It was a bitter August for workers, customers and ownership at Klaussner Furniture Industries Inc. in North Carolina and Solid Comfort in North Dakota. 

The two companies, both ranked in the FDMC 300 ranking of largest North American woodworking shops, were seemingly there one day and gone the next. 

Klaussner announced on their website, August 7, that they were closing all of its facilities, and that process began on that day. The company, which ranked on 36 on the FDMC listing with estimated sales of more than $300 million in 2022, was closing “As the result of challenging and unexpected business circumstances impacting our operations, Klaussner Furniture Industries, Inc. and its direct and indirect subsidiaries must unexpectedly wind down the operations.”

The company said that its lending source “unexpectedly refused to continue to fund the company’s operations” and the company could no longer sustain operations.

According to a WARN notice filed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce on the same day the closures were posted on its website, the number of company employees who lost their job was listed at 884. Of those, more than 800 were employed at five Asheboro, North Carolina, plants and 58 were employed at a Candor, North Carolina, facility. 

Former Klaussner employees filed a federal lawsuit on Aug. 10 alleging that the company did not give them at least 60 days’ notice, as required by the WARN Act. 

In Fargo, ND, Solid Comfort, closed its doors without notice and is selling its manufacturing plant and auctioning its equipment. The company has been tightlipped about the closing and has not updated their website or LinkedIn page’s as to the status of the company.

Woodworking Network as of Aug. 17 could not find record of a WARN notice being filed for the company.
According to its most recent FDMC 300 listing, the company employed 125 workers and had some $34 million in sales and had more than 225,000 square feet of manufacturing space. 

The company’s property, located at 3931 37th Ave. S.W., Fargo, is listed for sale at nearly $7.2 million, according to a commercial property listing. The listing said the facility had more than 91,750 square feet of usable space.

Auction house, the Tiger Group, is conducting an Aug. 24 auction of the assets including more than more than 400 lots of woodworking equipment, including Komo and SNX CNC machines, IMA edgebanders, Biesse and SNX routers, sanders, pocket cutters, drills, molders, forklifts, dust collectors, and tools.