Newton Coley brings two industry veterans together at luxury upholstery startup

Venture has brought Lee Inds. Founder Bill Coley out of retirement to work with industry veteran, Brian Newton

NEWTON, N.C. — When Bill Coley left upholstery manufacturer Lee Industries three years ago after running the company for nearly 50 years, you could say he has wanted to get back in the business ever since.

Coley got that opportunity this past May by becoming a partner in startup Newton Coley LLC., a high end upholstery manufacturer in Newton, just south of Conover where Lee is based. His partner in the business is industry veteran, Brian Newton, who worked for many years at Ethan Allen as a senior project and quality control manager.

Like Coley, Newton, too, was looking for the next chapter in his furniture career after nearly 15 years at Ethan Allen. He created that opportunity by starting upholstery manufacturer The Hickory Oak in August 2020. The company began producing and shipping private label upholstery for various upholstery resources in the area that were looking for help lowering their own backlogs.

Several months later a mutual friend introduced Newton to Coley, who was said to be wanting to get back in the business. They work from a small factory here, but come early next year, the company will move to a new space 10 times larger.

“I just love the furniture business,” Coley told Home News Now.  He said he was also impressed with Newton, who has been described as having the same work ethic and drive as Bill Coley’s son Norman Coley. Norman was the former president of Lee Industries, who died unexpectedly about seven years ago this past August.

“I met with Brian and I was very impressed with him,” Coley said of Newton’s knowledge and drive. “I also felt that I could trust him.”

As he had done with Lee Industries more than 50 years ago, Coley saw an opportunity to build furniture that felt comfortable, had good designs and that he ultimately was proud to put his name on.

Before meeting him in person earlier this year, Newton admits he initially was just looking to get some words of advice and wisdom from Coley, whom he described as “a legend in the furniture industry around here, where all the factories are.”

“You say the name Bill Coley and somebody knows Bill Coley” Newton said. “He has helped somebody along the way.”

Little did Newton know it then, but Coley was wanting to get back into the furniture business. After they talked, they decided to partner, changing the name of the company to Newton Coley this past May. The executive team includes Brian Newton, president, Bill Coley, partner, and Bill’s wife, Laura Coley, director of design.

The business operates from an 8,000-square-foot leased building in Newton, which produces sofas, sectionals, loveseats, chairs, ottomans and beds. While it still does contract work for other manufacturers in the area, the company began shipping its own line of upper end stationary upholstery this past summer. Today that line, which is mostly fabric but also offers some leather, has roughly 100 SKUs, including sofas targeted to retail from $4,000 to $5,000.

“When Bill and Laura came on board — it just kind of exploded, the styles and the knowledge,” Newton said, noting that Coley also gave some fairly blunt, yet important advice, including with one particular sofa on display in the company’s Newton offices. “That sofa out there, Bill sat in it, and I sat in it. And he looked at me and said “It’s too hard…We need to build furniture to sit in, not sit on.””

“And I thought, that’s a really good thing to say,” Newton said, noting that he continues to be impressed by Coley’s knowledge of the business. “I have only been around a few people that probably wouldn’t have even come close to what Bill knows.”

Adds Laura Coley of Newton, “Every time I walk out in the factory, he is doing another job. I have seen him making patterns, I have seen him cutting fabric, I have seen him on the sewing machines, I’ve seen him upholstering. He loads trucks. He comes in here and pays bills. It’s just amazing.”

“With a startup you have to do everything,” Bill Coley adds.

Officials note that work ethic also has migrated to the factory floor.

“That is going to be the culture,” Newton said. “For everybody that works here, you are going to have to wear many hats and do something you normally wouldn’t want to do. But we make good hires. The people that we hire … if we ask them to do anything they will do it.”

Anyone who has run a start up knows it’s not easy attracting workers. But Newton Coley has managed to pull it off. Some of the attention has come through word of mouth as people began talking about Bill Coley getting back in the business alongside Brian Newton.

“In order to staff up, we have had a few things that are working in our favor. One of them is Bill Coley, the other is one is myself,” Newton said. “A lot of folks have worked for Bill, and a lot of folks have worked for me in different areas. We also make them feel appreciated. That is the number one thing.”

In addition, the company offers flexible work hours and regularly holds employee lunches to which family members are invited.

“Brian has really blurred the lines between the office and the factory, and everyone is treated like they are very special,” Laura Coley said.

 “I have been on that side of the business and the sense of appreciation goes a long way with people,” Newton added, noting that benefits are in the works with a health insurance plan to start Jan.1. “We have 14 employees out there that can go a mile away and get a $3,000 sign-on bonus with health insurance. So the main thing is that we treat them right, and the other thing we do is we work with a flex schedule… Whatever fits your schedule, we don’t lock them in.”

“I think that is why we have the people that we have, and I think that is why they will do anything we ask them to do,” Newton added. “And we are grateful for it.”

It’s that type of culture that officials say will help the company grow — which could occur relatively quickly.

By February the company will move into an 80,000-square-foot building that Coley owns in Newton. In addition to adding 25 workers over time, that plant is expected to produce roughly 1,000 pieces a month by April, up from the current 600. By 2023, that number could grow to between 2,500 and 3,000 pieces per month, Newton said.

The company, he added, still plans on keeping the contract part of the business, which has sustained it during the critical early stages. But the company also plans to continue designing, developing and producing its own line, which eventually could phase that contract part of the business out over time.

From Coley’s standpoint, it’s just exciting to be back in the business, in a sense returning to his roots starting Lee back in 1969.

“I just got bored,” Coley said of retirement. “ l love the furniture business – I love working with the people and with the accounts. I know accounts all over the country and am very close to them.”

Laura Coley said the two talked at length about Coley getting back in the business. Having just settled into a new Florida home, this would mean traveling back and forth between there and North Carolina throughout the year.

“We deliberated about it and I got him checked out physically to make sure he is strong and healthy, and he said “I want to do it and I said “I’m in,”” Laura Coley said.

Yet another consideration?

“He had three full years of retirement, and he hated every single minute of it,” she said. “I got my old husband back again.”