DeFehr joins furnishings Hall of Fame

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This article was published 07/07/2016 (3737 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Art DeFehr has become the first Canadian named to the prestigious American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame.

DeFehr, now in his early 70s, may not be running any of the family’s companies but is still very much involved in the business as the chairman and CEO of the holding company that owns Palliser Furniture, EQ3 and other operating entities in the furniture industry, as well as extensive real estate holdings.

He also continues to be outspoken and incisive in commentaries about international affairs, in particular regarding refugee settlement, an area in which he has worked his whole adult life.

DeFehr said it was an honour to be recognized by the industry that built his family’s fortune.

He’s the first Canadian to be selected to the hall, but it’s an institution that started allowing non-American members only 10 years ago.

“When they decided they were international they realized they should award people who made an impact in the industry, whether they are Canadian, American, Chinese or Italian,” he said. “A few years ago, I became eligible. This is the industry where I have worked. I’m honoured. They reward people who’ve worked for a long time in the industry who have in some way made their mark doing something new or different. It is meaningful to the industry.”

One of DeFehr’s significant accomplishments is simply keeping Palliser in business through the past 15 years, a period in which many companies went bankrupt.

When the industry moved to Chinese off-shore production at the end of the last century it caused massive disruption in the furniture business and put many long-standing companies out of business.

What DeFehr did differently was set up in Mexico rather than moving production to China. The company owns a couple of factories in Mexico — and may soon open another — and has about 1,300 employees there.

“We made a choice go to Mexico to supplement production costs but lots of companies went to China,” he said. “The problem with China is that in many case the companies lost control. The Chinese eventually said we don’t need you anymore, we can do it ourselves. The industry became messed up that way.”

While publicly owned North American furniture companies lost about 90 per cent of their collective market capitalization from 2002 to 2008, Palliser became smaller, but was able to successfully reinvent itself as a custom leather company.

The family’s enterprises also continue to employ more than 1,000 in Winnipeg.

“At one time we were the largest supplier to the Brick and Leons. Now we don’t ship at all in terms of upholstery products,” he said. “We have gone to higher-end specialty products. That is how we survived.”

Palliser is the largest custom leather furniture supplier in North America.

He believes Palliser had more flexibility as a family-owned business.

“We saved a lot of jobs in Canada. To me, that is valuable,” he said. “From the perspective of what our personal goals are — to operate a business with integrity, to employ people, to be part of the community… in that sense it was a successful change. If you are a public company, that does not count for much. It only counts if you get bigger.”

Lauren Estep, an official with the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation, based in High Point, N.C., said the selection process is a rigorous five-month ordeal that uses a points-based evaluation of four attributes — enduring excellence, superior accomplishments, innovation and creativity, and philanthropic generosity.

“It’s not just what they have given back to the furniture industry but also what they have given back outside the industry,” she said.

In that regard, DeFehr’s accomplishments are just as noteworthy.

DeFehr led an agricultural redevelopment program for two years in Bangladesh in the 1970s in the aftermath of a bloody civil war; served as United Nations high commissioner for refugees to Somalia in the early 1980s when warlords first took over the famine-ravaged country; founded LCC International University, a Christian university in Lithuania in the chaotic, dying days of the former Soviet Union; and recently organized a conflict resolution conference in Myanmar.

As the child of refugee parents, DeFehr has been a lifelong activist in the field of immigration, and was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the provincial nominee program, which has brought thousands of immigrants to Manitoba.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca