the Times in 1990. “His main decades of growth were just an inspiration.”
Despite increasing competition form foreign corporation, TFI was able to bounce back from the economic slump of the early 80s under the leadership of Starr, who took over as TFI president in 1982.
A few years later, that bounce proved record setting, as TFI hit $252 million in sales in 1985 — a record high at that time.
“We're thinking like a global company,” Starr said when the figures were released. “We're taking our foreign competitors on, and so far it seems to be working. We're going to attack and take these people on. If you believe in America, that's the way it ought to be done.”
Taking advantage of those figures, TFI decided on a series of expansions in the late 80s which included:
• Purchasing property in Carysbrook Va. to develop a manufacturing plant for ready-to-assemble furniture in 1986.
• Doubling production capacity for upholstered furniture at Gilliam Furniture in Statesville in 1987.
• Acquiring a series of assets of the Westchester company, including Westchester Leather Inc; Westchester Business Furniture Inc.; Emerywood Collection Inc.; and Innsbrook Company Inc. in 1987
• A multi-million dollar expansion to the bedroom furniture plant in Lenoir, and adding 350 employees.
TFI rounded out the decade in 1989 battling a hostile financial takeover at its parent company Armstrong World Industries (AWI) by the Belzberg family of Vancouver, British Columbia.
First City Financial Corporation (FCFC), headed by the Belzbergs, had acquired a near 10 percent (4.6 million shares) of AWI stock, and was using it to mount a takeover. The Belzbergs were notoriously known for their past record of buying sizable numbers of various companies’ outstanding stock shares, and then announcing a takeover. After the price of the stock increased, they turned around and sold their shares for substantial gains.
In the battle for AWI, Belzberg threatened to sell TFI to finance the plotted takeover.
However, the attempt failed after an 11-month battle in the Pennsylvania court system. AWI was able to repurchase 3.7 million shares of stock owned by the Belzbergs. The Canadian family ended up selling its 11.7 percent of the company it had acquired by June of 1990, losing around $16 to $18 million.
But TFI wasn't in the clear just yet, as another set of challenges came to the forefront in the 1990s. The furniture industry faced increased competition from foreign competitors and TFI, like many other companies were forced to respond with manufacturing cutbacks and layoffs.
Staff Writer Ryan Seals can be reached at 472-9500 ext. 231, or at ryan.d.seals@gmail.com.