Vaughan-Bassett's Cool Rustic bedroom collection is made from solid American maple and birch.
GALAX, Va. — Vaughan-Bassett has made bedroom furniture for more than a hundred years in Virginia and North Carolina. And the company has tried its hand at other categories throughout its history — such as formal dining — but now it’s done with that type of strategy.
“We offered dining a few times over the years and early on in the pandemic when business was so good,” said President Doug Bassett. “But starting in June 2020, we were transitioning out of dining, as it was representing less than 10% of our volume.”
Dining also was difficult to make for the company, said Bassett, especially at a low enough cost to compete.
“Our factories are set up as bedroom, and that’s what we’re good at,” he said. “Finishing and assembly for tables and chairs were not set up. And being a made-in-America company, we couldn’t get costs low enough to compete with Asia.”
“Dealers were telling us that if dining went away, it wouldn’t impact bedroom sales one way or another,” he said. “We alerted dealers in summer of 2020 that we had more business that we could possibly meet. That meant anything that came through factory slowly had to be eliminated.”
That philosophy has become important for the company, even looking past the dining category.
“We’ve become brutal at dropping under-performing groups,” said Bassett. “In 2019, we had 24 groups. That’s 22 bedroom lines and two dining. Today, we only have nine bedroom collections in our entire lineup. That allows us to service our dealers better. And we are still getting volume we need.”
The pandemic helped usher in a surge of business for Vaughan-Bassett, from producing $62 million in furniture in 2019 to $99 million in 2021.
“That’s more than a 60% increase,” said Bassett. “We’d honestly have to be dragged kicking and screaming back into dining at this point. Never say never, but it’s extremely unlikely.”
The company’s strategy remains the same as it moves forward through 2022.
“Sales are moderating somewhat in 2022, but because we deliver American-made products and have more inventory and deliver more quickly, we are still increasing market share,” he said.
“We have one introduction planned for High Point,” Bassett added. “Business is so good that we don’t want to come up with groups that may underperform. We’re being very disciplined.”
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February 18, 2022 at 07:40PM
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A surge in business fuels Vaughan-Bassett's streamlined strategy - Furniture Today
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