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on Winter Street, but it has changed a lot


in the past 122 years. Delay said the last


expansion was about 15 to 18 years ago


when the office building and part of the


warehouse was enlarged.





Delay said the company owns a


sawmill in New Hampshire, and buys


wood for its furniture right from local


loggers. Some wood comes from other


parts of New England, Ohio and Canada.





Chet Sawicki, supervisor, said he has


been with S. Bent's for 10 years. "When I


first came here, we made only chairs.


Now we make full dining rooms. We had


to do thaL When you make just chairs,


you're an accessory item." He said by


adding the complete dining rooin sets,


business got better.





Delay said people come from allover


the United States to buy Gardner furniture. He said three or four stores in


Gardner sell S. Bent furniture.


"They're all retail stores. If we sold


factory direct at lower prices, we'd lose


our retail distribution. Our own business


might do-fine, but the total business


would suffer. No retail wants to sell


against a factory."





Delay said the business is doing well.


"You've got to be progressive. You have


to be a leader in the industry, not a


follower. You have to offer high quality,


well-styled, competitively-priced furniture.


As long as you .provide these


services, the buyers will-be happy."





He said there is a lot of competition


from Carolina and Virginia-based companies,


but added, "In my biased opinion,


the northern manufacturers give a better


value for the dollar."





All furniture begins with little


pieces of wood. The defects in


the wood are cut out and


different-sized panels are cut


and glued together by machine into


larger panels. The waste wood is pulver


ized and burnt in boilers to provide heat


for the building.





The larger panels become tables,


chair seats or hutch panels. The smaller


pieces are shaped into spindles for


chairs.





Machines do everything, with the


help of a lot of skilled workmen. The


machines do the cutting, boring, sanding


and bending of chair backs, but it's the


workers who must handle each piece


properly to assure a quality product.





Chairs are saturated with stain and


individually wiped by hand. Only the


human eye can detect defects in workmanship, so the chair industry will never


be fully automated, Sawicki said.





According to Sawicki, it takes a good


six months to train a new worker.





Signs in the factory area remind


workers of the importance of their jobs.


"You expect quality in what you buy,


our customers expect it in what you


make."





There are practically no "seconds"


produced at the factory. Each piece is


examined for defects. A chair or table


with a defect is sent to the repair shop


area. Parts are replaced to make a


perfect chair. The few that can't be


repaired easily are used in the company


cafeteria, Sawicki said.





Tony Menegoni said the steam and


boiling room is more than 100 years old


and the equipment used there is almost


that old. To make the chair backs bend,


the wood must be steamed or boiled and





then slowly dried in a room known as a





"hot box" to maintain their shape. He


said a lot of the old machinery still does


the job, so there's no need to change it.





The final finishes are applied while


the chairs are circling through the factory


on a conveyor belt. The conveyor


speed is timed so the chairs are dry by


the time the next coat is applied.





Menegoni said S. Bent's also does a


big "college chair" business. "It's a great


gift item."





Last year the company won a leadership


award from the Greater Gardner


Chamber of Commerce for" 10 years of


outstanding business achievements and


continued commitment to enrich the


economic well-being of the Greater


Gardner area.