Hooker Furniture Corporation has named Jeremy Hoff President of Hooker Legacy Brands, which encompasses all divisions other than those within the mid-priced Home Meridian (HMI) segment, the company announced.
Hoff, who most recently has served as President of Hooker Casegoods and Hooker Upholstery, will now oversee Hooker Casegoods, Hooker Upholstery, Sam Moore, Bradington-Young, Shenandoah and H Contract as President of Hooker Legacy Brands. In addition, he will oversee emerging sales channels, including international, designer and e-commerce.
“Jeremy’s relationships with our retailers, representatives and vendors, excellent team-building and strategic planning skills, along with his depth of industry knowledge and experience in both casegoods and upholstery make him the right choice to lead the overall Hooker family of brands,” said Paul Toms, chairman and chief executive officer.
The grouping of the company’s upper-mid-priced to lower-upper-priced brands together under one leader will be a win-win for the company, retailers and the consumer, Toms added. “These brands are collectively positioned in the market as a group of high-quality, high-style, high-service businesses,” said Toms.
Noting that all the Hooker Legacy Brands divisions other than Shenandoah and H Contract are distributed through the same sales force, he added, “The combination of these brands under one leader creates synergistic and mutually beneficial partnerships with our retailers, enabling us to more effectively work across many divisions and product lines through the same sales force and management to deliver the levels of service, quality, design and point-of-sale presentation and information that the higher-end retailers and consumers expect.”
The appointment comes as Mike Delgatti retired last week from the company after 11 years as a senior executive. Most recently, Delgatti oversaw domestic upholstery — Sam Moore, Bradington-Young, Shenandoah and H Contract — and emerging sales channels.
Assisting with domestic upholstery oversight will be Anne Smith, chief administration officer. “Anne will work with Jeremy and each of the domestic upholstery brand presidents to establish goals, strategies and specific initiatives for each business unit, then help those leaders access the resources necessary to execute,” Toms said, adding that she will continue to oversee customer care, corporate human resources and information technology. “During her time at the company, Anne has done a very good job as she has taken on increased responsibility. We are fortunate to have her as one of our senior executives and are confident she can continue to assist the domestic upholstery divisions and H Contract in reaching their full potential,” he said.
