IFDA Honors The Shuford Family as 2019 Luminary Award Winner

October 14, 2019  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

The company’s iconic brands includes Century, Hickory Chair, Highland House, Maitland-Smith, Pearson, Hancock & Moore, Jessica Charles, and Cabot Wrenn. 

Given annually by the Carolinas Chapter of the International Furnishings and Design Association (IFDA), the award honors home furnishings industry icons whose innovative work has significantly furthered or promoted the home or décor industries and whose personal endeavors enrich the lives of others.

The Shuford family will be honored during the 9^th annual Night of Luminaries celebration dinner on Wednesday, Nov. 6, in High Point.  Event tickets are $50 per person or $400 for a table of eight.

Also honored at this event are the industry’s Rising Stars, senior-level undergraduates selected by their colleges or universities across North and South Carolina and southern Virginia, as their most outstanding home furnishings or design student. These young people represent all facets of design, including furniture design, industrial design and interior design.  Each student will choose one recent project that best exemplifies his or her work and design philosophy. The projects will be displayed at a special cocktail reception held in their honor before the awards dinner. 

“We’re delighted to continue to celebrate and reward the individuals who make such enormous contributions to our industry,” said Susan Connor, Carolinas IFDA chapter president. “Since 1947, Century Furniture, founded by Harley Ferguson Shuford, Sr., has epitomized vision, integrity, leadership and stewardship in ways that few other companies have equaled.  Today, the third generation of the Shuford family continues to make our industry more resilient, better positioned for the future, and more mindful of our local and global responsibilities.”

Alex Shuford, III, CEO noted, “Our family is humbled and flattered to be considered for such an important recognition as the Luminary Award. To be thought of in the same class as the prior winners of this award is a true honor.”

Led by a family board that consists of Alex Shuford, II as Chairman of the Board, Alex Shuford, III as CEO, Brandon Hucks, CFO, Comer Shuford Wear, VP Marketing, and Evan Bledsoe, the Rock House Farm brands employ more than 1,800 associates and stands as one of the world’s largest privately owned manufacturers of finer wood and upholstered furnishings. Century, the company’s keystone brand, is recognized in the industry as a design leader, ranked in the forefront for its expertise in finishing and fine craftsmanship.  They have licensed collections with the likes of Thomas O’Brien, Charlotte Moss, Windsor Smith, Jesse Carrier & Mara Miller, Candace Olson, Bunny Williams and Bob Timberlake.

For 20 years, Harley F. Shuford, Sr. guided Century Furniture Company through its earliest phases and into an aggressive period of acquisition and growth. In 1967, he retired from daily operations to become Chairman of the Board. His son, Harley F. (Buck) Shuford, Jr., who had been with the company for several years, was named President. In 1971, another of the founder’s son, Alex Shuford, II, joined the organization to manage a separate company called Shuford Furniture. In 1983, Harley Shuford’s daughter Nancy joined the company to manage its advertising and public relations efforts.

Throughout the next 25 years, Century grew, modifying its structure to match the needs of the day, but never altering its vision for design and manufacturing excellence. During this period, the company continued to uphold its core values of community leadership, environmental stewardship and civic support. In 2011 Century Furniture obtained its Sustainable by Design registration and became an SFC/Rainforest Alliance company in 2013.

That same year, Alex Shuford, III, was named President of Century Furniture, marking the succession of the third family generation to lead Century.

“The Shuford family has worked hard to instill in each successive generation a core understanding that our success has come and will continue to come by finding, hiring and supporting honest people who work hard, work smart and work together. Doing things "the right way" has always been our central value and it starts with finding people who care and treating them with care. This award is really an award for and about the individuals who have been with our family over the years and to whom we owe everything,” Shuford noted.

Century Furniture is sold to discerning retailers and interior design professionals through their headquarters showroom at 200 Steele in High Point, and through agent showrooms in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Dania, FL, New York, Scottsdale, AZ, Washington, DC, and Laguna Niguel, CA.

The company and its team have received numerous accolades including the ICON 2013 AmericasMart Medal of Excellence Honor and Harley (Buck) Shuford, Jr.’s induction into the American Furniture Hall of Fame.

Today, Century Furniture and the Shuford family stand as the leading force in home furnishings design, marketing, business integrity and acumen, and values-based leadership.  For those reasons, and so many others, IFDA is honored to recognize them as the 2019 Luminary Award recipients.

The Night of Luminaries celebration dinner will be held at High Point Country Club, 800 Country Club Drive, High Point, beginning with the Rising Star cocktail reception at 5 p.m., and dinner at 6 p.m.

Reservations are accepted online through November 2.

Reservations are required and the public is cordially invited.