After 45 years, Martin Furniture founder announces retirement, names new CEO

SAN DIEGO — Gil Martin, the founder and longtime CEO of Martin Furniture, will retire from his role after 45 years of leadership. Succeeding him as CEO is Nico Gaviria, a business development veteran with 20 years of leadership experience.

“I am thrilled to welcome Nico to Martin Furniture,” said Martin. “Nico’s extensive experience in driving growth and innovation, combined with his passion for leading high-performance teams, makes him the ideal leader to steer our company into its next phase of success. His deep understanding of operations and global market dynamics will be instrumental as we continue to expand our reach and improve our products and services for our customers.”

Gaviria comes to Martin from textile manufacturer BekaertDeslee, where he worked for 10 years, most recently as vice president, strategy. Before that he was senior manager, strategic planning, at Royalty Carpet Mills and senior process manager at Shaw Industries.

“I am excited to join Martin Furniture and lead this incredible team,” said Gaviria. “I look forward to building on the company’s strong foundation, advancing our strategy, and continuing to create value for our customers and employees. Together, we will drive innovation, operational excellence, and sustainable growth.”

Martin will remain onboard until Gaviria is fully up to speed, with plans to fully step aside as CEO in July.

“I will step back in the second half of the year,” Martin said. “I’ll go to Market and introduce him to the whole sales team. Some have met him, some haven’t yet.”

While Martin will step away as CEO, he won’t fully exit the company he built. “I’ll still be chairman, and I’ll still be involved in product development,” he said. “That’s an area I love. I’ll also be around to guide the company should any big issues happen.”

Martin started his namesake company in 1980 out of his San Diego garage.

“I did woodworking as a hobby when I was going to college,” he said. “When I was 28 and working in general management roles doing paperwork, I realized I wanted to do something else. I started making furniture and loved it. I had six customers at first, but it just kept growing.”

Martin slowly scaled up his domestic operation, making furniture in San Diego until 2003 when he opted to move manufacturing to Mexico. It was also around this time the company began sourcing in Asia: first in Taiwan, then China and Vietnam. In 2023, Martin exited Mexico completely, opting to source entirely from Vietnam and Malaysia.

The company always has specialized in case goods.

“For a long time, we only made office furniture and entertainment consoles,” he said. “In 1986 or so, we split up the office category into residential and commercial. To this day, we still do both. In the past couple of years, we’ve got into dining and that’s been great. We’ve also seen more demand for fireplace consoles, so we’ve really ramped that up.”

Now, at 73, Martin is stepping back. “I love the furniture industry,” he said. “Some of my best friends are in this industry. I have no regrets about anything.”

See also:

• Martin Furniture exits entire Mexican manufacturing operation after 20 years
• A look at Martin Furniture’s big market debut: Dining