After nearly 100 years in business, the Johnston Tombigbee Furniture factory off Waterworks Road will cease operations in February.
The business, which was family-run from 1932 until it was sold to Prime Hospitality in 2024, manufactured furniture for residential and hospitality markets.
Jim Donnelly, president of Prime Hospitality, said the decision was difficult but long anticipated.
“We don’t like for any operation that we had big plans for to cease,” Donnelly told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “That was one thing that really kept us from doing this before. To be honest, the writing had been on the wall for a while that this is something that may need to happen. … You’ve got things that you see and don’t want to do because of the way you feel about the community and that company. The good thing is, we’re keeping the name going. The customers are still going to get a quality product.”
While operations will end in Columbus, Donnelly said furniture bearing the JTB logo will continue to ship from Prime Hospitality facilities in Saltillo and Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
“We love the JTB brand,” Donnelly said. “… We found a way to kind of keep the JTB name and legacy going. We’ve still got customers that love JTB, and we want to keep that. What that brand stands for, that’s not something that we’re just throwing away and saying, ‘Now we’re done with that.’ We’re keeping that and playing tight to the vest … some of the plans we may have for that.”
Russell B. Johnston founded JTB Furniture in 1932, starting off in the residential furniture market. In 1980, the company began also making furniture for hotels and eventually shifted solely to hospitality by 2004. In 2020, fourth-generation owner Brooks Berry ushered the company back to the residential market, until the company was sold four years later.
The Columbus factory, which once furnished tens of thousands of hotel rooms nationwide, was hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, cutting its workforce of nearly 200 people in half and operating just 165 days in 2020, according to previous reporting by The Dispatch.
Donnelly said the pandemic accelerated a shift in the hospitality market toward laminated products, rather than the wood veneer and stained furniture the Columbus facility was designed to produce. That shift ultimately led to the decision to cease operations.
“The market change at that time drove a lot of product back to the U.S., and it changed the way that people in the hospitality industry specified,” he said. “What’s less expensive to make here in the U.S. is a less labor-intensive product with a lot of machinery, and that’s what the laminate business does for you. With a staining operation, it’s just very labor intensive, very expensive, and so it really couldn’t compete with stuff coming from overseas.”
Donnelly described the staining equipment as a costly operation, noting the finishing room includes a production line and a large oven that runs eight to 10 hours a day.
The company’s workforce has dwindled to 18 employees, six of whom plan to retire. The remaining 12 will stay on temporarily to ship remaining inventory, and Donnelly said Prime Hospitality is also assisting employees in finding new jobs.
Meryl Fisackerly, chief operating officer for the Golden Triangle Development LINK, said the organization stands ready to help displaced workers.
“That would be something we would be happy to be involved in,” Fisackerly told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “If there is a way that we could help see that those workers were relocated to another industry, we would be happy to help with that.”
Although operations at the 250,000-square-foot facility will close, Donnelly said the building could reopen in some capacity in the future, with the potential of leasing part of the space, retooling the facility or bringing in new equipment.
“We’re trying to figure out … do we rent out some space and go to a smaller … assembly-only line with laminate furniture?” Donnelly said. “Do we retool it fully? But right now, with it being the big stain line and the ovens, we’re spending a lot of money there. We’re going to cease operations for right now or suspend until we can decide what to do with that facility.
“If the market says, now we need more stained veneer, we’ll look at it,” he added. “If we need more laminate products than we’ve got capacity to do elsewhere, then we’ll look at re-opening it there, but just keeping our options open.”
Fisackerly said the shutdown could make room for something new in Columbus.
“I think it’s just one of those natural shifts that you see throughout the years,” she said. “Things reshore, things go offshore throughout the course of the lifespan of the industry, and I think that’s just what we’ve seen here. Hopefully it’s just an opportunity for something new and something different to come into that facility, if that is what they choose to do, repurpose the facility.”
Donnelly said he expects to have a clearer plan for the future of the building by the end of February.
“The future will be really good for JTB,” Donnelly said. “It may look a little different, but the future is good for that name and that legacy of what (the Johnston and Brooks families) put together.”
Brooks Berry and his father, Reau Brooks, third-generation owner of JTB, declined to comment on the closure.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
