Robert Allen plans consolidation

NEW YORK — The Robert Allen Group will consolidate all its divisions' design studios here, moving them to larger, and upgraded facilities.

Jeff Cordover, president of the company, explained that all design activities except for the Beacon Hill luxury product division, will be in New York and will now report to Marion Murray, vice president of design. These include Robert Allen, currently based in Mansfield, Mass., and the Robert Allen Contract, Robert Allen @ Home, and Ametex divisions, as well as the Robert Allen Color Library.

"We are in the market for larger, state-of-the-art headquarters for our design staff in New York," Cordover related. This could be at the company's present base at 79 Madison Ave., or elsewhere, he noted.

At the same time, the company is moving its distribution center functions from Mansfield to its operations center in Gaffney, S.C.

The 250,000-square-foot Gaffney facility will now house the distribution and warehousing functions from Mansfield as well as the sample manufacturing that was done there. At present, the 100,000-square-foot Mansfield site will continue to house functions from finance, to MIS, materials management, and a customer-call center, Cordover said.

Looking ahead, he stated that the facility will have major upgrading or the company will move to a new facility. "We are actively exploring options within the Mansfield area to consolidate and upgrade remaining offices," Cordover added.

The Gaffney move is expected to be completed by the end of this year; and the design studio and personnel shifts within the next 60 days, he said

Family owned Corber Corp. acquired The Robert Allen Group in 2002 and Ron Cordover heads the company as CEO with Jeff Cordover, president. The firm operates a network of designer showrooms across the country as well as its various fabric lines that are targeted to interior designs, furniture manufacturers, home textiles suppliers and retailers. Sales are estimated to be $250 million.