Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc. is an American home furnishings manufacturer and retailer, headquartered in

Arcadia, Wisconsin Arcadia is a city in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Trempealeau River. The population was 3,737 at the 2020 census. Arcadia is a Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latino-majority city and the largest city in Trempealeau count ...

. The company is owned by father and son team Ron and Todd Wanek. Ashley Furniture manufactures and distributes home furniture products throughout the world. Ashley Furniture Industries sells home furnishings and accessories available through two distribution channels: independent furniture dealers and more than 700 Ashley Furniture HomeStore retail furniture stores, which are independently owned and operated by licensees in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Central America, and Japan. It has manufacturing and distribution facilities in Wisconsin, Mississippi, California (only manufacturing closed in 2016 distribution facility remains), Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, China, and Vietnam.

History

Carlyle Weinberger founded Ashley Furniture in Chicago in 1945 as a sales operation. Specializing in wooden occasional furniture, Ashley marketed goods made by local companies. Later the company opened a branch in

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

. In 1970, Ashley invested in the Wisconsin-based Arcadia Furniture, founded by Thomas Brosseau. 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. At first the two companies maintained their separate identities, with Arcadia focusing on production and Ashley on sales. By 1982, the merged company's annual sales reached $12 million and it had moved its corporate headquarters from Chicago to Arcadia. 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. The company's growing network included wholesalers such as

Levitz Furniture Levitz Furniture was a nationwide chain of American furniture stores that helped create the "furniture warehouse" genre of retail furniture sales. It was in business for nearly 100 years before liquidating in bankruptcy in early 2008. History ...

and mass-retailers such as

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

, and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

, in addition to smaller retailers. Sales had climbed to more than $44 million by 1985. In 1994 Ashley acquired upholstery manufacturer Sklar-Peppler, and by the late 1990s the company was operating assembly and distribution plants in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

;

Pomona, California Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Pol ...

; New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Orlando, Florida. Gambling that motion furniture was a strong growth area, Ashley acquired Gentry Furniture, of

Ripley, Mississippi Ripley is a city in Tippah County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 5,395 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Tippah County. Colonel William Clark Falkner, great-grandfather of authors William Faulkner and John Faulkner, ...

in 1999. That same year the company also branched out into retailing, licensing Ashley Furniture HomeStores to independent dealers. The chain grew in its first year to approximately 40 stores. By 2000, Ashley Furniture Industries employed more people in Arcadia than the town's population. The plant in Arcadia had grown from in 1970 to . In 2015, the US

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration'' (OSHA ) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agenc ...

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. 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. They also have sourcing offices in India, Vietnam, Southern China, Muar, and Taiwan. Ron Wanek is currently chairman of the board and Todd Wanek is currently President and CEO.

Retail presence

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. There are over 1000 Ashley Furniture HomeStore retail furniture stores operating worldwide in more than 123 countries. Ashley Furniture HomeStore is a retail brand which sells home furniture and accessories. Ashley Furniture HomeStore CEO is Todd Wanek, who replaced CEO Mark Dufresne in 2017.

Philanthrophy

Ron Wanek designed and built Memorial Park in Arcadia, Wisconsin, with donations from Ashley Furniture. The park is dedicated to the soldiers who have served in wars throughout the history of the United States. The walkway in the park serves as a time line, beginning at the founding of the United States and proceeding into the future. A monument is located for each war at its place in time. In June 2021, Ashley HomeStore gave $3,000 gift cards to twelve families that lost their homes due to Hurricane Laura. The deprived families were picked by the Trinity Baptist Church.

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.ashleyfurnitureindustriesinc.com Retail companies based in Wisconsin Manufacturing companies based in Wisconsin American companies established in 1945 Manufacturing companies established in 1945 Furniture companies of the United States Privately held companies based in Wisconsin Retail companies established in 1945 1945 establishments in Illinois Family-owned companies of the United States