They love L.A.

Los Angeles County, anyway.

In February, Martinsville-based Hooker Furniture will open its first West Coast warehouse and distribution center in the city of Carson -- just down the road from the city of Los Angeles and close to the Port of Long Beach.

Hooker Furniture, which shuttered in 2007 the company's last wood furniture production plant in the United States, focuses predominantly now on selling its own lines of imported wood furniture. China is a major supplier, and Hooker Furniture already has a warehousing arrangement there.

The Carson warehouse will be leased and features about 80,000 square feet, according to Hooker Furniture.

Larry Ryder, Hooker's executive vice president for finance and administration, said the California warehouse will reduce shipping costs and speed delivery times, both for the company and retailers in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Previously, furniture containers from China have arrived at East Coast ports and then been trucked to retailers on the West Coast, he said.

In addition, Ryder said, retailers can now go online, build a customized container load and have its contents ultimately delivered directly to their loading docks.

The warehouse in Carson will stock 550 of Hooker's best-selling items, the company said. Hooker's distribution center in Martinsville will remain in operation.

According to its Web site, the Port of Long Beach is one of the world's busiest seaports and a leading gateway for trade between the United States and Asia.

In 2007, the port handled more than 7 million containers and cargo valued at more than $140 billion. Its top trading partners were China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico and Iraq, according to the port.