Farooq Kathwari is the CEO, president, and chairman of international furniture retailer Ethan Allen Interiors Inc.
The businessman also serves on the advisory boards of several nonprofit organizations. Among these are the International Rescue Committee, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Kathwari has received several awards, including the 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the 2005 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal. He is a member of the American Furniture Hall of Fame.
Kathwari guided the decades-old company through the pandemic. Local manufacturing, raised wages, and proactive customer service all play their part.
“Our focus will continue to be on cultivating strong leaders, being relevant with our offerings, maintaining a strong presence in North American manufacturing, investing in technology, and maintaining a strong focus on social responsibility,” the CEO told LEADERS Magazine.
Farooq Kathwari: CEO and humanitarian
Kathwari became Ethan Allen’s president in 1985. In 1988 he took the role of chairman and CEO. The following year, Kathwari and his management group bought Ethan Allen from its founders. He took the company public in 1993 to help raise funds through stocks.
In 1996, Kathwari co-founded the Kashmir Study Group (KSG) in New York. KSG is comprised of academic, diplomatic, and specialists in South Asian foreign policy. The group collaborated with CSIS to “undertake a study of the economic dimensions of peace in Kashmir,” KSG said in a press release.
In 2006 the National Retail Federation elected Kathwari to serve a two-year term on its Board of Directors. He is also a former First Vice Chairman of the group. Kathwari is also a former chairman of the American Home Furnishings Alliance and chairman emeritus of Refugees International.
The Ethan Allen CEO served as an advisory member to the New York Stock Exchange. He is also a director of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
From 2010 to 2014, Kathwari served on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In 2016 Kathwari became co-chair of the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council. The Islamic Society of North America teamed up with the American Jewish Committee to form the new national group.
Kathwari published his memoir, Trailblazer: from the Mountains of Kashmir to the Summit of Global Business and Beyond, in 2019.
Kathwari was a member of the bipartisan United States Institute of Peace Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States. Governor Tom Kean and Representative Lee Hamilton co-chaired the congressionally mandated force. The panel released its final report exploring a new approach to counterterrorism in February 2019.
Farooq Kathwari sold Kashmiri crafts
Kathwari hails from Kashmir, India. At 13 years old, Kathwari’s grandfather employed him in the family arts and crafts business.
“Kashmir is in the mountains. So I grew up and lived at 8,000 feet,” Kathwari told the Retail Watch podcast. “The mountains teach you many, many things. First, they teach you how to deal with people. In the mountains of Kashmir, when you greet somebody, they don’t talk much. But they first ask you, ‘Are you healthy? Is your family well?’ Those are the only two things they ask you. And that’s what really matters in life.”
“When I came to New York at age 20, I somehow got a job as a bookkeeper, although I had never seen a calculator in my whole life,” Kathwari told Westchester Magazine. “My grandfather wanted to help me earn some extra money, so he sent me 12 wicker baskets of Kashmiri arts and crafts and told me to sell them and just send the cost back.”
After school, Kathwari started as an analyst at financial advisory group Rothschild & Co. He would eventually become CFO. An associate introduced Kathwari to one of Ethan Allen’s co-founders in the early 1970s. The company was having trouble importing hand-embroidered crewel fabrics from Kashmir for upholstery.
“Long story short, I got into the fabric business,” said Kathwari.
Kathwari’s daughter, Farah Maryam Kathwari, was a style manager for Ethan Allen’s product development department.
Farooq Kathwari guides Ethan Allen through pandemic
Ethan Allen employs about 1,500 interior designers and offers free interior design service to its clients. The company has about 300 design centers in the U.S. and abroad. Specifically, six manufacturing plants and nine facilities are located in the US. Additionally, two plants are in Mexico and another is in Honduras.
During the pandemic, high transportation costs hit companies that ship their products from overseas. However, 75% of Ethan Allen’s manufacturing is local, in North America. Ultimately, this protected the company from the rising costs and delayed delivery times of overseas shipping.
Shortages of raw materials, however, slowed the company’s lead times. “We have one of the highest backlogs we’ve ever seen, even though we make [most of] the products ourselves,” said the CEO.
“People have started realizing that their homes need to be decorated,” Kathwari explained. “The element of change and thinking of change is important. That will continue and that will benefit us as we continue to move forward.”
To keep sales up despite challenges during the pandemic, the CEO has delayed raising prices.
“We still haven’t raised our prices to the level we should,” said Kathwari. “So our clients are benefiting—that message is going to them, that this is a good time to buy. You have to take adversity and turn it into something positive.”
To combat labor shortages during the pandemic, Ethan Allen raised wages nationally. A culture of appreciation and recognition prevents expensive turnover.
“This has been an incredible run,” Kathwari said about business during the pandemic. “But I think that people are now coming out of their homes…They’re going to demand better quality, better service…which means that we’ll have to work harder and that we will have to differentiate ourselves to gain market share. And that’s what we intend to do.”
Shop Ethan Allen here.
