was a clayton missouri based home furnishings company . some of the brands it owned in the furniture industry included broyhill lane thomasville drexel heritage henredon hickory chair pearson laneventure and maitland smith . the company began in 1911 as international shoe company with the merger of roberts johnson & rand shoe company and peters shoe company . in 1966 the company changed its name to interco as the result of diversification and once the company exited the shoe business adopted the name furniture brands international . some of the brands it owned in the furniture industry included broyhill thomasville drexel heritage henredon hickory chair pearson laneventure and maitland smith . in 2013 furniture brands filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell most of its divisions . new owner kps capital partners announced the formation of heritage home group on november 25 of that year . contents 1 history 1.1 international shoe company 1.2 interco 1.3 furniture brands international 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit international shoe company edit international shoe redirects here . for the 1945 court case see international shoe v. washington . at age 16 in the 1870s henry w. peters went to work for claflin allen & company at a time when st. louis missouri had wholesale distributors of shoes rather than manufacturers . as peters moved up in the company the city s production of shoes increased from a half million in 1883 to nine times that and claflin allen & company was one of the largest shoe makers . peters became president and then left in 1891 to form his own company peters shoe company with help from relatives . peters shoe company started with 200 000 in capital and almost doubled in size in its first decade requiring a move from 7th street and washington avenue to a larger building at 11th street and washington . isaac s. taylor designed the eight story headquarters built in 1901 at 13th street and washington which was named to the national register of historic places in 1984 . 1 brothers jack and oscar johnson and their cousin frank c. rand moved from mississippi to memphis tennessee in 1892 and started the johnson carruthers & rand shoe company . henry o. rand father of frank and john c. roberts were financial backers . in 1898 the johnsons sold their company and moved to st. louis to start roberts johnson & rand shoe company . frank rand a graduate of vanderbilt university became a stock clerk and advanced to become vice president . 2 a headquarters building went up at 15th street and washington in 1909 . 1 by 1905 st. louis had moved from ninth to third in the country in shoe production . peters shoe company had continued significant growth and its products sold all over the united states and even in mexico and europe . the two largest shoe companies in the city roberts johnson & rand and peters shoe company merged in 1911 to form international shoe company but each company kept its own identity . peters shoe remained in its own building with weatherbird shoes on display until 1930 when the company moved into what had become the international shoe building . washington avenue became known as shoe street u.s.a. because it claimed more shoe trade than any other street in the world . 1 jackson johnson became president of international shoe company succeeded in 1915 by his brother oscar who died in 1916 . frank rand took over as president . jackson johnson remained chairman until he died in 1929 . the company became known for quality shoes at low to moderate prices . world war i resulted in significant demand for military footwear . 2 international shoe company incorporated in delaware march 16 1921 . 3 at the time the company had 32 factories in missouri illinois and kentucky and had just bought a tannery business kistler lesh & co. also that year the company bought w.h. mcelwaine company of boston with about 5 000 workers and numerous operations in new hampshire . the company was doing well but was unionized while international shoe was not . a recession caused mcelwaine to propose wage cuts which caused united shoe workers to call for a strike . the sale intended as a solution to this problem resulted in a federal trade commission challenge under the clayton antitrust act . the supreme court ruled in 1930 that the merger could take place . without a union workers had to grudgingly accept the inevitable layoffs and wage reductions which kept the company profitable . in addition to weatherbird international shoe company made red goose shoes and in 1922 the company added poll parrot named for paul parrot who had a parrot in his shoe store citation needed . 4 the hannibal missouri plant that started in 1898 with a million pairs a year by 1908 made poll parrot and star shoes . 5 frank rand led international shoe through a time of major growth and through the difficulties created by the great depression . with jackson johnson s death rand moved into the chairman s slot and served in that position until his death in 1949 . william h. moulton who had joined roberts johnson & rand in 1908 took over as president serving until his 1939 retirement . international shoe not only endured the depression but thrived due to lower prices increasing demand for shoes and the lack of labor trouble . eventually most international shoe plants organized because the new deal outlawed the company s strategies to prevent unionization . the national labor relations board had to act to allow workers in hannibal to organize . byron gray an employee since 1909 became president in 1939 . world war ii gave international shoe a major opportunity as it was the only shoe company large enough to bid for all the business of the u.s. army . the company had 30 000 employees and became by far the u.s. government s largest supplier of footwear during the war despite opposition by labor unions . consumer demand also increased and in 1944 international shoe once again reached its 1929 production levels . by 1950 international shoe had the capability to make 70 million pairs of shoes a year ; its businesses also included tanneries rubber heels cement containers and material for shoe linings . rand s death the previous year began a change in the company s outlook as the rand family influence began to decrease . frank rand s sons edgar e. rand and henry h. rand both served as president but the company began a period of diversification due to the influence of maurice r. chambers even before he became president in 1962 . major acquisitions included high end shoe maker florsheim in 1952 canada s largest shoe maker savage shoes ltd. in 1954 and caribe shoe corporation of puerto rico in 1958 . that last deal led to the closing of a plant in chester illinois that had operated since 1916 and was making 5 000 shoes a day . a retail division began in 1959 and international shoe began buying companies in other countries and even in businesses other than shoes . 2 interco edit international shoe company became interco inc. on march 1 1966 . 3 the new name reflected the company strategy of buying businesses in many different areas . interco had three major divisions apparel footwear and retailing . from 1964 to 1978 the company bought 20 other manufacturers or retailers as well as central hardware . under chambers plants started closing and some shoes were imported from such places as italy . overall by the mid 1970s 44 percent of shoes in the u.s. came from other countries . but chambers strategies kept interco successful reaching a billion dollars with consistent growth in sales and earnings . chambers moved to the chairman s job in 1976 with william h. edwards jr. taking over as president but continuing chambers policies . on april 31 1978 interco acquired international hat company and its six factories as part of interco s expansion into the apparel industry . 6 in 1980 interco added furniture as a major division . 2 that year the company bought ethan allen inc. for 150 million . 7 interco also took over broyhill furniture a north carolina company that was the world s largest privately owned furniture maker . in 1987 under new president harvey saleigman interco bought lane company of altavista virginia which increased furniture and home furnishings to about one third of interco s total sales . also under saligman interco bought converse in 1986 . footwear and furniture were the company s most profitable areas and the goal was to sell other businesses . unfortunately due to the costs of buying converse and lane interco itself appeared by this time to be a takeover target more profitable as a group of separate companies to be sold than as a single unit . in 1988 steven m. rales and his brother mitchell led a group that offered 2.47 billion but that bid ran into trouble when the sec charged drexel burnham lambert with insider trading making financing of the bid more difficult . interco took on debt to discourage other offers and the rales group eventually backed off . but interco could not make enough money by selling its unprofitable operations ; 2 for example selling ethan allen brought in 388 million rather than the expected 550 million . the company s debt had jumped from 300 million in 1988 to 2.6 billion in 1989 and operations were not producing enough income to cover the payments . on july 31 1990 an agreement with creditors to extend loan maturities to 1997 was intended to avoid bankruptcy . 8 in 1989 richard loynd converse s chairman and the leader of his company s buyout effort became interco president . interco filed for chapter 11 in january 1991 and sold all of its operations except broyhill lane converse and florsheim . apollo investment fund ltd. led by drexel burnham lambert s leon black took a controlling interest in the reorganized interco which emerged from bankruptcy in august 1992 . in 1994 interco exited the shoe business selling converse and florsheim . 2 brown shoe company took over the rights to red goose . a former international shoe company warehouse became the city museum . 9 armstrong world industries sold thomasville furniture industries to interco in november 1995 in a 331 million deal . interco had over 1 billion in revenues at the time . 10 furniture brands international edit interco became furniture brands international on march 1 1996 . 3 that same year mickey holliman of the action industries subsidiary succeeded loynd as president . holliman had made his company into the leader in the motion furniture segment . his strategy of focusing on furniture proved successful and by 1999 furniture brands international had fifteen straight quarters of increased earnings . thomasville furniture the third manufacturer and a deal with retailer haverty s to devote significant space to furniture brands contributed to the company s positive outlook . 2 late in 2001 masco announced furniture brands international would buy henredon drexel heritage and maitland smith for 275 million in a deal expected to return furniture brands to the number one u.s. furniture manufacturer a title lost to la z boy when that company bought ladd in 2000 . 11 the three companies which gave furniture brands a top position in premium furniture 12 became the high point north carolina based subsidiary hdm furniture industries inc. in 2005 . drexel heritage ceo jeff young became the ceo . also that year hdm announced plans to move upholstery manufacturing in high point to the drexel heritage location closing the henredon plant and moving some operations to mount airy north carolina