Case Goods Importer Tradewins to Close
Heath E Combs -- Kids Today, 9/30/2011 2:56:07 AM
WOODINVILLE , Wash. - Case goods importer Tradewins will close because U.S. Customs officials have halted the company's shipments from China.
Tradewins, which had emerged over the past decade as a design leader in the category, will liquidate $2.5 million in inventory over the next three months, according to President Tom Underhill. He said the company has enough accounts receivable to cover all its obligations.
Underhill said that antidumping and customs issues were behind the government's decision to block the imports. Most U.S. imports of Chinese wood bedroom furniture are subject to antidumping duties.
But he said Customs officials did not give the company specific reasons for the decision, saying that because Tradewins was not the importer of record - it purchased its furniture from the importer - the officials were legally prohibited from releasing that information.
Underhill said he had been working to open another company to import furniture with a possibility of buying from Vietnam, whose product isn't subject to U.S. antidumping duties, but said that the venture wouldn't go forward and that he has no plans at this point to start another company.
"It's not going to work out. The timing is not right for me to do this right now," he said. At its peak, he said, Trade-wins had about $30 million in sales.
"I love the furniture business and I love what we've been able to build. Our customers love the furniture. We've brought a unique product mix of quality furniture that very few people have been able to accomplish. But that's all definitely coming to an end," Underhill said.
He added that most of the woods used to produce the Trade-wins product, including cherry, oak, maple, poplar solids and alder, were purchased in the United States.
"Lumber companies and mill workers we're buying this lumber from in the U.S. are going to be paying a dear price because of this work stoppage," Underhill said.
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Case goods importer Tradewins to close
Aug 2, 2011
