Finished furniture.

• Position: WESTERN REGION

On April 1, Stanley Furniture said it will close its Robbinsville plant because its Young America line of youth beds and cribs produced there "could not achieve an acceptable level of revenue within an adequate time frame to assure sustainable profitability," CEO Glenn Prillaman said in a statement. It's a blow to advocates of reshoring, moving manufacturing back to the U.S. The company, now based in High Point, moved production to Robbinsville from overseas in 2010, spending $9 million to modernize the factory ("Turnabout," March 2013). The goal was to improve quality and make delivery faster for Young America customers, who generated 40% of the company's $96.9 million of sales last year. It didn't pan out, so Prillaman said the company will focus on its Stanley brand, which is profitable--and made in Indonesia and Vietnam. The publicly traded company lost $12.6 million last year. Stanley's 400 employees made up about 13% of the workforce in mountainous Graham County, about 90 miles west of Asheville.

OLD FORT--XO.STEEL will create 30 jobs and invest $350,000 over three years in an 8,000-square-foot manufacturing plant that could be expanded to triple its size. The new Raleigh-based company will produce a protective surface application for steel products. Average annual pay for the jobs will be $37,067, 21% higher than McDowell County's average. It will get a $90,000 grant from the state's One North Carolina Fund if it meets job-creation and investment goals.

BOONE--Sheri Noren...