Ashley Furniture is a company that has combined quality furniture with affordable prices. It is a well-known brand throughout the US and many other countries worldwide. But who makes Ashley Furniture products? And where are they made? Well, that’s what I’ll be looking at in this article.
Who Makes Ashley Furniture?
Ashley Furniture Industries is an American home furnishings producer and retailer that is owned by father and son, Ron and Todd Wanek.
As for who makes Ashley Furniture’s products, the company is its own entity and it owns and oversees its own production across its facilities dotted around the world.
I could find no evidence to suggest that Ashley Furniture relies on any outside companies for its manufacturing. If it has the Ashley name on it, then it is made by the Ashley Furniture company.
Where is Ashley Furniture Made?
As mentioned above, the company owns and operates manufacturing facilities all over the world. Its headquarters is located in Arcadia, Wisconsin, but it has various manufacturing locations dotted across the US.
According to the website Creative Design Lifestyle, Ashley Furniture’s American manufacturing plants can be found in Wisconsin, Mississippi, Indiana, North California, Florida, Seattle, Pennsylvania, Seattle, and Orlando.
According to Ashley’s business website, it operates 19 facilities worldwide. Its website mentions manufacturing facilities in Vietnam and the US. It doesn’t mention its facilities in China on that website.
However, according to the company’s timeline page on its sales website, in 2001, Ashley created its largest manufacturing and distribution facility in China. Ashley also operates at least one facility in Canada.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out which of its products are American made. It may be worth contacting Ashley Furniture directly to find out more details regarding the specific manufacturing locations of its various product lines.
If you are looking for American made furniture then we have a couple of articles that may be of some interest to you. We recently wrote one about American made bed frames and another about American made bookcases.
History of Ashley Furniture
Ashley Furniture was founded by Carlyle Weinberger in 1945 in Chicago. The company began by producing wooden occasional furniture, this is something that it still does to this day.
Fast forward to 1970 and a man by the name of Ron Wanek founded a company named Arcadia Furniture. This is important as Ron Wanek goes on to play a vital role at Ashley Furniture.
In 1976, the company underwent some major internal changes. I could not find much regarding these changes but according to the company’s website, the changes were centered around management, product lines, and retooling facilities.
In 1979, Ron Wanek’s company merged with the Ashley Corporation to form Ashley Industries. Ashley Industries also hired Ron’s son Todd Wanek.
Throughout the 80s, the company hit a few milestones like introducing “The Idea Network” to improve quality and reduce costs, it began manufacturing bedroom furniture, and it introduced a line of furniture called “Millennium”.
In 1990, the company began focusing its attention on facilities in China and other places in Asia. In 1994, Ashley purchased a 135,000-square-foot upholstery manufacturing plant in Canada.
In 1996, Todd Wanek became Ashley Industries’ president and chief operations officer. For the rest of the 90s, the company continued to grow. It formed a non-profit called Ashley’s Angels to help underprivileged kids and the company also received City of Hope’s Spirit of Life award for its philanthropic achievements.
In 2000 Ashely’s sales hit $1 billion. The company opened its largest manufacturing facility in China in 2001 and by 2004, Ashley Industries’ upholstered products became the best-selling in the world.
Between the early 2000s and the present day, Ashley has continued to grow steadily while continuously updating and improving its product range. By 2019, the company had 1000 stores worldwide.
Today, Ashley Furniture owns a handful of companies, including BenchCraft and Berkline.
