by Caroline Hipple named to new post of chief creative officer, Jeff Behmer named EVP of merchandising case goods, Scot Kanaly named VP of sales, domestic upholstery
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Hooker Furnishings has set the stage to be a dominant source of whole-home furnishings with the appointment of Caroline Hipple to the new post of chief creative officer.
The company also named Jeff Behmer executive vice president of merchandising for Hooker case goods. Industry veteran Scot Kanaly, who left Norwalk Furniture last week, has also joined Hooker as vice president of sales, domestic upholstery.
Hooker said that the addition of Hipple and Behmer will support the company’s newly announced strategic evolution for its legacy brands — Bradington-Young, Hooker Furniture, HF Custom, M, Sunset West and Bobo Intriguing Objects.
Moving forward, the company said, the new executives will leverage the combined strengths of these brands. The strategic shift also was designed to “drive creative excellence through all functional areas of each business unit to deliver a more integrated and aspirational whole-home presentation of its products to its customers.”
Reporting to Jeremy Hoff, chief executive officer of Hooker Furnishings, Hipple joins the executive leadership team, responsible for executing a collaborative merchandising approach across the company’s legacy furniture brands that integrates case goods, import and domestic upholstery, and outdoor furnishings, as well as lighting, accessories and décor.
As the newly named executive vice president of merchandising for Hooker Case Goods, Behmer will oversee merchandising for Hooker Furniture’s case goods division, ensuring products align with the collaborative direction of the company’s legacy brands. He will report to Hipple.
“Over the decades, Hooker Furnishings has been well known for its adaptability and willingness to evolve to drive the business forward,” Hoff said. “Our strategic acquisitions of Bradington-Young in 2002, Sam Moore in 2007, Shenandoah Furniture in 2017, Sunset West in 2022 and Bobo Intriguing Objects in 2023 position us, as we enter our 100th year in business, to evolve once again — this time, into a truly whole-home, consumer-centric resource for our customers.”
“To achieve this, all areas of our legacy organization must be headed in the same direction,” he added. “From operations to customer care to sales and marketing — and everything in between — our goal is to simplify the way we do business, both internally and with our customers. Through more intentional collaboration across our brands, we can better utilize the remarkable talent and resources we have across our legacy organization to build a foundation for growth and put ourselves in the best position to meet the needs of our partners and tomorrow’s home furnishings consumer.”
To support execution of the new strategy from an operational perspective, Anne Smith, Hooker Furnishings’ chief administrative officer, who also previously led the company’s domestic upholstery group, will refocus her responsibilities toward reimagining the company’s corporate customer care policies and processes to deliver truly world-class support for its customers. In addition to the customer care initiative, she will continue to lead the company’s human resources, leadership development and succession planning efforts across the larger enterprise.
“As we evolve our merchandising strategy, evolving our customer care efforts are equally — if not even more important — to ensure that we provide our customers with best-in-class service,” Hoff said. “I’m confident that Anne can help us achieve this vision.”
The strategic shift does not affect the company’s HMI division. HMI will continue with its focus on building its core business with its Pulaski, Samuel Lawrence, PRI and SLH brands.
An industry veteran with more than 45 years of retail, sales, marketing and creative merchandising experience, Hipple joins the company most recently from Norwalk Furniture, where she was president for eight years. Under her leadership, Norwalk experienced significant growth and became an Employee Stock Ownership Plan company in 2021.
Before Norwalk, she co-founded HB2 Resources with Dixon Bartlett and spent 17 years consulting with industry-leading brands. Bartlett also will be joining Hooker Furnishings in a consulting role. Prior to HB2, Hipple was president of Storehouse Furniture, a retail chain based in Atlanta, for nearly seven years. She began her career at This End Up Furniture, a manufacturer and retail store chain based in Richmond, Virginia. During her 10-year tenure, she advanced to executive vice president of sales, marketing and merchandising roles.
Behmer has nearly 30 years of experience in the furniture industry, serving in executive merchandising leadership roles with responsibility for domestic design and global execution for case goods, upholstery and accent products.
A creative leader, Behmer has been at the helm of the product development and merchandising divisions at several leading case goods and upholstery global furniture manufacturers over the course of his career. Previously, he held senior vice president of merchandising roles at Hickory White/Sherrill Furniture as well as A.R.T. Furniture. Prior to that, he was senior director of case goods merchandising at Bernhardt Furniture for more than 10 years. He began his career at Broyhill Furniture, where he held a variety of positions including upholstery plant manager, corporate director of quality and occasional table merchant.
Kanaly comes to Hooker from Norwalk Furniture where he was national sales manager for more than 11 years. Prior to that, he was the owner of Kanaly management for more than 11 years. He also was Norwalk’s vice president of sales for five years and was also the regional manager, national accounts for Bassett Furniture for eight years.
