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La-Z-Boy’s new $18 million innovation center is where dreams become reality, officials say

Staff photo by Tim Barber/ La-Z-Boy Chairman, CEO and President Kurt Darrow, left, enjoys a moment with Gregg Schweir, Vice President of Research & Development at the  Dayton Campus Grand Opening Celebration Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019.
Staff photo by Tim Barber/ La-Z-Boy Chairman, CEO and President Kurt Darrow, left, enjoys a moment with Gregg Schweir, Vice President of Research & Development at the Dayton Campus Grand Opening Celebration Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. Staff photo by Tim Barber/ La-Z-Boy Chairman, CEO and President Kurt Darrow, left, enjoys a moment with Gregg Schweir, Vice President of Research & Development at the Dayton Campus Grand Opening Celebration Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019.

We have the best infrastructure of any furniture company in America.

DAYTON, Tenn. – Calling La-Z-Boy’s new $18 million innovation center “a labor of love,” company Chief Executive Kurt Darrow took the wraps off the state-of-the-art facility on Thursday.

“We can do design, fashion and innovation,” said Darrow about the 70,000-square-foot center that serves as the research and development hub for the Michigan-based furniture maker.

The modern-looking center here that employs 75 people is located next to La-Z-Boy’s massive production plant, where more than 1,400 people work making the company’s signature recliners and other furniture.

Darrow told a group of about 200 people that the new innovation center, on which work started about two years ago, is in addition to about $20 million in improvements La-Z-Boy is making to the factory and campus.