Furniture• Breakroom• Janitorial• Print + Promo• Technology• Office Products
Customer Story • Furniture & Space Design
Long Beverage • Rocky Mount, NC • family-owned beverage distributor
From dollar store to front office
Long Beverage has been distributing beverages across North Carolina for 75 years. When an acquisition brought them to an empty former Family Dollar in Rocky Mount, Kennedy designed and furnished the new office, then held every piece until a construction timeline that would not sit still was finally ready for it.
The new conference room: HON Preside table with Cofi seating
Customer
Long Beverage • celebrating 75 years
Sector
Family-owned beverage distribution
Location
Rocky Mount, NC
Interviewee
Keith Lauria, Director of IT and Administration
Project
Conference room, three offices, workstation, and breakroom in a renovated building • installed June 2026
Furniture
HON 10500 offices, Preside conference table, Cofi seating, Accommodate breakroom seating, Abound workstation
Finishes
Harvest laminate, Slate vinyl, Winter Sky fabric, Silver metal
Account team
Sarah Clayton (rep), Sarah Troxell (design)
The Challenge
Seventy-five years old, with a brand new address.
Long Beverage is a family-owned distributor serving 13 counties around Wake County, moving close to 11 million cases of product a year. This year the company turns 75. When the chance came to acquire a wholesaler tied to Sun Drop, a North Carolina brand through and through, Long Beverage stepped outside its usual territory and bought the operation, along with an empty former Family Dollar building in Rocky Mount to house its new sales and marketing team.
The building was stripped to the beams. Long Beverage built walls for three offices, a kitchen, a conference room, a lobby, and an open work area, and needed furniture for all of it.
Kennedy was already their partner. What began with office supplies grew into janitorial, then into furniture, including a conference table and seating for a renovated house on Long Beverage's Raleigh property that now hosts partner meetings. Rocky Mount was the next chapter in a relationship built between two North Carolina family companies.
The Solution
Renderings, samples, and one productive afternoon.
Keith Lauria has spent 22 years at Long Beverage and has run furniture projects before, so he knows the road from blueprints to a signed order can be a long one. This time, he sent Kennedy the plans, and account rep Sarah Clayton and designer Sarah Troxell came back with renderings as a starting point, then brought material samples to Long Beverage and sat down with Keith and ownership to work through the designs in person.
"We're very hands-on when it comes to those things. Both Sarahs came and went over the designs, gave us all the different color palettes and samples, and we hashed through things. It was actually really productive, one of the quicker processes we've been through."
When leadership wanted to feel the conference seating before committing, Kennedy reached upstream to HON and had a Cofi sample chair brought out for them to sit in. The physical sample sealed the decision, and the order went in that spring.
When the timeline would not sit still
Three weeks. Then a week and a half. Then five weeks.
Construction and permitting on the renovated building kept moving the ready date, in both directions. Kennedy and its installation partner held the finished furniture at the installer's warehouse, at no charge, for several weeks, and adjusted the install schedule every time the building did.
"One week it was, we're going to be ready in three weeks. Then it was, we're actually going to be ready in a week and a half. Then, guess what, it's actually going to be five weeks. They were able to be very fluid with us, which was extremely helpful."
"You don't even recognize that there are vendors upstream. It's almost like it's coming out of their warehouse every time."
Keith LauriaDirector of IT and Administration • Long BeverageThe Results
An office worth commuting for.
The Rocky Mount team is settling into a space where everything is new, everything matches, and the finishes carry through the whole building. A few small items surfaced at install, the kind that come with any furniture project, and Kennedy is already running them down with replacement lead times in hand.
"I told Sarah on installation day, I would really like to actually work out of this facility myself. Everything is brand new, it looks great, the furniture is nice."
"Pricing is on point. The relationships they maintain are on point. I would 100 percent recommend at least having a conversation with Kennedy to see the difference."
The Space
See it for yourself.
Long Beverage's Rocky Mount office. Furnished and installed by Kennedy.
Planning a space?
Planned, specified, and installed by one accountable team. Tell us what your team needs in the form below and a Kennedy furniture specialist takes it from there.
Talk to a Furniture Specialist
Tell us what you’re working on and a furniture specialist will follow up with next steps.
Most requests get a response within 1 business day.
Trusted affiliations
Kennedy Office maintains recognized industry affiliations and national partnerships that strengthen our supply network, service capabilities, and long-term client support.
