Hickory Business Furniture, now known as HBF, was organized in 1979 as a contract furnishings division of The Lane Company, Inc. of Alta Vista, Virginia. The first manufacturing employee was hired in mid 1980 and manufacturing operations officially began January 1981 with a total of 34 employees. The first order of HBF produced furniture shipped to a dealer in Chicago in March of 1981. Today HBF and HBF Textiles employs over 300 people in their manufacturing locations located in Hickory, NC. HBF is now a wholly owned subsidiary of HNI.