ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702170080
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
Bernard Wampler, whose three decades at the head of Pulaski Furniture Corp. were marked by innovative product introductions and aggressive company growth, on Friday told company stockholders he will retire next week as CEO.
Succeeding him will be his son, John Wampler, 38, of Roanoke. The younger Wampler has been president of the residential furniture manufacture since 1993. He will carry both titles.
Bernard Wampler, 65, said he believes there is a time when leaders must step down. "When you've been in that position for 31 years, if you don't get out of the way, you stay too long," he said. "You get in the way of the young people."
It makes no sense, he said, to make the next generation wait until they're 50 to take over leadership.
Wampler will remain chairman of Pulaski's board, however, and will keep an office at the company's headquarters. He also serves on the boards of several other companies.
With the rest of his time, he plans to use the gift given by the board of directors: a new set of golf clubs. "I'm going to learn to play golf again," he said.
Bernard Wampler, who grew up in Galax, got his start in the furniture business at age 14, when he landed a summer job in the sawmill at Vaughan Furniture Co. When Pulaski Furniture opened in 1955, 23-year-old Wampler took a $400-a-month job as assistant superintendent. He later became vice president of manufacturing, executive vice president and, in 1967, president and CEO.
Bernard Wampler has presided over the introduction of some of Pulaski's most successful lines, including the 1975 rollout of the "Keepsakes" collection, a group of golden oak reproductions that observers say set a standard within the industry for nostalgia collections. The middle-American, turn-of-the-century Keepsakes pieces were a stark contrast to the synthetic, highly ornate lines Pulaski had been producing when Bernard Wampler became president.
Jerry Epperson, who follows the furniture industry for Mann, Armistead & Epperson in Richmond, has said Pulaski has always been "an innovator," one of the best in the business. Under Bernard Wampler's leadership, he said, Pulaski became expert in producing goods people buy on impulse - curio cabinets, clocks - even during recessions.
John Wampler, Epperson said, "is one of the brightest young men in the business." He had high praise for the new leader's insight in establishing Pulaski's import program.
During Bernard Wampler's tenure, Pulaski bought the former Coleman furniture factory and the former Gravely Furniture Co. in Ridgeway, which became the company's highly successful Ridgeway Clocks division.
Bernard Wampler will be missed, said John Stanley, a member of Pulaski's board since 1956. "He's been around a long time," Stanley said. "He's given the company wonderful assistance."
"He's been a great leader," said Pete Crawford, Pulaski's vice president of administration. "He'll be missed. But we have a dynamic young president."
Even without a turnover at the top, Pulaski is in for a roller-coaster year. The company saw both sales and earnings drop last year, after record results in 1995. It was "not a banner year," John Wampler said. Consumer debt levels are high, and people are not spending money on big-ticket items such as furniture.
The new year will not be short on challenges, he said. First-quarter 1997 earnings were $663,800, or 23 cents per share, on sales of $35.4million. Those figures are down from year-earlier earnings of $914,000, or 32 cents per share, on sales of $36.6million. The quarter ended Jan.26.
The company is improving its customer-response systems and internal business practices, he said. The company's Dublin plant has lost some of its competitive edge, he said, and finding methods to manufacture more economically at that facility is one of the company's goals.
Pulaski employs 2,200 people at plants in Pulaski, Dublin, Martinsville, and Ridgeway and in Mebane, N.C.
At the meeting in which the board of directors selected John Wampler as CEO, it also declared a dividend of 17 cents per common share payable March 17 to stockholders of March3.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: FILE 1993. Bernard Wampler has been with Pulaskiby CNBFurniture since 1955.