E-20: Navigating Opportunities Between Furniture and Protective Gowns

<p>High Point furniture manufacturer, Custom Contract Furnishings, pivots to making gowns to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.</p> Custom Contract Furnishings <p>According to AARP, the leisure and hospitality industry was the hardest hit by the pandemic.  Our guest, whose business has been focused on supplying a booming hospitality industry, saw three months’ worth of orders dry up—virtually—overnight in March 2020. In this episode, we speak with a leader from Custom Contract Furnishings about how they discovered how to utilize their talents and technology to create a competitive protective gown solution for the healthcare industry.</p> <p>Custom Contract Furnishings is a furniture manufacturer located in High Point, North Carolina. Established in 1989, the organization makes high-quality upholstered seating for the hospitality, healthcare and senior living industries. Custom Contract Furnishings has been featured in national publications such as Network of Executive Women in Hospitality magazine, Hospitality Design magazine and Boutique Design magazine.</p> <p>Phil Mintz speaks with the vice president of Custom Contract Furnishings, Chris Morris. Chris has worked many years in the hospitality furniture industry and previously worked for a furniture company in Oakland, California as the director of contract furnishing sales. Chris is a locally grown leader who attended Guilford Technical Community College and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.</p> <p>In this episode, we discuss how Custom Contract Furnishings has been affected by the pandemic, views of the furniture business, the organization’s pivot to making personal protective equipment (PPE), what the future looks like for the organization and more.</p> <p>LINKS <a href='https://www.ncmep.org/'>NCMEP</a></p> <p><a href='http://customcontract.com/'>Custom Contract Furnishings</a></p> <p>ABOUT</p> <p>Phil Mintz <a href='https://www.ies.ncsu.edu/staff/phil-mintz/'>Phil Mintz</a> is the Executive Director of NC State Industry Expansion Solut