With frequent reports of large layoffs, decreased salaries and plant closings, area economic news lately has been less than stellar.
Across the country, news of large companies outsourcing jobs and terminating longtime employees during the past few years provides an even bleaker economic outlook for many.
Although it seems recent economic news has been nothing but negative, at least one Columbus company has something positive to report.
“Our year-to-date business was up 18 percent at the end of March,” Reau Berry, owner and president of Johnston Tombigbee Furniture on Waterworks Road, said as he noted the company”s fiscal year began in October 2008. “That”s a pretty significant number.
“We have great employees, great customers and a great relationship with God,” Berry added. “I”ve found that makes for a great formula for success.”
JTB Furniture has been operating in Columbus for more than 75 years and currently employs more than 300 employees, most of whom are area residents.
And while the company has felt a recent “slight hiccup” from the country”s economic woes, they have not cut any full-time employees in the past several years, Berry said.
“We have had to cut back on some overtime and put everyone on a 40-hour week, but we have not laid off any regular, full-time employees,” Berry explained. “We have used some temporary workers in the past when the demand called for extra help, so we have let those workers go after things like that.”
JTB Furniture”s business boom is in contrast to a statewide furniture market decline many believe is the result of a “flood” of overseas furniture products.
“The dramatic downturn in the U.S. economy, tightening of consumer credit and flood of low-priced foreign products are among major factors causing decreases in domestic furniture sales,” Bill Martin, director of the Franklin Furniture Institute at Mississippi State University, wrote in a press release.
“It is difficult for our state manufacturers to compete with foreign competitors who pay such low wages as China and Vietnam do,” wrote Glenn Fererri, a trade specialist with the Mississippi Export Assistance Center.
Although Berry was unable to reveal how many orders the company has filled this fiscal year, he said employees now are selling orders to be filled in June and July.
“We actually always try to stay about that far ahead with our sales, so that”s not abnormal for us,” Berry explained. “When we do that, it helps us to be able to handle unexpected economic changes in the future and make sure we get the product to our customers.”
In addition to individual and corporate customers, JTB Furniture also has contracts with several of the country”s hotel chains, like Hampton Inns, Best Western Inns and several others.
“A lot of the furniture you see in hotels across the country was made in our 325,000-square-foot facility right here on Waterworks Road,” said Berry. “A lot of the major retailers and businesses in the country order furniture with us too.”
Because a recent wave of outsourcing has pushed many U.S. furniture manufacturing jobs overseas to Asian countries, JTB Furniture is one of five similar furniture manufacturing plants remaining in the country, said Berry.
Although JTB Furniture”s business has “been great” the past few years, 2009 has been “exceptional” so far, something Berry attributed to the company”s philosophy and hard work.
“Lately, people seem to have given up on things made in America. But that”s one of the things we are very proud of and one of the things I can”t emphasize enough,” Berry said. “I think a lot of people have been ordering their furniture from China, and are really starting to come back to American companies like ours.
“When customers get furniture from China, they often find the quality is poor, speedy delivery is non-existent and there is a complete lack of service after the sale,” Berry added. “I know I”ve said it several times, but I just can”t emphasize enough that we are an American company, we employ American workers and we try our best to support our community here in Columbus.
“We just praise the Lord that business has been so good for us, especially when so many companies haven”t been as fortunate,” Berry added. “It really is a gift from God.”
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