2,700 people without jobs after United Furniture terminates workforce
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Tractor trailers begin moving trailers from the ploading docks at the Lane Home Furnishing facility in Nettleton Tuessday afternoon.
Tractor trailers begin moving trailers from the ploading docks at the Lane Home Furnishing facility in Nettleton Tuessday afternoon.
A former Lane Home Furnishing employee puts in a job application at an Ashley Furniture job fair at a booth at Crosstown in Tupelo Tuesday morning following the sudden closure of Lane Home Furnishings.
Ashley Furniture set up a job fair and application booth at Crosstown in Tupelo Tuesday morning following the sudden closure of Lane Home Furnishings.
Ashley Furniture set up a job fair and application booth at Crosstown in Tupelo Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, following the sudden closure of United Furniture. A large-scale job fair featuring 50 employers was held at the Itawamba Community College Belden campus on Nov. 29, 2022.
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Empty trailers line the parking lot at the Lane Home Furnishings facility in Belden Tuesday morning after the sudden closing of all it's sites.
United Furniture laid off its entire workforce overnight Monday. Approximately 2,700 employees lost their jobs, most of whom live in Northeast Mississippi.
United sent a memo via email and text to employees late Monday night informing them not to report to work. Over-the-road drivers who were out on deliveries were told to immediately return to a United Furniture location to turn in their trucks.
"Your layoff from the Company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA," the memo said.
It is a stunning fall for a company that had become one of the largest furniture companies in the country. United had Mississippi plants in Amory, Belden, Hatley, Nettleton, Okolona, Vardaman, Verona and Wren. The company also had six plants in North Carolina and one in California.
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Local leaders were caught off guard
Lee County Administrator Bill Benson called the mass layoffs a “terrible” situation, noting that the Lee County Board of Supervisors would assist if it could.
“I know the board is ready to do anything it can to assist in the efforts of placing these folks,” Benson said, adding that he was unsure if there were any specific actions the board could take.
Job fairs were already being organized, including ones by Ashley Furniture, which set up tents in Tupelo and Pontotoc.
“We’ve been doing these pop-ups for a couple of years,” said Ashley field recruitment supervisor Diana Ortiz, who was manning a recruitment tent at Crosstown. “We’ve had a lot of United employees stop by and fill out applications.”
The Community Development Foundation is partnering with Three Rivers Planning and Development District and Itawamba Community College to host a job fair on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at the ICC Belden campus.
CDF CEO David Rumbarger said since the organization heard about the mass layoff, it has been working “feverishly” to assist the some 1,000 affected Lee County residents.
“The timing of this is tremendously unfortunate,” he said. “We are going to do everything we can to get these people back to work.”
Officials in Monroe County, where United was the largest employer, were also scrambling.
“We’re heartbroken and in prayers for all of those affected. We’re working and partnering with our economic development friends at CDF, Three Rivers, the WIN Job Center and Accelerate MS to help deploy as many resources and available information on jobs and the rapid response,” Monroe County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Chelsea Baulch said.
History of United Furniture
The roots of United were planted in 1983 in north Mississippi with the opening of Comfort Furniture.
In 2000, United Furniture was created with the merger of Comfort Furniture, Parkhill Furniture and United Chair. By December 2008, United Furniture received the exclusive licensing agreement as the U.S. manufacturer of Simmons Upholstery.
In August 2015, Simmons Case Goods was added to the United Furniture product lines. That allowed United to include coordinated upholstery and case goods under the Simmons brand.
United purchased the Lane brand in 2017 from Heritage Home Group LLC for an undisclosed sum. Lane, which was founded in 1912 in Virginia and merged with Tupelo-based Action Industries in 1972, was once one of Northeast Mississippi’s largest employers.
Lane was a part of Furniture Brand International, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013. Most of the assets of Furniture Brands was bought by KPS Capital Partners for $280 million, and in the aftermath, Heritage Home Group was formed.
Ray Van Dusen contributed to this report.
