Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Edward M. Knabusch and Edwin J. Shoemaker started Floral City Furniture in 1927, and in 1928 the newly formed company introduced its first recliner. In 1941, we were incorporated in the state of Michigan as La-Z-Boy Chair Company, and in 1996 we changed our name to La-Z-Boy Incorporated. Today, our La-Z-Boy brand is one of the most recognized brands in the furniture industry.
We are the leading global producer of reclining chairs and the second largest manufacturer/distributor of residential furniture in the United States . The La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores retail network is the third largest retailer of single-branded furniture in the United States . We manufacture, market, import, export, distribute and retail upholstery furniture products under the La-Z-Boy ® , England, Kincaid ® , and Joybird ® tradenames. In addition, we import, distribute and retail accessories and casegoods (wood) furniture products under the Kincaid ® , American Drew ® , Hammary ® , and Joybird ® tradenames.
As of April 30, 2022, our supply chain operations included the following:
• Five major manufacturing locations and nine regional distribution centers in the United States and five facilities in Mexico to support our speed-to-market and customization strategy
• A logistics company that distributes a portion of our products in the United States
• A wholesale sales office that is responsible for distribution of our product in the United Kingdom and Ireland
• An upholstery manufacturing business in the United Kingdom
• A global trading company in Hong Kong which helps us manage our Asian supply chain by establishing and maintaining relationships with our Asian suppliers, as well as identifying efficiencies and savings opportunities
We also participate in two consolidated joint ventures in Thailand that support our international businesses: one that operates a manufacturing facility and another that operates a wholesale sales office. Additionally, we have contracts with several suppliers in Asia to produce products that support our pure import model for casegoods.
We sell our products through multiple channels: to furniture retailers or distributors in the United States, Canada, and approximately 55 other countries, including the United Kingdom, China, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand; directly to consumers through retail stores that we own and operate; and through our websites, www.la-z-boy.com and www.joybird.com.
• The centerpiece of our retail distribution strategy is our network of 348 La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores and 531 La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio ® locations, each dedicated to marketing our La-Z-Boy branded products. We consider this dedicated space to be "proprietary."
◦ La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores help consumers furnish their homes by combining the style, comfort, and quality of La-Z-Boy furniture with our available design services. We own 161 of the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores, while the remainder are independently owned and operated.
◦ La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio ® locations are defined spaces within larger independent retailers that are dedicated to displaying and selling La-Z-Boy branded products. All 531 La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio ® locations are independently owned and operated.
◦ In total, we have approximately 7.6 million square feet of proprietary floor space dedicated to selling La-Z-Boy branded products in North America.
◦ We also have approximately 3.0 million square feet of floor space outside of the United States and Canada dedicated to selling La-Z-Boy branded products.
• Our other brands, England, American Drew, Hammary, and Kincaid enjoy distribution through many of the same outlets, with slightly over half of Hammary’s sales originating through the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® store network.
◦ Kincaid and England have their own dedicated proprietary in-store programs with 637 outlets and approximately 1.9 million square feet of proprietary floor space.
◦ In total, our proprietary floor space includes approximately 12.5 million square feet worldwide.
• Joybird sells product primarily online and has a limited amount of proprietary retail showroom floor space including small format stores in key urban markets.
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Our goal is to deliver value to our shareholders over the long term through executing our strategic initiatives. The foundation of our strategic initiatives is driving profitable sales growth in all areas of our business.
Principal Products and Industry Segments
Our reportable operating segments include the Wholesale segment and the Retail segment. Our Wholesale segment manufactures and imports upholstered and casegoods (wood) furniture and sells directly to La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores, operators of La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio ® locations, England Custom Comfort Center locations, major dealers, and a wide cross-section of other independent retailers. Our Retail segment primarily sells upholstered furniture, in addition to some casegoods and other accessories, to end consumers through our company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores.
We have provided additional detailed information regarding our segments and their products in Note 17, Segment Information,
to our consolidated financial statements and Item 7, "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" section, both of which are included in this report.
COVID-19 Impact
We have been and continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, the temporary closure of our manufacturing facilities and company-owned stores due to state and local restrictions negatively impacted our financial results. In response to the financial impacts of the pandemic, beginning at the end of fiscal 2020, we took several actions to conserve cash in the near term and during the first quarter of fiscal 2021, we announced our business realignment plan, which included the reduction of our global workforce by about 10% across our manufacturing, retail, and corporate locations, and included the closure of our Newton, Mississippi upholstery manufacturing facility.
By the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2021, all retail and manufacturing locations had reopened, and since that time, we have experienced strong written orders as consumers continue to allocate more discretionary spending to home furnishings. In response to demand for our products outpacing our production capacity and with backlog still at a high level, our supply chain team continues to demonstrate agility and flexibility to identify ways to scale production capacity. We have increased capacity by adding manufacturing cells at our Mexico Cut-and-Sew Center, strategically adding second shifts and weekend production shifts to our U.S. plants when prudent, and temporarily reactivating a portion of our Newton, Mississippi upholstery manufacturing facility. In addition, we opened a leased upholstery assembly plant in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico and a leased sewing facility in Parras, Mexico during the third quarter of fiscal 2021 and the first quarter of fiscal 2022, respectively. Further, during the first quarter of fiscal 2022, we signed a lease to open additional manufacturing capacity in Torreón, Mexico which began operations at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
Additionally, in the third quarter of fiscal 2021 we recognized employee retention credits of $5.2 million in non-operating income for wages and healthcare costs paid to employees during suspension of operations due to government orders which qualify under the provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). No additional credits were taken during fiscal 2022.
We continue to actively manage the impact of the COVID-19 crisis as we face continued uncertainty regarding the impact COVID-19 will have on our financial operations in the near and long term. We also continue to actively manage our global supply chain and manufacturing operations, which have been adversely impacted with respect to availability and pricing of raw materials and freight based on uncontrollable factors as well as COVID-19 related constraints on our manufacturing capacity as we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our employees. The need for, or timing of, any future actions in response to COVID-19 is largely dependent on the mitigation of the spread of the virus along with the adoption and continued effectiveness of vaccines, status of government orders, directives and guidelines, recovery of the business environment, global supply chain conditions, economic conditions, and consumer demand for our products, all of which are highly uncertain.
Raw Materials and Parts
The principal raw materials and parts used for manufacturing that are purchased are cover (primarily fabrics and leather), polyester batting and polyurethane foam for cushioning and padding, lumber and plywood for frames, steel for motion mechanisms, electrical components for power units and various other metal components for fabrication of product. We purchase most of our polyurethane foam from three suppliers, which have several facilities across the United States or Mexico that deliver to our plants. We purchase cover from a variety of sources, but we rely on a limited number of major suppliers. We purchase more than half of our cover in a raw state (fabric rolls or leather hides) from suppliers in China, then cut and sew it
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into cover in our cut and sew facilities in Mexico. We purchase the remainder of our cut and sewn leather and fabric kits from five main suppliers primarily from China as well as Vietnam and Haiti. We use these suppliers primarily for their product design capabilities and to balance our mix of in-sourced and out-sourced production. If any of these suppliers experience financial or other difficulties, we could experience temporary disruptions in our manufacturing process until we find alternative sources of supply.
We manage our Asian supply chain through our global trading company in Hong Kong, which works to identify efficiencies and savings opportunities, while verifying La-Z-Boy quality standards are being adhered to and managing the relationships with our Asian suppliers.
During fiscal 2022, the prices of materials we use in our upholstery manufacturing process increased, driven by supply chain challenges due to COVID-19, higher demand for raw materials in manufacturing sectors and the home furnishings industry due to an economic sector rotation, and inflationary cost pressure. As we begin fiscal 2023, we expect raw material prices to remain at historically high levels in many categories due to price inflation in our core materials and global supply chain complexities. COVID-19 related issues will continue to introduce uncertainty into many markets, especially with respect to freight, tariffs and labor availability. To the extent that we experience incremental costs in any of these areas, we may increase our selling prices or assess material surcharges to offset the impact. However, increases in selling prices, or surcharges, may not fully mitigate the impact of raw material cost increases, which could adversely impact operating profits.
Finished Goods Imports
Imported finished goods represented 6% and 7% of our consolidated sales in fiscal 2022 and 2021, respectively. We import all of the casegoods (wood) furniture that we sell primarily to remain competitive for these products. In fiscal 2022, we purchased 63% of this imported product from four suppliers based in Asia. We use these suppliers primarily to leverage our buying power, to control quality and product flow, and because their capabilities align with our product design needs. If any of these suppliers experience financial or other difficulties, including sustained negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic or supply chain challenges, we could experience disruptions in our product flow until we obtain alternate suppliers, which could be lengthy due to the longer lead time required for sourced wood furniture from Asian manufacturers.
The prices we paid for these imported products, including associated transportation costs, increased in fiscal 2022 compared with fiscal 2021, primarily due to constrained supply resulting from a combination of COVID-19 lockdowns, primarily in Vietnam, and increased demand across the industry. Additionally, shipping container availability was constrained throughout fiscal 2022, resulting from an imbalance in container supply driven by COVID-19 disruptions and elevated demand. Based on continued inflationary pressures and heightened demand for shipping capacity, in fiscal 2023 we anticipate overall product and freight costs associated with our finished goods imports to increase.
Seasonal Business
We believe that the demand for furniture generally reflects sensitivity to overall economic conditions, including consumer confidence, housing market conditions and unemployment rates. For our wholesale businesses, the fourth quarter has historically had the highest volume of delivered sales relative to other quarters. For our retail and e-commerce businesses, which includes our company-owned retail stores and Joybird, the third quarter typically has the highest volume of delivered sales relative to other quarters.
In a typical year, we schedule production to maintain consistent manufacturing activity throughout the year whenever possible. During the summer months, the furniture industry typically experiences weaker demand, and as such we typically shut down our domestic plants for one week each fiscal year to perform routine maintenance on our equipment. Accordingly, for our wholesale business, the first quarter is usually the Company's weakest quarter in terms of sales and earnings. Also driven by the seasonal slowdown in the summer, each of our retail business typically experiences its lowest sales in the first quarter.
During the last two fiscal years, our sales volume and production schedule did not follow typical trends due to the impact of COVID-19. Since our retail locations and manufacturing facilities reopened by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2021, we have experienced heightened demand and in response, we took several actions to increase our production capacity throughout the last two fiscal years. As a result of these actions, coupled with the additional week in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, our wholesale and retail businesses both experienced their largest sales volume in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. Further, due to our record backlog as of the end of fiscal 2022, we also do not anticipate typical seasonal trends until the second half of fiscal 2023. We do not expect that this impact is reflective of any long term seasonal trends in the furniture industry or is an indicator that seasonal trends are permanently changing for our wholesale or retail businesses.
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Economic Cycle and Purchasing Cycle
Our sales are impacted by the overall growth of the furniture industry, which is primarily influenced by consumer discretionary spending and existing and new housing activity. In addition, consumer confidence, employment rates, international trade policies, and other factors could affect demand. As a result of COVID-19, beginning in the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we experienced heightened demand, as more discretionary spending was allocated to the home furnishings industry which carried forward through much of fiscal 2022. However, as various COVID-related restrictions were lifted near the end of fiscal 2022, and given the current geopolitical climate and rising inflation, we are unable to predict how long this demand will last or to what extent these factors may impact the economic and purchasing cycle for our products in the short and long term.
Upholstered furniture has a shorter life cycle than casegoods furniture because upholstered furniture is typically more fashion and design-oriented and is often purchased one or two pieces at a time. Purchases and demand for consumer goods, including upholstered furniture, fluctuate based on consumer confidence. Casegoods products, in contrast, are longer-lived and frequently purchased in groupings or "suites," resulting in a much larger cost to the consumer. As a result, casegoods sales are more sensitive to economic conditions, including growth or a slowdown in the housing market, whereas upholstered furniture normally exhibits a less volatile sales pattern over an economic cycle.
Practices Regarding Working Capital Items
The following describes our significant practices regarding working capital items.
Inventory: For our upholstery business within our Wholesale segment, we maintain raw materials and work-in-process inventory at our manufacturing locations. Finished goods inventory is maintained at our nine regional distribution centers as well as our manufacturing locations. Our regional distribution centers allow us to streamline the warehousing and distribution processes for our La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® store network, including both company-owned stores and independently-owned stores. Our regional distribution centers also allow us to reduce the number of individual warehouses needed to supply our retail outlets and help us reduce inventory levels at our manufacturing and retail locations.
For our casegoods business within our Wholesale segment, we import wood furniture from Asian vendors, resulting in long lead times on these products. To address these long lead times and meet our customers' delivery requirements, we typically maintain higher levels of finished goods inventory in our domestic warehouses, as a percentage of sales, of our casegoods products than our upholstery products.
Our company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores have finished goods inventory at the stores for display purposes.
Our Joybird business maintains raw materials and work-in-process inventory at its manufacturing location. Joybird finished goods inventory is maintained at our regional distribution centers, at its manufacturing and warehouse locations, or in-transit to the end consumer.
Our inventory increased $77.1 million as of year end fiscal 2022 compared with year end fiscal 2021 primarily to support increased sales demand and manufacturing capacity and to reduce the impact associated with volatility in raw material availability, as well as due to the higher cost of materials and other input costs. We actively manage our inventory levels on an ongoing basis to ensure they are appropriate relative to our sales volume, while maintaining our focus on service to our customers.
Accounts Receivable: Our accounts receivable increased $44.4 million as of year end fiscal 2022 compared with year end fiscal 2021. The increase in accounts receivable was primarily due to higher fourth quarter sales in fiscal 2022 compared with the same period a year ago driven by pricing and surcharge actions taken in response to rising manufacturing costs and higher overall volume. Additionally, our allowance for receivable credit losses was lower at the end of fiscal 2022 compared with the end of fiscal 2021 reflecting strong collection trends. We monitor our customers' accounts, limit our credit exposure to certain independent dealers and strive to decrease our days' sales outstanding where possible. Our days' sales outstanding is a measure of the time needed to collect outstanding accounts receivable once we have completed a sale and was approximately 30 days or less in both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2021 on a consolidated basis.
Accounts Payable: Our accounts payable increased $9.9 million as of year end fiscal 2022 compared with year end fiscal 2021, primarily due to higher inventory purchases as we continue to scale production to meet increased demand.
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Customer Deposits: We collect a deposit from our customers at the time a customer order is placed in one of our company-owned retail stores or through our websites, www.la-z-boy.com and www.joybird.com. Customer deposits increased $2.5 million as of fiscal year end 2022 compared with fiscal year end 2021, primarily due to higher written Retail and Joybird sales volume throughout the year.
Customers
Our wholesale customers are furniture retailers. While primarily located throughout the United States and Canada, we also have customers located in various other countries, including the United Kingdom, China, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand. Sales in our Wholesale segment are primarily to third-party furniture retailers, but we also sell directly to end consumers through our company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores that make up our Retail segment and through our websites, www.la-z-boy.com and www.joybird.com.
We have formal agreements with many furniture retailers for them to display and merchandise products from one or more of our operating units and sell them to consumers in dedicated retail space, either in stand-alone stores or dedicated proprietary galleries or studios within their stores. We consider this dedicated space to be "proprietary." For our Wholesale segment, our fiscal 2022 customer mix based on sales was approximately 56% proprietary, 11% major dealers, such as Berkshire Hathaway, Sofa Carpet Specialist (SCS), Slumberland Furniture and Mathis Brothers, and 33% other independent retailers.
The success of our product distribution model relies heavily on having retail floor space that is dedicated to displaying and marketing our products. The 348-store La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® network is central to this approach. In addition, we sell product through proprietary space within other retail furniture stores, primarily La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio ® locations, England Custom Comfort Center locations, Kincaid Shoppes, and other international locations. Additionally, our Joybird business, which sells product primarily online to end consumers through its website, www.joybird.com, also has a limited amount of proprietary retail showroom floor space in small format stores in key urban markets.
Maintaining, updating, and, when appropriate, expanding our proprietary distribution network is a key part of our overall sales and marketing strategy. We intend, over the long-term, to not only increase the number of stores in the network but also to continue to improve their quality, including upgrading old-format stores to our new concept design through remodels and relocations. We continue to maintain and update our current stores to improve the quality of the network. The La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® store network plans to open, relocate or remodel 40 to 45 stores during fiscal 2023, all of which will feature our latest store designs.
We select independent dealers for our proprietary La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® store network based on factors such as their management and financial qualifications and the potential for distribution in specific geographical areas. This proprietary distribution benefits La-Z-Boy, our dealers and our consumers. It enables La-Z-Boy to concentrate our marketing with sales personnel dedicated to our entire product line, and only that line and approved accessories. It also allows dealers that join this proprietary group to take advantage of best practices, with which other proprietary dealers have succeeded, and we facilitate forums for these dealers to share them. These La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores provide our consumers a full-service shopping experience with a large variety of products, knowledgeable sales associates, and design service consultants.
Orders and Backlog
We typically build upholstery units based on specific orders, either for dealer stock or to fill consumers' custom orders. We import casegoods product primarily to fill our internal orders, rather than customer or consumer orders, resulting in higher finished goods inventory on hand as a percentage of sales. We define backlog as any written order that has not yet been delivered, whether to an independent furniture retailer, an independently-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® store, or the end consumer through our company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores.
Historically, the size of our backlog at a given time varies and may not be indicative of our future sales and, therefore, we do not rely entirely on backlogs to predict future sales. Our wholesale backlog was $697.2 million as of April 30, 2022, compared with $616.7 million as of April 24, 2021. The increase in our backlog was primarily due to pricing actions taken to mitigate the impact of rising raw material and freight costs, along with a shift in product mix, as higher production capacity kept pace with written order demand during fiscal 2022.
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Competitive Conditions
We are the second largest manufacturer/distributor of residential (living and family room, bedroom, and dining room) furniture in the United States, as measured by annual sales volume.
Alternative distribution channels have increasingly affected our retail markets. Direct-to-consumer brands, such as Article and Burrow, bypass brick and mortar retailers entirely or in some cases have developed a product that can be shipped more easily than traditional upholstered furniture, thus increasing competition for our products. The increased ability of consumers to purchase furniture through various furniture manufacturers' and digital-only retailers' internet websites, including companies such as Amazon, Hayneedle, QVC, and Wayfair, has also increased competition in the industry. Although digital retailers operate with lower overhead costs than a brick-and-mortar retailer, customer acquisition costs and advertising spend is typically much higher. Department stores and big box retailers with an online presence also offer products that compete with some of our product lines.
The home furnishings industry competes primarily on the basis of product styling and quality, customer service (product availability and delivery), price, and location. We compete primarily by emphasizing our brand and the comfort, quality, styling and value of our products. In addition, we remain committed to innovation while striving to provide outstanding customer service, exceptional dealer support, and efficient on-time delivery. Maintaining, updating, and expanding our proprietary distribution system, including identifying desirable retail locations, is a key strategic initiative for us in striving to remain competitive. We compete in the mid to upper-mid price point, and a shift in consumer taste and trends to lower-priced products could negatively affect our competitive position.
In the Wholesale segment, our largest competitors are Ashley, Bassett, Bernhardt, Best Chair, Flexsteel, Hooker Furniture, Klaussner, Kuka, Lacquer Craft, Man Wah, and Southern Motion. Our wholesale business also faces additional market pressures from foreign manufacturers entering the United States market and increased direct purchases from foreign suppliers by large United States retailers.
The La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries ® stores operate in the retail furniture industry in the United States and Canada, and different stores have different competitors based on their geographic locations. Some competitors include: Arhaus, Ashley, Bassett Furniture Direct, Bob's Discount Furniture, Crate and Barrel, Ethan Allen, Restoration Hardware, Havertys, Williams-Sonoma, as well as several other regional competitors (for example Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, Mathis Brothers, and Slumberland Furniture), and family-owned independent furniture stores.
Our Joybird business sells almost exclusively online and competes primarily with Amazon, Article, CB2, Love Sac, Maiden Home, Wayfair and West Elm.
In addition to the larger competitors listed above, a substantial number of small and medium-sized companies operate within our business segments, all of which are highly competitive.
Trademarks, Licenses and Patents
We own the La-Z-Boy trademark, which is essential to the Wholesale and Retail segments of our business. We also own the Joybird trademark, which, along with the La-Z-Boy trademark, is essential to our e-commerce business. Additionally, we own a number of other trademarks that we utilize in marketing our products. We consider our La-Z-Boy trademark to be among our most valuable assets and we have registered that trademark and others in the United States and various other countries where our products are sold. These trademarks have a perpetual life, subject to renewal. We license the use of the La-Z-Boy trademark to certain international partners and dealers outside of North America. We also license the use of the La-Z-Boy trademark on contract office furniture, outdoor furniture, and non-furniture products, as these arrangements enhance our brand awareness, broaden the perceptions of La-Z-Boy, and create visibility of the La-Z-Boy brand in channels outside of the residential furniture industry. In addition, we license to our branded dealers the right to use our La-Z-Boy trademark in connection with the sale of our products and related services, on their signs, and in other ways, which we consider to be a key part of our marketing strategies. We provide more information about those dealers under "Customers."
We hold a number of United States and foreign patents that we actively enforce. We have followed a policy of filing patent applications for the United States and select foreign countries on inventions, designs and improvements that we deem valuable, but these patents do expire at various times.
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While our intellectual property rights in the aggregate are important to the operation of our business, we do not believe that any existing patent, license, trademark or other intellectual property right (other than the La-Z-Boy trademark) is of such importance that its loss or termination would have a material adverse effect on our business taken as a whole. We vigorously protect our trademarks and patents against third-party infringement.
Compliance with Environmental Regulations
Our manufacturing operations involve the use and disposal of certain substances regulated under environmental protection laws and regulations and, from time to time, we may be involved in a small number of remediation actions and site investigations concerning these substances. Based on a review of all currently known facts and our experience with previous environmental matters, we currently do not believe it is probable that we will have any additional loss for environmental matters that would be material to our consolidated financial statements.
Human Capital
Employees
We employed approximately 12,800 full-time equivalent employees as of April 30, 2022, compared with approximately 11,500 employees at the end of fiscal 2021. The increase in headcount was primarily due to an increase in production and capacity at our Mexico manufacturing facilities to meet demand, along with our acquisition of the U.K. manufacturing business in the third quarter of fiscal 2022. As of April 30, 2022, we employed approximately 10,500 employees in our Wholesale segment, 1,500 in our Retail segment, 500 in our Joybird business, with the remaining employees being corporate personnel. We employ the majority of our employees on a full-time basis.
Purpose and Values
At La-Z-Boy, we believe in the transformational power of comfort. We provide an excellent consumer experience, create high quality products and empower people to transform rooms, homes and communities with comfort. Our teams are committed to our core values of Courage, Curiosity and Compassion. We are not afraid to try new things, we are relentless in our mission to understand our business and consumers, and we honor our almost 100-year legacy that was built on family.
Sustainability
As we build the La-Z-Boy of tomorrow, our goal is to make the world a better place through the transformational power of comfort. Aligned with our core values, we embrace curiosity for sustainable design, operate with compassion for a sustainable planet, and empower courage for a sustainable culture.
Sustainable Design . We embrace curiosity and our inquisitiveness helps us identify innovative opportunities for our products that uphold our commitment to quality, rely on sustainable materials and drive best practices in our supplier partnerships.
Sustainable Planet . We strive to operate La-Z-Boy with compassion for the environment. We are committed to responsible stewardship and integrate environmentally sound and sustainable practices into our daily decisions. We work to reduce emissions, increase recycling efforts, and conserve water in all areas of our business.
Sustainable Culture . At La-Z-Boy, we support our employees so they can make courageous choices and help our business thrive. Our people practices are linked to our sustainability initiatives. The sustainable culture we’re building empowers employees to do what is right in the workplace and in our communities. From supporting our employees’ careers and providing a safe and ethical work environment to giving back to the communities where we live and work, people are always at the heart of our brand.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
We believe in creating and fostering a workplace in which all our employees feel valued, included and empowered to do their best work and contribute their ideas and perspectives. Our Company is committed to recruiting and retaining diverse talent so that our workforce better reflects the communities in which we operate our business globally. We recognize that our employees’ unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives enable us to create the optimal work environment and deliver on our mission.
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Aligning with our purpose and values, we intend to continue to be curious, courageous and compassionate in our efforts to foster an environment that attracts the best talent, values diversity of life experiences and perspectives and encourages innovation to accelerate the transformational power of comfort.
Our diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives include:
• Integrating diversity, inclusion and belonging into our overall corporate strategy and developing impactful practices and initiatives to advance our Company’s diversity, inclusion and belonging journey;
• Leveraging our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Council to provide enterprise-wide leadership focused on supporting all our employees, developing training and learning opportunities for our employees on diversity, unconscious bias and other topics, and creating sustainable plans to increase diversity in talent acquisition;
• Expanding our support of employee resource groups, which include groups focused on Multicultural, Pride and Working Parents. Our ERG’s provide learning and mentorship experiences for our diverse employees, supporting our objective of creating diversity awareness across our organization, and helping our employees use their collective voices to positively impact our Company and the communities in which we operate our business and live;
• Revisiting, assessing and implementing changes to our processes, in an effort to continue mitigating unconscious bias and enhancing our inclusion recruiting strategy;
• Enhancing and expanding our supplier inclusion network;
• Expanding inclusive leaders training throughout the organization;
• Creating space for individuals to share their perspective, values and voice to our global population through employee written articles, our internal podcast, and multiple video series on our internal communications platform and;
• Demonstrating our Company’s commitment at the highest levels of leadership, including having our President and Chief Executive Officer sign the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Safety and Health
We prioritize the health and safety of our employees, partners and the people in communities where we operate.
As the largest industrial manufacturer in many regions where we do business, we recognize our potential impact on surrounding communities. We actively partner with local agencies in these communities to build proactive emergency and contingency plans for any major incidents that may occur at our facilities and any natural disasters that may impact the region.
We work to forge relationships with agencies, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), to understand how we can best adhere to health and safety practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked with county health departments to approve our return-to-office and employee safety protocols before bringing employees back to our manufacturing plants.
Additionally, the National Safety Council (NSC) has recognized La-Z-Boy with hundreds of awards for safety performance and leadership throughout the Company’s history. This includes our recognition as a five-time recipient of the Corporate Safety Culture Award and the Green Cross for Safety Excellence award, which recognizes only one corporation each year for outstanding achievements in safety.
Community Giving
Throughout our 95-year history, giving back to our communities has been woven through La-Z-Boy’s culture following the example set by our founders. When it comes to giving, our vision is to improve the lives of others by developing exceptional programs based on partnerships where employees feel a sense of connection and pride in their communities and our mission is to enhance the quality of life in the communities in which we live and serve through leadership, financial contributions and volunteer efforts.
Our philanthropic initiatives include the La-Z-Boy Foundation, local community involvement, disaster relief and our signature charity, Ronald McDonald House Charities. La-Z-Boy is honored to be the official furniture provider for Ronald McDonald House Charities. Our employees further exemplify the spirit of giving through leadership and volunteer efforts in their own communities, and for numerous non-profit organizations, which include the United Way, Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity and others.
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been committed to helping those in communities where we operate, including manufacturing masks and medical gowns during the early stages of the pandemic. During fiscal 2022, we hosted multiple on-site clinics at several of our North American locations to keep our communities safe and these programs were critical in providing vaccine access. For instance, our clinic in Mexico provided vaccine access to more than 12,000 community members outside of our workforce and this earned us recognition from Canacintra, an organization in Mexico representing the industrial sector and its employees.
Internet Availability
Our Forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, proxy statements on Schedule 14A, and amendments to those reports are available free of charge through links on our internet website, www.la-z-boy.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Copies of any materials we file or furnish to the SEC can also be obtained free of charge through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The information on our website is not incorporated by reference into this report or any other reports we file with, or furnish to, the SEC.