The Costco Connection

Furniture folk

Franklin Corporation is a family affair

By Christina Guerrero

AS FOUNDER AND CEO of Franklin Corporation, Hassell Franklin believes his business has a responsibility to the people of Houston, Mississippi.

“We’re really important to our commu-
nity,” he says. “We’re the largest employer in
our community; we’re the largest employer in
our county [Chickasaw].”
Franklin founded Franklin Corporation
in 1970, and grew the business into one of the
largest privately owned upholstered furniture
manufacturers in the United States, with
approximately 1,300 employees.

“Our company is about people; it’s about
our team members and it’s about teamwork,”
Franklin says. “That’s what makes our opera-
tion successful.”
Franklin, who says he has an innate drive
to succeed, joined the Army National Guard in
the mid-1950s and volunteered for active duty.
He says his time in the military taught him
how to be a leader, especially when he served
as company commander of a military unit pro-
tecting James Meredith, the first African-
American student admitted to the University
of Mississippi during the American civil rights
movement. He used the GI Bill to pay for his
college tuition at Mississippi State University
(MSU), where he earned a degree in industrial
engineering and management in 1959. He was
later honored as the MSU Alumnus of the Year
in 1995, and in 2000 he established a $1 million
endowment at MSU to help build the Franklin
Furniture Institute, a furniture research and
training facility.

After graduating college, Franklin went into the furniture business because it was a growing industry, but the company he worked for went out of business within a few years. “I look back, and it was a great training vehicle for me, how not to do things,” he says.

Franklin took that lesson and his knowledge of the business and started Franklin Corporation with only 32 employees, who produced recliners in a rented warehouse. Today the octogenarian is still the CEO of the company, and believes in promoting from within.

“Eighty today is 60,” he says. “I don’t feel
it at all. I work every day. I’m really involved
in staying busy, and I’m really having fun.
People say, ‘Why don’t you retire?’ and I say, ‘I
am retired because I’m having fun and doing
exactly what I want to do.’ ”
Franklin’s son Mark, president and chief
operating officer, is learning his father’s duties
so he can successfully run the business along
with the management team. Mark says the
company had challenges dealing with foreign
competition, which can often produce furni-
ture at a cheaper price, but it’s taught them to
do an honest evaluation and learn what they
can do that can’t be duplicated, such as quick
shipping, the use of quality components,
American-made furniture and special orders.

“We have now weathered the worst of the storm, and a lot of furniture businesses didn’t,” he says.

Mark may have been born into the family business, but he had to prove to his father that he could work his way up just like other employees. His junior high and high school summers were spent working in the shipping and lumber departments.

“After I graduated from college I came to work; it is the only job I have ever had,” he says.

Hassell Franklin is excited to have three generations now involved in the family business. His son Hank is senior vice president, and Rob Franklin and Bax Price, his two grandsons, specialize in supply chain management and sales, respectively.

“There is a certain sense of security, I suppose, working in a family business,” Mark says. “One of the things it made me do was accept responsibility at a very young age. It’s a family business; it’s your name. Your name is attached to every product going out the door, so you want it to be the best it can be.” C

Pictured clockwise from top left: Rob Franklin, Hank Franklin, Bax Price, Hassell Franklin and Mark Franklin.

Company: Franklin Corporation

Founder and CEO: Hassell Franklin

Employees: More than 1,300

Headquarters:

Post Office Drawer 569 Houston, MS 38851

Phone: (662) 456-4286

Website: franklincorp.com

Products at Costco (warehouse only): Bristol Leather Rocker Recliner (Item #752876; shown on page 39)

Comments about Costco: “Costco is known for providing a great product at a great value, and that kind of mimics our company. As we say in the South, ‘Costco is our kind of people,’ and we’re excited to do business with them.”—Hassell Franklin SUPPLIERPROFILE