American Furniture CEO to Retire in June

May 17, 2016  by in Executive Changes, Industry   

Wiygul said he would remain in a consulting role “as long as necessary to make sure of a smooth transition.”

Randy Spak, senior vice president of sales, merchandising and marketing, will become president. Spak will keep those responsibilities in addition to assuming his new role.

Wiygul joined American after spending six years as president of Bauhaus USA and is a long-time veteran of the furniture industry, having been with Berkline, Bassett, Stratford and Washington Furniture during his career.

“This is definitely a retirement,” Wiygul said. “I will be 70 next year and want to enjoy my grandchildren and great grandchildren and play a lot of golf.”

In 2012, sales were $91.5 million. In 2014, sales grew to $129.7 million. During that same period, the company went from an operating loss of $1.5 million to an operating profit of $3.7 million.

“I was part of a team that turned AFM around and saved 800 jobs in north Mississippi,” Wiygul said. “As a domestic manufacturer, we must continue to focus on leaning our operations along with developing domestic labor through training and incentives to get them working and off the government payroll. I am convinced that foreign furniture manufacturing, especially China, will become an import economy as the growth of the middle class there continues. We will be forced back into a domestic production situation in the next few years.” He said American’s status as a privately held company would put it in a “better position to continued its growth an profitability.”

The company was recently bought by a group of private investors in October for $24.1 million. The former majority owner, Compass Diversified Holdings, had bought American in August 2007 for $93 million.

Spak joined American in late 2012 after a two-year stint at Albany Industries. From 2008 to 2010, he was president and CEO of China-based Cozzia LLC. Before that he was with Lane Furniture Industries for 25 years and was promoted to president and CEO in 2004.

American was founded in 1998, and its plant employs about 800 workers. The company makes stationary and motion sofas, loveseats, sectionals, recliners chairs and accent tables.