Furniture Brands International Inc., one of the nation's largest home furniture manufacturers, has tapped restructuring lawyers and advisers to deal with its debt load, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The advisers are examining several alternatives, one of which could be a chapter 11 restructuring, although the situation is still fluid. St. Louis-based Furniture Brands, which sells under the Broyhill, Lane, Drexel Heritage and Thomasville names, had sales of about $1 billion in 2012, roughly half of what the company brought in a decade ago. At the end of 2012, Furniture Brands employed 5,600 people in the U.S. and another 3,500 overseas. The company cumulatively lost more than $91 million in its last two fiscal years, and analysts are forecasting another loss in 2013. The company is working with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP, investment bank Miller Buckfire & Co. and turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal to address its debts and low cash flow.
