Business in brief MONSON: MOOSEHEAD MANUFACTURING GETS AN ASSIST

A local furniture manufacturer that has had to lay off more than 50 employees in recent years because of unfair competition from China received some help this week through the New England Trade Adjustment Assistance program. Moosehead Manufacturing Inc., a family-owned business with plants in Monson and Dover-Foxcroft, learned Friday it had received a matching $75,000 New England Trade Adjustment Assistance grant. The $75,000 from NETAA and the required company match of $75,000 will be used for the expansion and further development of the company’s new “J. Wentworth” line of furniture, a high-end antique re-creation, according to John Wentworth, company president. The new product was launched at the International Home Furnishing Show in High Point, N.C., in October. “Domestic furniture manufacturers are facing extreme, and often unfair, foreign competition,” Sens. Snowe and Collins said Friday in a prepared statement that announced the company’s award. Duties are being levied on more than 110 different Chinese furniture producers that were unfairly “dumping” bedroom furniture in the United States, according to the senators. While these duties are helpful, domestic furniture manufacturers, such as Moosehead Manufacturing, need additional support to ensure viability, they said. (Diana Bowley, BDN)