Washington-Behold Furniture expands presence at Tupelo furniture market

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A Northeast Mississippi furniture company is coming back strong in more ways than one after a devastating fire nearly one year ago.

In fact,  “Behold-Washington” Furniture is making a bigger impact at the Tupelo Furniture Market.

For a brief moment, executives at “Behold Washington” Furniture took a break to officially open a new, expanded showroom at the Tupelo Furniture Market.

The company moved from a 6,000 square foot space, to a 19,000 square foot showroom.

“The time was right to expand our footprint,” said John Beard, vice president of sales.

The company has been through a lot this past year. Last September, a massive fire destroyed a warehouse and damaged production lines at its Pontotoc plant. Weeks later, the company was making furniture again. And earlier this summer, work began on a 400,000  square foot warehouse replacing the one destroyed in the blaze.

Jim Youngblood owns Delta Furniture Company, out of Clarksdale, and is a longtime customer of Behold-Washington.

He is glad to see the furniture maker rebound, bigger and better after last year’s fire.

“I knew it put them down for awhile, but in a year they have pretty much rebounded on it, had to wait for awhile to get product, but now they’re flowing it in,” said Youngblood.

While some companies may have scaled back after a massive fire at their manufacturing plant, executives at Behond- Washington felt it was good business sense to more than triple their space at the Tupelo Furniture Market, while the rebuild at their factory is ongoing.

“It is important for us to support our retailers and what better way than for us to provide a big presence here in Tupelo so they can shop and have a good experience while at Tupelo Furniture Market,” said Beard.

Beard said business was brisk the first official day of the Tupelo Market. Behold Washington should be in its new warehouse by December.

Behold Washington also has a Smithville plant. The company employs around 300 people.