Since becoming president of Davis Furniture Industries in 1996, Danny Davis has helped transform his family’s furniture company into one of the most respected, design-driven contract furniture manufacturers. Choosing to place design at the center of every initiative is an ambitious vision, but it’s been a goal that Danny has spent much of his career working towards.
Alongside this vision, he has built a management team and company culture based on teamwork, problem-solving and pride in their craft.
Danny is regarded for his extensive and impactful career; however, he remains humble, approachable and caring to everyone he interacts with.
“Alongside our product designs, our unique company culture is one of our company’s greatest assets. Yes, I’ve helped lead Davis Furniture, but Davis Furniture’s culture is established through our leadership team and their values. So, finding the right people with values that align with our company is very important to me.
If it were just one person trying to build the company’s culture, it would be a disaster. It takes all our management team to create and maintain what we have.” – Danny Davis, President, Davis Furniture
As the third generation at the company, Danny began his career journey in his childhood by “working” alongside other employees in the Davis woodshop. While these craftsmen were manufacturing wood-framed seating and tables for colleges and universities, Danny was beside them, chiseling away at small projects that satisfied his youthful desire for creativity and design.
As he grew, Danny tagged alongside his father, John T. Davis Jr., on weekend furniture deliveries in the company’s box truck, which took the pair up and down the east coast. Through these early experiences and more, Danny’s endearing connection and devotion to Davis Furniture and its employees was unquestionably solidified.
In fact, to this day, Danny still considers the company’s employees an extension of his family.
When it was time for Danny to attend university, he was accepted into North Carolina State’s Furniture Manufacturing and Management program, which further educated him about engineering, leadership and the dynamics of the industry. During his summer breaks, Danny would return to his family’s company and continue to do whatever it took to aid in its growth.
One week after he graduated from NC State, Danny officially started his tenure at the company in early 1976. Having been well versed in the company’s processes and heritage, his initial responsibility was managing the woodworking plant. He now worked alongside many of the same craftsmen who had aided and guided him in his youth.
When supply chain issues began to arise for the company, Danny and his team were tasked with solving these challenges involving sourcing integral raw materials and component parts. Furthering their understanding of these various manufacturing processes and techniques allowed them to produce many of these materials and components in-house.
Two additional facilities were built to accommodate production, and this solution has been recognized as a pivotal strategy for the organization–to become more vertically integrated in manufacturing and product development.
During the 1980s, as the contract furniture industry began to steadily shift from traditional wood-framed furniture to a more modern, sophisticated aesthetic, Davis Furniture started to partner with outside designers and manufacturers in the United States and Europe. At this time, Danny combined his manufacturing processes and materiality expertise with his engineering education.
By helping lead the product development process, Danny became the liaison between the designers, suppliers and Davis Furniture.
Upon making connections with European designers, Danny helped introduce Davis Furniture to the European circuit of manufacturers so they could license European designs and then market and manufacture them in the US.
This strategy allowed Davis to not only provide vogue European designs to the demanding US market, but also enabled the manufacturer to develop products more quickly than ever before.
“At this point, we discovered that we could develop products faster by licensing them than completely developing them ourselves because we were getting products that – for the most part – already had the kinks worked out of them.
All we needed to do was figure out how to make them in the US, which was something that we knew we could do.” – Danny Davis
After a few years of successfully licensing these modern, European designs, the opportunity to develop an executive chair with the German designer, Burkhard Vogtherr, led Danny to create a direct relationship with the furniture designer as well as the European suppliers and product engineers needed to complete the project. The result was the Motion Chair.
An immediate success, Motion became recognized for its user comfort, style and versatility and remained in production for the next 20+ years.
Following the Motion Chair, the strategic shift of working to create designs directly with European designers continued to grow and mature. Through attending trade shows in Europe, Danny and his development team continued to meet new designers, manufacturers and suppliers. Danny’s ability to build long-term relationships has earned him the chance to develop products with some of the world’s most talented designers.
About ten years ago, Danny was presented with an exciting opportunity to license Davis Furniture’s products to interested European manufacturers. Ever since, Davis has offered their designs to Europe, representing a key aspect of the company’s path to success and international acclaim.
“It took a decade or so for us to mature in our product development before a European manufacturer even thought about licensing a product from us. When we started traveling overseas, they were leaps and bounds ahead of us, but we were able to observe, forge relationships and learn from them.
Now we’ve made it an easy decision for these companies to want to offer our products in their line – a nice design, created by a world-renowned designer and manufactured with components from the best international suppliers. Why wouldn’t they want that?” – Danny Davis
Since its humble beginnings in 1944, Davis Furniture has grown to an organization of over 270 employees. In an era when average employee retention stands at a few years, at best, Davis Furniture is proud to have many who have remained employed at the company for decades.
Danny has been a great example to the organization as a president who leads by example. Through countless scenarios, he has shown that he is willing to do whatever it takes for the betterment of his organization and staff. Their response is easily seen through their hard work and dedication to investing in the company’s success.
Since helping transform his family’s company from a small local furniture company to an internationally influential organization, Danny’s children Ashley and Brian, the fourth generation of the Davis family, joined the organization’s leadership in the early 2000s.
With their help and support, Davis Furniture recently opened a new state-of-the-art corporate headquarters in 2021. This new facility, in the center of Davis’ nine-building campus, has become a symbol of the company’s bright future and its investment in the local community.