CEO Scott Whittier said the competition from Asian-made furniture left Whittier Wood Products with no choice.

Sales have fallen for three years, down from $50 million in 2005 to an expected $28 million this year, he said.

Six weeks ago, the company bought a 150,000-sq.ft plant near Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, and hopes to start production in 2007.

The layoffs were announced at a plant meeting Wednesday. On Friday, the company will name those to be laid off, workers said.

Workers said it wasn’t a surprise - Whittier had for three years shared news of flagging sales and plant closings.

The average tenure of the departing employees is 10 years.

Whittier plans to keep 85 employees in Eugene and produce birch bookcases and several other products. It will buy wood in the United States for its Vietnamese plant, and then ship the furniture back to the United States.

Whittier said the $150 a month in Vietnam compares to $1,920 a month paid to Eugene workers, who also get a health package and a 401(k) retirement benefit.

Whittier’s father, Gordon, founded the company in 1975. His father and great-grandfather also operated wood products companies.

“You have 30 years of working in Eugene and building a company, and you have employees and friends,’’ Scott Whittier said. “It’s very difficult to face these changes.’’

The company produces wood chairs, tables, bar stools and entertainment centers. Its peak employment was 450 in 1999.

Tom Russell, associate editor of Furniture Today, said companies recently have been moving production from China to Vietnam to avoid tariffs resulting from an antidumping claim.

“You’re getting a lot of mass-produced goods where there’s a consistent level of quality,’’ he told the Eugene Register-Guard. “The sophistication level has reached a point where it’s equal if not better than what they were getting out of the domestic factories.’’

But, Russell said, most US furniture companies go to Vietnamese counterparts with designs and colors and buy the finished furniture from them rather than open their own firms and deal with potential problems in language, politics, transportation and communications.

“It’s a bold move on their part. It’s complicated to run a factory overseas,’’ he said. “It’s not a guaranteed thing. There may be some challenges at first.’’

Source: AP