ST. LOUIS–Furniture Brands International said it will move its St. Louis corporate headquarters to a new location in the suburb of Clayton, Mo., that will house approximately 150 additional employees, for a total of about 225 employees in shared services.
This is part of Furniture Brands’ transition from a holding company to an operating company model, which requires far fewer support employees. The new world headquarters at 1 North Brentwood in Clayton will house those shared services of human resources, accounting, credit and information technologies functions that are common across the company’s operations and that had previously been performed at the brand headquarters. Brand-specific support functions will continue at company offices in North Carolina and Mississippi.
“A centralized, shared-services model will not only generate cost savings but, more importantly, promote the collaborative culture that is essential to Furniture Brands’ future success,’’ said Ralph P. Scozzafava. chairman and chief executive officer.
Furniture Brands will receive state and county tax incentives of about $4 million over five years for creating the jobs.
