Ethan Allen Expands Maine Wood Plant

ByDeborah Austin Ethan Allen Interiors Inc., manufacturer and retailer of home furnishings, has announced a 53,000-sq-ft, $5.6 million expansion at its Andover, Maine, wood-dimension plant. The expansion will almost double the current Andover plant's size, as well as update machine technology and equipment. Andover Wood Products Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ethan Allen, produces panels that are shipped for assembly to other Ethan Allen manufacturing plants in the Northeast. Ethan Allen already has spent more than $2 million in recent years upgrading the sawmill and adding four new computerized dry kilns. The upcoming expansion will enable increased production to accommodate growing demand, says CEO Farooq Kathwari. It also will allow Andover to move toward becoming a fully integrated case-goods manufacturing facility. Ethan Allen -- an $856 million firm headquartered in Danbury, Conn. -- has 20 manufacturing facilities and three sawmills in the U.S., and more than 300 stores in the U.S. and abroad.