Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Ethan Allen Announces Filing of Definitive Proxy Statement with SEC
September 24,
2026 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
Ethan Allen Interiors Inc., a leading interior design company, manufacturer and retailer in the home furnishings marketplace, announced the filing of its definitive proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the Company’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders (“Annual Meeting”), scheduled to be held at 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time on November 4, 2026. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on September 11, 2026, are entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting.
In conjunction with the filing and related mailing of proxy materials, the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) is sending shareholders the letter below, highlighting the following key points:
- Ethan Allen’s vertically integrated, designer-led business model reflects a deliberate strategic plan that has produced a consolidated gross margin above 59% for five consecutive fiscal years, a debt-free balance sheet, and $768 million in cash dividends paid to shareholders since going public. The Company has delivered a five-year total shareholder return (“TSR”) of 49.1% through September 21, 2026, and 45.2% through August 4, 2026, the last trading day before DGB publicly announced its director nominations, outperforming 10 of the 11 companies in the fiscal 2026 peer group disclosed in the Company’s 2026 proxy statement with complete five-year trading data.1 Its operating margin over the past five years has averaged 12.8%, more than double its Proxy peer group average, indicative of a profitable, disciplined business model.
- Leveraging its strong operating margins and profitability, the Company has undertaken a significant repositioning to strengthen its platform for long-term sustainable growth. Ethan Allen has invested in product visualization and room planning technology designed to enhance the client experience and support a more efficient retail footprint. As part of this transition, the Company refreshed and right sized over 100 design centers and sold additional floor samples, which affected manufacturing productivity and margins during the transition. With this repositioning now substantially complete, Ethan Allen is focused on translating its designer-led, vertically integrated platform into long-term, profitable growth and shareholder value while maintaining margin and balance-sheet discipline.
- Ethan Allen’s recent and planned increases in marketing spend, including paid search and paid social, are designed to strengthen brand awareness and connect online engagement with in-person design services.
- The Board is advancing its ongoing formal CEO succession process led by the Board’s Corporate Governance, Nominations and Sustainability Committee (the “Committee”), which is comprised of every independent director. The Committee has engaged a nationally recognized executive search firm to identify and evaluate internal and external candidates. The Board has committed to publicly announcing Ethan Allen’s next CEO no later than June 30, 2027, the date on which Mr. Kathwari’s current contract is scheduled to end.
- DGB Investment, a 5.2% shareholder, is seeking to take control of the Company by replacing the entire Board and the CEO without a detailed operating plan. DGB's nominees have not demonstrated experience overseeing the full complexity of a vertically integrated, designer-led manufacturer-retailer model, which presents a significant risk to the ongoing business.
- It is critical that Ethan Allen shareholders vote “FOR” the Company’s five highly qualified director nominees and vote “WITHHOLD” on DGB’s nominees on the BLUE proxy card.
- The Company launched VoteEthanAllen.com to provide shareholders with additional information about Ethan Allen’s history of and commitment to driving shareholder value, as well as instructions for how to vote at the 2026 Annual Meeting.