Profile: Hooker Furniture Corp (HOFT.OQ)

Hooker Furniture Corporation (Hooker), incorporated in 1924, is a home furnishings marketing and logistics company offering worldwide sourcing of residential casegoods and upholstery, as well as domestically-produced custom leather and fabric upholstery. The Company designs, imports, manufactures and markets residential household furniture products principally in North America. Its major wood furniture product categories include home entertainment, home office, accent, dining and bedroom furniture under the Hooker Furniture brand, and youth furniture sold under the Opus Designs by Hooker brand. The Company is organized into two operating segments: casegoods furniture and upholstered furniture. The Company markets wood and metal furnitures under the Hooker Furniture, Envision and Opus Designs by Hooker brand names, and upholstered furniture under the Bradington-Young, Seven Seas, Sam Moore and Envision brand names.

Furniture is designed and marketed as stand-alone products or products within small multi-piece groups or broader collections offering a unifying style, design theme and finish. Products also are marketed by product category, such as The Great Entertainers, SmartWorks Home Office and Opus Designs Youth Furniture by Hooker. The Company’s wood and metal furniture is typically designed for and marketed in the medium to high price range. Under the Bradington-Young and Seven Seas upholstery brand, it offers a variety of residential leather and fabric upholstered furniture and specialize in leather reclining and motion chairs, sofas, club chairs and executive desk chairs. Under the Sam Moore upholstery brand, it offers upscale occasional chairs with an emphasis on fabric-to-frame customization in the upper-medium to high-end price niches. Domestically produced upholstered furniture is targeted at the upper-medium and upper price ranges, while imported upholstered furniture is targeted at the medium and upper-medium price ranges. Hooker is a full-line resource for retailers, offering furniture collections and products for virtually every room of the home.

Bradington -Young focuses on its domestic and import leather upholstery product lines through the introduction of products and programs and the streamlining of operations. Sam Moore’s product offerings fill several niches in the occasional chair category, offering exposed wood, as well as fully upholstered seating. Sam Moore’s occasional seating covers multiple styles that include upholstered swivel rockers, club chairs, wings, chaises, benches, ottomans, office chairs, settees, dining chairs and barstools in 18th Century, French, traditional, transitional, and contemporary styles. Most chair styles are available in a choice of either fabric or leather. In addition, Sam Moore customers may provide their own fabric (customer’s own material or COM) to be applied to a chair. Hooker imports products primarily from China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand through direct relationships with factories and with agents representing other factories. At January 30, 2011, Hooker Furniture operated approximately 542,400 square feet of manufacturing and supply plant capacity in North Carolina and Virginia for its domestic upholstered furniture production.

Opus Designs by Hooker Furniture product line focuses on introducing additional designs and sophisticated finishes into the product line. In April 2011, the Company introduced the Carter group, which is primarily targeted to boys. In October 2011, it introduced the Abby group, which is primarily targeted to girls.