Timberlake brushes off furniture imports.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

Bob Timberlake makes millions painting the simple life in his native North Carolina. But when it comes to halting the exportation of Tar Heel furniture jobs, he's finding life less simple. His target is the company that manufactured an estimated $70 million worth of his Timberlake-brand furniture in 2002, Lexington-based Lexington Home Brands Inc. "What we've decided to do here is to throw up a roadblock, to say 'no more,'" Timberlake, 66, says.

The sequence of events pitting Timberlake against Lexington Home Brands began in July when 31 furniture makers drew up a petition alleging that China is dumping furniture on the U.S. market. Lexington Home Brands signed it but withdrew from the coalition in September, the same month it announced it would shut down a plant in Lexington, idling more than 500.

Analysts say Timberlake furniture makes up about a third of Lexington's more than $200 million in sales, though Bob Stec, its chairman and CEO, insists that it's less than 20%. Some of the Timberlake line--wicker products, for example--already is made overseas. But Timberlake says he balked when Lexington wanted to produce more offshore. "We accepted things like the wicker because we know you...