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American Leather Holdings recently named Brian Golden as CEO to lead its portfolio of companies including American Leather, Lee Inds., Brookline Furniture and Bench Made Modern. Golden took the helm at American Leather Holdings from Phil Milazzo, who was named interim CEO earlier this year upon the departure of Bruce Birnbach, who had been with the company since 2006.
Coming from York Wallcoverings, a global manufacturer of commercial and residential wallcoverings, where he was CEO, Golden has enjoyed a 30-year career in the home renovation and furnishings industry.
At York, Golden oversaw the distribution of York’s products in more than 85 countries through independent retailers, e-commerce, big box retailers and direct sales. In addition, Golden has led several successful businesses throughout his career.
The portfolio of furniture manufacturers that Golden now manages are varied. American Leather has 700 employees in Dallas and a 350,000-square-foot factory. Lee Inds., a 53-year-old producer of custom upholstered furniture in North Carolina, has four manufacturing facilities. Brookline Furniture is an upholstered seating manufacturer for the hospitality industry, based in North Carolina, and BenchMade Modern is an online retailer of custom-upholstered furniture.
“We are very focused on preserving the strong brand equity of our individual brands,” said Golden. “There are tremendous benefits to developing a diverse portfolio of leading furniture brands.
“While our platform enables us to share best practices and intelligence across our enterprise, we are ever mindful each brand serves different customers with a different value proposition. We need to let them all thrive by being themselves. Since our brands are distinct, we need to support their individuality.”
In the short time he’s been on board, Golden has created a divisional structure at American Leather Holdings, naming Veronica Schnitzius the president of American Leather and Russell Towner the president of Lee Inds. and Brookline Furniture. Phil Milazzo was named chief operating officer for the overall business, driving operational efficiency throughout the company.
“We embrace the diversity of our businesses, and our people,” Golden said. “The American Leather brand is built on a foundation of innovation, operational excellence and speed, and we will continue to push that envelope. It’s who we are.
“At Lee, our team of craftsman are obsessed with producing furniture that will be enjoyed by customers well into the future,” he continued. “This is a culture that took more than 50 years to build, and we need to preserve it. Our Brookline team understands the demands of the hospitality market and how to deliver value at a price point. With the contract market in full recovery, we see tremendous opportunities at Brookline.”
While investments in digital marketing are top of mind for Golden, there is no plan for Lee or American Leather to sell direct to consumers. Golden plans to provide more support to customers and channel partners by investing in people and technology to create more effective online tools to elevate the company’s digital footprint.
In addition, Golden is rolling out an enterprise-wide safety initiative developed by DuPont called STOP. All 1,500 employees will go through the six-week training program in the coming months.
