Bassett Furniture

2025 is a year of challenges and opportunities. And as we do, every fall, furniture today is on the road talking with some of our domestic manufacturers about exactly how they're s Today, we're kicking off our domestic manufacturing series at Bassett Furniture here in Bassett, Virginia. We're going to take you inside to learn a little bit about the Bassett was founded in 1902. Prior to that, the family were farmers along the Smith River in Bassett. As the railway was needed to bring coal from West Virginia to the Winston-Salem area for the tobacco and hosiery mills there, Bassett, Virginia was about the halfway point. So we gave the right-of-way to the railroad. In return, they ran the railroad right through the family farm. We supplied bridge timbers and cross ties for the railroad. And then once it was complete, J. D. Bassett went on the road by train selling fine Appalachian hardwood l And then it was said that his wife, Pocahontas, Hunley Bassett, said, well, if you can cut the l They can make the furniture, s Imagine what we could do if we did it here. So smart lady, smart gentleman for listening tour. 1902, company was founded by J. D. Bassett, C. C. Bassett and their brother-in-law, R. L. Stone. So in 1902, J. D. Bassett, he had acquired the knowledge and experience in how to process l So he went on the road buying equipment and C. C. Bassett and R. L. Stone stayed here, The first year they did turn a profit. A chest of drawers in 1902 sold for $4. 75. The company had its set of challenges. Fire, the original plant burned. They rebuilt, instead of a wood structure they put two wood-fired boilers to fire the generators, one for the factory and one for the developing town. We survived the depression. We even had our own company currency to use at the local mercantile stores. World War II, J. D. Bassett Jr. , or Doug, he traveled to Detroit and secured a contract with Yellow Cab and Coach Company to manufacture wooden truck beds for doos and a half. One seed, doos and a half, troop and supply ve So we moved all the furniture into two factories and then converted one factory for the war effort. So that was a brilliant move by converting a factory to produce the truck beds. That kept our factories operating. Other fact and furniture factories may be perhaps shut down for the war. We kept our factories running. We kept our employees, our associates working. We kept our suppliers in business. So after World War II, that's where I came from. That's where the baby boomers came from and Bassett was already upfitted with new equipment in their factories to really produce. Today, as far as manufacturing wooden case goods, we're here in our plant in Martinsville, Virginia. We make solid wood, bench-made furniture. Were at lunch one day 16 years ago and Rob, our CEO, asked the question, what is furniture's version of craft beer, small batch bourbon, farm to table, and honestly, we wrote it on a napkin. Solid wood, taking us back to our roots. Somet And that founded our bench-made product line in 2015. We've been made in the U. S. since 1902. Unforeseen to us was the great Asian tsunami that started in the 80s and went into the 2000s and beyond. So we found ourselves scrambling to deal with somet I t And so that was an evolution over a n We used to run long batches and we migrated to one at a time. Moved forward a year or two or three and here we are in Martinsville, Virginia in t And by the time the factory was built, unfortunately those fellows had decided to go to Asia and buy so what in the heck are we going to do with t Here we are. And so we had enjoyed t So we came out with a casual dining program in the early 2000s, three tables, three chairs, three finishes, and it grew from there. And it's really been a great ride and somet There is no finished goods inventory. Everyt Every piece of t So these things are made for an individual cons We get a lot of input from our stores. We're very close to the cons We don't want to overdo it, but we do want to offer a We, 45% of the time, our sales in the stores emanate from a visit to the home. So a true design job. And so when you look at that and couple that with very skilled designers that we have working with us and offer them t And then the fact that 73, 4% of all t S. is pretty unusual when I go up and down the retail corridors of America and look at the competition, I go, It's quite unique and it's a We t We have a website that has a million viewers a month and so that combined with our store network across the country and our licensee program and everything, we've got a lot of touch points with the end cons And so I think it gives us an advantage there from a design standpoint because we're not relying on the opinions of, Not that we don't value those people's opinions, but our folks are just a little easier to contact. So I just t Again as Jeb and Dad has both said, we're founded in 1902 and so our business was made by the open market relations Now that world has evolved and there's been the rise of the interior designer, but then in 1997 we got into corporate retail as well. And so our entire model has evolved and now with the web coming in as well, we're truly an omnichannel player. And so I t So my sister Ann and her team have really been working on showing the product in a way that we want to display it in our stores and really having the store itself kind of be elevated to the level of our product offering. And then I t When in fact, I mean we use the And when you take, So it's been a fun story to tell to a new cons