SPRUCE PINE, N.C. -- A small North Carolina furniture maker plans to suspend production in a few weeks while it waits for business to improve.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Thursday that the Genesis Furniture Industries plant in Spruce Pine already has laid off eight of its 35 employees. Plant manager Mike Champion says the remaining workers are filling existing orders.

The plant makes sofas, ottomans and loveseats and serves as the company's East Coast distribution center. Distribution operations aren't affected.

Genesis operated at the former Henredon furniture plant for 31/2 years and has a manufacturing plant in Mississippi.

Furniture manufacturers have lost thousands of jobs in North Carolina because of the recession and the movement of manufacturing overseas.