A Virgina Family Keeps on Furnitur-ing!

Are you starting to notice a Friday theme? The furniture world started with families – and those names are all very much prevalent today. You might have never heard of the Coopers, but once again, and 40 years later, the Coopers are still at in Virgina, making great home accessories at a reasonable price.

The Coopers

Here’s how the story goes: Bob & Belle Cooper started Uttermost 40 years ago.

Bob & Belle Cooper

Today their son Mac leads the family biz which includes hundreds of employees in VA, CA, Asia, and over a hundred sales representatives globally, but it goes back way beyond them.

Team Uttermost

Bob was a pilot in the Air Force with education in Civil Engineering.

Bob Cooper

They were stationed all over the map before coming back to Virginia and joining the family biz, Cooper Wood Products, which Mac’s grandfather started 50+ year ago now.

Life at Cooper Wood Products

Producing furniture and furniture components for companies like Bassett, Stanley, Vaughn Bassett, Hooker, American Drew, etc. Bob & Belle took the small division of Cooper Wood Products under their wing in 1975 and began to find good traction about 10 years later.

Rocky Mount, VA Facility

While they are still present somewhere in the office almost daily, Bob & Belle are not involved in daily business at Uttermost anymore rather focused on Christian Missions and Church planting. Their oldest son Mac joined them in 1987 after a short career in Public Accounting, and then became president in 1994.

Mac Cooper

While everything was originally produced in Virgina originally, Uttermost started to expand to other domestic resources like Mexico, Taiwan, and Brazil. Around 1999 Uttermost began working out of China and set up our own office and facilities there. Today they primarily work with partner factories in China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam and maintain a separate presence in each country to monitor quality control and support product development. Interestingly enough you see their products everywhere but just don’t know it. In retail its under private label at Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Bassett Furniture and Horchow, among others. Its also at the most prestigious hotels in the world including Ritz Carlton, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Fairmont, Sonesta, Starwood, LeMeridien, and Wyndham.

The secret to their success: outside designers developing fashion-forward products. Rather than try to guess what the market will like, the product development team works with designers who instinctively know (they just do!). Names include Carolyn Kinder, Grace Feyock, Billy Moon, Matthew Williams, David Frisch, Joe Famulari, Francois Degueurce, Canadian Eve and Constance Lael-Linyard.

So what’s an Uttermost home run product-design wise? Unique, fresh, different and non-predictable. Here are some our of favorites for 2015/16.