Turnabout: Stanley shifted production of its Young America line from Asia to Robbinsville. The move has already paid off.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: PICTURE THIS

Expectant mothers are tough customers. That's one reason Stanley Furniture Co. defied the conventional wisdom that furniture manufacturing is lost overseas by moving production of its Young America line from Asia to its plant in Robbinsville. "Safety comes first, so we make sure products go above and beyond all regulations and guidelines for protecting children and infants," Chief Operating Officer Micah Goldstein says. "The best way to do that is to completely own and control the process."

Stanley doesn't altogether buck offshoring--it still makes high-end furniture for adults in Southeast Asia--but it reshored Young America, which includes youth beds and cribs, in 2010 because such products are subject to more recalls and consumer scrutiny, particularly from pregnant women, its primary sales target. But other reasons for the brand's return create hope for the state's beleaguered furniture industry, which the N.C. Department of Commerce says has shed more than half its workers since 2000 and now employs fewer than 30,000, including 375 at the Robbinsville plant.

Stanley, which will finish moving its headquarters from Stanleytown, Va., to High Point this spring to be close to the city's biannual furniture market, bought the 562,000-square-foot Robbinsville plant in 1985 and had been making case goods there. It's now exclusively Young America. Though in remote, mountainous Graham County, the plant is much closer to its customers than Indonesia or Vietnam. That means it can personalize furniture--customers can choose from 30 colors and various configurations--and offer quicker delivery. "When your supply chain is 120 days long, like when buying from Asia, it doesn't work when somebody's...