In 1999, we decided to enter the U.S. branded residential furniture market and Legacy Classic was established in March of that year, to provide us with a brand name presence and marketing capabilities in the U.S.. We recruited key executives to plan and execute Legacy Classic’s business model, including its consolidated direct container service. Legacy Classic initially commenced its operations by offering a small range of case goods and within five years of its inception evolved into a full range case goods supplier offering a wide range of products, including bedroom, formal dining, casual dining, occasional and youth furniture.
Our branded furniture business was further enhanced by the acquisition of the assets of Universal Furniture in 2001. The acquisition of Universal Furniture enabled us to enter the upper middle to high retail-price range segment of the residential furniture market and to complement the product offerings of Legacy Classic in the lower-middle to middle price range.
Owing to the rapid growth of our business, we established Lacquer Craft (Zhejiang), our second manufacturing operation, in 2002 and commenced production at our manufacturing facilities in the town of Jiashan in the Zhejiang province in 2004. That year, the local government also acquired from us the land upon which Lacquer Craft (Dongguan)’s five manufacturing facilities were located. Lacquer Craft (Dongguan) took advantage of this acquisition to consolidate its manufacturing operations and relocated its manufacturing operations to a new manufacturing facility in the Dongguan area. This facility, which commenced operations in early 2005, was built with the specifications of our OEM customers in mind.