Southerland's Employees to Buy Company

March 1, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Acquisition on March 2, 2010 The employees of Southerland are acquiring the bedding supplier through an employee stock ownership plan buyout.

The sale of the company under the ESOP is expected to be final March 31.

The new company will keep the Southerland name and will be led by two co-presidents, David Corbin and Stephen Russo, and executive vice president and CFO Bryan Smith.

Southerland has operated as a family-owned enterprise for more than a century, and is one of the leading independent bedding manufacturers in the U.S. Over the past nine years, Southerland has grown into a three facility operation headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., with additional facilities in Oklahoma City and Phoenix. These facilities offer scalability and capacity ideally suited for the company€™s plans for further growth and distribution.

The move from family-owned to an ESOP-owned structure and recapitalization is being led by the new executive leadership at the company as well as members of the Southerland family and current management team. Under the new ESOP, employees will own 100 percent of Southerland. The new ESOP structure will result in significant tax efficiencies as well as additional incentives and exceptional retirement benefits for employees.

Under the new leadership team, Southerland will continue to develop its own brands as well as private label brands for regional bedding retailers. The company will continue its heritage of delivering high-quality bedding products at value-oriented prices. In addition to supervision of the day-to-day operations, Southerland€™s new management team will focus on innovative and consumer-focused product development, a diversified licensed brand portfolio, optimization of its cost structure through lean practices, strategic sourcing and value-added sales efforts.

Corbin and Russo have been working as consultants with Southerland since mid-2009. Corbin is a former president and C-level executive with a background in marketing and new product development stemming from his brand management experience at Procter & Gamble and executive positions with Pulaski Furniture Corp. and Chromcraft Revington. Russo is a former president and operations expert who ran Latex International, Consolidated Bedding and Restonic Mattress. Bryan Smith, who will be executive vice president and CFO of Southerland, is a long-standing member of the Southerland management team, with 12 years experience at the company and more than 20 years total experience in managerial accounting. 

Southerland was founded in 1893 and has been family-owned since its inception. The company operates more than 274,000 square feet of combined production and distribution facilities and is one of the leading independent bedding manufacturers in the U.S.