Hooker Furniture Completes Acquisition of Home Meridian International

Furniture World News Desk on 2/2/2016

Hooker Furniture Corporation , together with its wholly owned subsidiaries Bradington-Young and Sam Moore, has announced today that it has completed the acquisition of the business of Home Meridian International.

The acquisition, which is the largest in Hooker’s 91-year history, more than doubles its sales volume and positions the Company to become one of the top five sources for the U.S. furniture market. The combined companies had revenues over the trailing twelve months, ending October 31, 2015, in excess of $550 million. During the same time period, operating income for the combined companies, which includes approximately $3.5 million of deal-related costs, was $35.6 million.

The companies entered into a definitive agreement earlier this year for Hooker to acquire substantially all of the assets and certain liabilities of HMI for approximately $100 million, comprised of $85 million in cash and $15 million of newly-issued HOFT stock. The transaction also included a customary net working capital adjustment leading to a $5.3 million upward adjustment. This adjustment was driven by an increase in HMI’s accounts receivable primarily due to strong sales towards the end of 2015. This adjustment was paid in newly issued Hooker Furniture Corporation stock and therefore Hooker issued a total of 716,910 shares in the transaction.

HMI will operate as a division of Hooker Furniture Corporation and will be led by HMI’s former President and Chief Executive Officer George Revington and his management team, with no visible changes to customers of either company. “We are greatly pleased to have the individual companies that comprise Home Meridian become part of our Hooker Furniture stable of companies,” said Paul B. Toms Jr., chairman and chief executive officer. “Pulaski Furniture Samuel Lawrence Furniture, Prime Resources, Sourcing Solutions Group, Right 2 Home and Samuel Lawrence Hospitality are all vibrant businesses addressing more moderate points and channels of distribution not currently served by Hooker Furniture, Sam Moore, Bradington-Young, Homeware and/or H Contract,” he said.

HMI’s headquarters will continue to be located in High Point N.C., and Hooker Furniture’s headquarters will remain in Martinsville, Va.

The combined global footprint of the companies include upholstery manufacturing facilities and corporate offices in North Carolina and Virginia, showrooms in High Point and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and eight distribution centers in North Carolina, Virginia, California and Vietnam. Combined, the companies will have approximately 900 employees.

While there will be no merger of operations or change in customer-facing services, “We do see opportunity to improve each business by sharing best practices and looking for ways to work together to lower costs, improve efficiency and grow sales, “ Toms said.

More about Hooker Furniture: Ranked among the nation's top 10 largest publicly traded furniture sources based on 2014 shipments to U.S. retailers, Hooker Furniture Corporation is a residential wood, metal and upholstered furniture resource in its 91st year of business. Major casegoods product categories include home entertainment, home office, accent, dining, and bedroom furniture primarily in the upper-medium price points sold under the Hooker Furniture brand. Hooker’s residential upholstered seating product lines include: Bradington-Young, a specialist in upscale motion and stationary leather furniture; Sam Moore Furniture, a specialist in fabric upholstery with an emphasis on cover-to-frame customization; and Hooker Upholstery, which focuses on imported leather upholstered furniture targeted at the upper-medium price-range. The Homeware product line offers customer-assembled, modular upholstered and casegoods products designed for younger and more mobile furniture customers. The H Contract product line supplies upholstered seating and casegoods to upscale senior living facilities. For more information, visit hookerfurniture.com.