ST. LOUIS–Furniture Brands International said it will sell its Hickory Business Furniture unit to HNI Corp. for $75 million in an all-cash transaction expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2008.
Hickory Business Furniture, an office and commercial furniture producer, “does not fit our strategic focus on the residential consumer market,’’ said Ralph P. Scozzafava, chief executive officer of Furniture Brands. The company’s divestiture will help strengthen Furniture Brands’ balance sheet and enable it to “focus on our core consumer brands,’’ Scozzafava continued.
HNI, based in Muscatine, Iowa, is a major manufacturer of office furniture, marketed under the HON and other brands, and had annual sales of $2.5 billion in 2007.