Kraus Enterprises Inc history

Already in 1948 the company introduced the world’s first cam switch in modular design (model C15), allowing the manufacture of specific, tailor-made products.

Kraus & Naimer Produktion GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany, est'd 1962

Krause's Sofa Factory (originally incorporated as The Sofa Factory) was founded in San Diego or La Mesa, California, a suburb, in 1973 by Kalman and Bernelle Krause.

Kraus & Naimer Production Inc., Somerset, NJ, United StatesA., est'd 1981

Krause's Sofa Factory had sales of $103 million in 1989, making it the largest factory-direct sofa manufacturer in the United States and the 17th largest furniture maker in the nation.

The company, however, was not doing well, incurring a net loss of $2.6 million in fiscal 1990 (the year ended September 30, 1990), on sales volume that had slipped to about $86.6 million.

By May 1991 there were 67 showrooms, of which 46 were in California and 21 in six other western states.

Still heavily exposed to the struggling California economy, Krause's lost $3.4 million in calendar 1992 on revenues of $87 million.

Worth Corp., later in 1993, purchased the remaining stock of Krause's Sofa Factory, exchanging it for its own stock in a transaction valued at $7 million to $7.5 million.

Worth renamed itself Krause's Furniture Inc. in December 1994.

He had formerly run Carter Hawley Hale Stores, a retailing giant that--renamed Broadway Stores--was purchased by Federated Department Stores in 1995 after emerging from bankruptcy.

Anderson's attention turned in 1996 from improving production to upgrading Krause's Furniture's stores, which in April of that year consisted of 83 company-owned showrooms and four franchised outlets.

At the end of fiscal 1997 Krause's Furniture was operating 83 furniture showrooms in 12 states, 69 under the Krause's name and 14 under the Castro Convertibles name.

Some 4.4 million shares of Krause's Furniture stock (2.3 million new shares plus 2.1 million offered by Worms et Cie, the French investment firm) were sold to the public in March 1998 at $3 per share.

Earlier, it had occupied three former Furnishings 2000 locations in southern California.