The story of Golden Oak.

Golden Oak – a dba of Whalen Furniture Mfg. Inc. – was founded in 1990. Whalen Furniture started as a supplier for the Wholesale Club stores (initially Costco). This volume grew rapidly and Golden Oak began successfully designing and producing large quantities of furniture for Price Club and Sam’s Club.

Our experience with “mass merchants” was a ideal start to managing the issues that only larger more mature furniture manufacturing companies learn with time – such as stiff demands for packaging, labeling, on-time shipping, etc. As Golden Oak moved into the conventional Furniture markets, we developed a marketing approach that was somewhat opposite to what a typical new company’s approach might be. Golden Oak started with the larger distributors and dealers, as opposed to smaller dealers and then on up. These were dealers that could take larger quantities of products.

By 1997, Golden Oak operated 2 factories in Mexico (one in Tijuana and one in Tecate), a plant in Phoenix, and a veneer plant in Los Angeles.

Golden Oak was one of the early manufacturers of Home Office & Home Entertainment furniture to move production to China. Golden Oak’s approach to Importing is quite different from the “norm,” as well. Rather than rely on import agents to source factories and product, GO takes a hands-on approach in sourcing factories and developing products utilizing the experience learned from owning and operating our own Mexico plants.

The demand for Golden Oak Import furniture has experienced explosive growth. Golden Oak now maintains offices in China with an Operations Manager (who now lives in China) and a large staff of personnel, including QC inspectors and administrative staff. Our Tecate factory has been enlarged and improved to provide additional efficiencies by consolidating the Tijuana manufacturing and Los Angeles veneer facilities.

With our experience and expertise in design, manufacturing, import/export and customer support and service, Golden Oak is prepared to continue to raise the bar and provide successful relationships with our customers at every level.