Ashley Furniture’s Ecru Plant Announces 13th Expansion

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ECRU, MISS. (WCBI) – The world’s largest furniture manufacturer is expanding its footprint at its
Ecru facility.

As WCBI’s Allie Martin reports, this latest project will have a huge
economic impact on the area.

For the 13th time in 21 years, Ashley Furniture’s Ecru plant is expanding.

Governor Phil Bryant, along with a host of company executives, and state and
local economic and business leaders broke ground for a 175 thousand square
foot addition.

“This plant has always been very productive, the skill of people in this
plant is just superb, from an upholstery manufacturing plant I’ve never seen
anything as good in the entire world,” said William Koslo, a senior executive with Ashley Furniture.

It is that quality and craftsmanship, along with innovative practices,
executives say, that has helped Ashley Furniture grow through robust and
lackluster economic times.

The state’s chief executive says that continued growth doesn’t happen
without a lot of key players.

“The great thing about North Mississippi, if you look at Randy Kelly with
Three Rivers, the mayors, boards of supervisors, ICC, even the sheriff was
here, security is very important when companies are in a particular area, so
this is a team sport,” said Gov. Phil Bryant.

Work on this expansion will be complete in about seven months, company
officials aren’t yet sure how many lines or additional workers that will
mean, but one longtime employee says it does mean job security.

“The owners have a good vision of where the market is at and how to proceed
in the future. It will help a lot, help the community continue to grow,
support the jobs and local area economy and we will be able to keep putting
out good furniture,” said David Jefcoat,  who has worked at the Ecru plant for
17 years.

Currently, the 3,500  employees at this plant produce about 45,000
pieces of furniture every week.  It will be the largest furniture plant in the world.