American Furniture To Return To 90% Production After Fire

Furniture World News

Compass Diversified Holdings announced today that American Furniture Manufacturing, Inc., one of its eight subsidiary businesses, expects to return to more than 90% of its production level by the first week of March, less than three weeks after experiencing a previously announced fire at its main plant in Ecru, Mississippi on the evening of February 12, 2008. American Furniture has already begun production on two stationary product manufacturing lines at an existing 'flex' facility, as well as entered into a month-to-month lease on a new manufacturing facility, which will house eight stationary product lines. All ten lines are expected to be fully operational by March 1, 2008, and most will run two shifts per day. In addition, the motion and recliner lines housed at the main plant were not destroyed by the fire and resumed full production on February 21, 2008. Since the event, management of CODI and American Furniture have had extensive discussions with American Furniture's insurance carrier, broker and consultant, all of whom are working to process related claims in a timely fashion. Concurrent with its acquisition by CODI on September 4, 2007, American Furniture updated all of its insurance coverage and management currently believes that it is adequately indemnified against the incident. Joe Massoud, CEO of Compass Diversified Holdings, commented, "In under two weeks, we have made significant progress towards returning American Furniture to near full production capacity. Further, as a result of our discussions with our insurance provider, we are confident that American Furniture has adequate coverage for the incident and that we have in place an actionable plan to move forward swiftly on our claims. Our interim production plan includes shifting production to temporary and "flex plant" facilities until the main 1.2 million square foot plant is restored. We currently anticipate being able to meet substantially all the needs of our customers from these facilities." Mr. Massoud continued, "The significant progress we have made to date is due largely to the efforts of Mike Thomas, Lyle Harris, Ken Ranager, Blair Taylor and the rest of the American Furniture team, who have been determined and tireless in the aftermath of this tragic event. They have performed as well as any team I have ever encountered in the face of this level of adversity, cognizant of their responsibility to employees, customers and shareholders alike. We are very pleased with the positive feedback we have received from our largest customers, reiterating their continued support for and loyalty to American Furniture Manufacturing, as well as with the support we have received from the many local and state government agencies that have assisted us in our efforts. We would like to thank the large team of firefighters who fought the fire at the plant, allowing us to save significant portions of the facility, as well as express our gratitude to the more than 1,000 employees at American Furniture who have been and continue to work hard to maintain, and even strengthen, the company's market leading position in the furniture industry. Mr. Massoud concluded, "CODI's management team is keenly focused on maximizing the performance of each of our eight subsidiary companies, including American Furniture. Needless to say, this event at American Furniture has had no impact on our other seven subsidiary businesses, which continue to perform well within our expectations. We will be announcing our results for 2007 on March 12, 2008, and believe that 2008 will be a year in which our subsidiary businesses continue to distinguish themselves from competitors in their industries and during which CODI will be presented with numerous attractive platform and add-on acquisition opportunities as a result of our powerful financing structure." About Compass Diversified Holdings ("CODI"): CODI was formed to acquire and manage a group of middle market businesses that are headquartered in North America. CODI provides public investors with an opportunity to participate in the ownership and growth of companies which have historically been owned by private equity firms, wealthy individuals or families. CODI's disciplined approach to its target market provides opportunities to methodically purchase attractive businesses at values that are accretive to its shareholders. For sellers of businesses, CODI's unique structure allows CODI to acquire businesses efficiently with no financing contingencies and, following acquisition, to provide its companies with substantial access to growth capital. Upon acquisition, CODI works with the executive teams of its subsidiary companies to identify and capitalize on opportunities to grow those companies' earnings and cash flows. These cash flows support distributions to CODI shareholders.