LA-Z-BOY IN DAYTON
* 1973 – La-Z-Boy plant starts operations* 1982 – East side of factory expanded* 1986 – West side of plant expanded* 1990 – Sleeper plant built* 1999 – Warehouse expanded* 2017 – Work starts on new innovation center, plant upgradesSource: La-Z-Boy
DAYTON, Tenn. – La-Z-Boy users one day may operate their chairs with their iPhones, said company Chief Executive Kurt Darrow.
“It’s vitally important,” he said about innovation for the Monroe, Mich.-based business. “It’s one of the things that makes us different.”
The furniture maker Friday marked the start of work on a $16 million innovation center next to its sprawling manufacturing plant in Dayton. The 70,000-square-foot center will serve as the innovation hub for the entire company, Darrow said.
The center, to be located across the road from the entrance to its 1.2 million-square-foot Dayton campus, is part of $26 million in improvements the company is undertaking at its largest facility in the United States.