La-Z-Boy Incorporated is a furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan. It is one of the world’s leading residential furniture producers, marketing furniture for every room of the home. La-Z-Boy markets a full line of upholstered furnishings, including recliners, sofas, stationary chairs, sleeper sofas, and other types of furniture.
La-Z-Boy serves thousands of retail residential outlets in the United States and Canada through a network of distributors including more than 300 stand-alone La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries as well as La-Z-Boy Comfort Studios located in independent furniture retailers. La-Z-Boy brand products are also manufactured and distributed under license in major countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Turkey and South Africa.[1] Currently, La-Z-Boy holds domestic and international patents on more than 200 different styles and mechanisms. The company employs more than 11,000 people.
La-Z-Boy Incorporated is divided into three reportable operating segments: the Upholstery Group, the Casegoods Group and the Retail Group. The Upholstery Group primarily manufactures and sells upholstered furniture to furniture retailers and proprietary stores. This includes recliners and motion furniture, sofas, loveseats, chairs, ottomans and sleeper sofas. The Casegoods Group primarily sells manufactured or imported wood furniture to furniture retailers, including tables, chairs, entertainment centers, headboards, dressers, accent pieces and some coordinated upholstered furniture. The Retail Group consists of 70 company-owned stores located in nine markets ranging from the Midwest to the East Coast and Florida. The Retail Group sells mainly upholstered furniture to end consumers through the retail network.
History
In 1929, cousins Edward M. Knabusch and Edwin J. Shoemaker partnered and invested in the furniture business in the small town of Monroe, Michigan. Together, the duo set out to design a chair for "nature’s way of relaxing."[2] Using orange crates to mock-up and refine their idea, they invented a wood-slat porch chair with a reclining mechanism. Knabusch and Shoemaker then upholstered their innovation and marketed it as a year-round chair. The chair was a success, but it needed a name. Combining promotion with necessity, the partners held a contest. Entries included such names as Sit-N-Snooze, Slack-Back and Comfort Carrier, but one in particular — La-Z-Boy — was the winner.[3]
In 1969, after years primarily as a manufacturer of recliners, La-Z-Boy started designing other products including reclining sofas, sleep sofas and modular groups. In 1983, La-Z-Boy introduced its first line of stationary sofas and occasional chairs. Today, La-Z-Boy offers a full line of home furnishings.
In 2009, the company received unwanted attention when a man in Proctor, Minnesota was arrested for driving a motorised recliner while under the influence of alcohol. The police later put the chair up for auction on eBay as a La-Z-Boy, since this was how it had been described in the press. A representative for the company pointed out to the police department that the chair in question was not in fact of that brand, and the description was subsequently changed.[1]
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