Home » Posts filed under Steelcase
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Monday, 31 January 2011
Ouch... The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in cooperation with Steelcase Inc. have issued a recall for 165,000
Cachet Swivel Chairs sold between May of 2002 and October of 2009.
The chair which sells for up to $600.00, has a bad "front seat support...(which) can crack and fail, posing a fall hazard to consumers". Steelcase has agreed to replace the chair for individual consumers, and to repair the chair for commercial customers who purchased in quantity.
The Monday Morning Quarterback (a contract furniture industry trade publication), has reported that the estimated cost of the recall to Steelcase is upwards of $4.7 million.
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Friday, 14 January 2011
Capacity reduction appears to be the theme for 2011 as major players in the manufacturing and distribution side of the office furniture industry continue to "right-size" their organizations.
Published reports this week detail that Steelcase Inc. plans to close three manufacturing facilities in North America (two in the mid-west and one in Canada), resulting in approximately 750 layoffs. There is speculation that some of the jobs (including the manufacturer of the high end Leap chair), could be moving south to Steelcase plants in Mexico.
Last week United Stationers, an office furniture and office supply wholesale distributor, announced a series of "Workforce Realignment Actions". These "actions" include a "voluntary early retirement program", and a "focused realignment in certain areas of the company". No further details were provided, however "Workforce Realignment Actions" seems like a nice euphemism for layoffs.
From the sidelines it seems a bit late in the cycle to be making these types of major operational changes...
More about → Consolidation in Office Furniture Industry Continues into 2011
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Wednesday, 5 January 2011
New factory orders increased 0.7% in November, reversing an identical 0.7% drop in October. Not coincidentally all of the "major" office furniture manufacturers reported sales increases for their most recently reported quarters:
- Steelcase: + 9% year over year revenue growth for Q311
- Herman Miller: +19.9% year over year revenue growth for Q211
- Knoll: + 12% year over year growth for Q311
- HNI (parent of Allsteel): Forecast + 10-12% for Q410
Look for pricing to begin returning to
normal (read that as prices will go up), as factory capacity starts to fill, and the cut-throat discounting that has been present for the past two years starts to recede.
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Tuesday, 31 August 2010
From the pages of the
Monday Morning Quarterback, the office furniture industry's trade publication, comes the top suppliers of office furniture to the federal government (based on 2009 sales).
(all figures in millions)1. Knoll $121.5
2. Federal Prison Industries $103.4
3. Herman Miller $94.4
4. KI $91.3
5. HNI (Allsteel, HON, Gunlocke) $71.7
6. Haworth $70.1
7. Steelcase $63.1
8. Kimball $44.2
9. Misc. Foreign contractors $27.2
10. Teknion $25.1
In addition to the list, the article also pointed out that the annual purchases by the federal market had nearly tripled over the past decade. Growing from $515 Million in 2000 to $1.3 Billion in 2009.
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Wednesday, 24 March 2010
The past week has provided further evidence of what a
brutal year it has been for the office furniture industry:
- Steelcase: The world's largest office furniture manufacturer, closed out their fiscal Q4 with a loss of $65.7 million, and closed out fiscal 2010 with a loss of $13.6 million on total revenue of $2.3 billion. This number came in lower than the companies estimates, primarily due to increases in tax valuation, lower than expected revenues, and additional restructuring activities.
- Knoll: Announced last week that they are closing their Kentwood MI. plant, cutting approximately 100 unionized employees.
- Herman Miller: Announced Q3 2010 results with sales declining 7%, however net quarterly earnings were $8.3 million...
- HNI (Parent company of Allsteel): Had an "unofficial" furlough week for a number of employees in Muscatine IA. (their longtime home city). As reported by the Muscatine Journal, employees "could take the week off as a paid vacation if that's how and when they wanted to use their vacation days..."
The actions of the major manufacturers listed above, reflect the
brutal reality that the last quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010 have been
particularly sloooow, with very little project activity. How long can you hold your breath???
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Wednesday, 17 March 2010
The Associated Press reported today that a leading office furniture industry analyst raised his ratings on three of the four top office furniture manufacturers.
Proclaiming that
"signs are beginning to emerge that suggest there may be some light at the end of the tunnel",
Budd Bugatch, Director of Furnishings Research for Raymond James, raised his ratings on Knoll Inc (
KNL) to "Strong Buy",
Steelcase Inc (
SCS) to "Strong Buy", and
HNI Corporation (parent company of
Allsteel) to "Outperform".
Bugatch cited moderating job losses and better corporate profits driven mostly by cost cuts as the primary reasons for his optimism.
Nice to get some sunny good news, because its been long dark winter...
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Fortune Magazine has released their list of the
World's Most Admired Companies, and three of the top 5 office furniture manufacturers have made the list.
Rated under the category of
Home Equipment, Furnishings; Herman Miller, Steelcase, and HNI (parent company of Allsteel), all made the top 10.
Herman Miller came in (again) at #1,
Steelcase slipped four spots to #6, and
HNI slipped five spots to end up at #9.
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Tuesday, 19 January 2010
The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA), has been implementing its "level" sustainability standards program since mid-2009, and has now certified over 200 office furniture products, according to a recent article on
greenerbuildings.com.
As defined on their website, the level program is "
a multi-attribute, sustainability standard and third-party certification program for the furniture industry. It has been created to deliver the most open and transparent means of evaluating and communicating the environmental and social impacts of furniture products in the built environment."
In plain English, level was developed to implement an industry standard by which to measure and verify manufacturer's claims of product and practice sustainability. This will also go a long way to cleaning up the "green-washing" or misleading claims regarding the "green" story of certain products and manufacturers.
Industry leaders such as Allsteel, Gunlocke, Herman Miller and Steelcase, have already had a full range of products certified. If you are a specifier, or purchaser of office furniture, make sure to ask if the products you are looking at have been level certified.
For a list of products that have received certification, click (
HERE), and to view the level website, click (
HERE).
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Thursday, 22 October 2009
The recession may be technically over, but you wouldn't know it by reviewing the most recently reported quarterly results from the largest domestic office furniture manufacturers:
- HNI (Parent company of Allsteel): quarterly sales down 31.5%
- Herman Miller: "Consolidated" (read slashed) another 150 jobs in October, and announced their quarterly sales down 32.4%
- Steelcase quarterly sales down 35.9%
- Knoll quarterly sales down 36.1%
What does this all mean? Continued
deep discounting on large (and not so large) projects, and a feeding frenzy over any project on the street.
Case in point, there was an estimated 40 people representing
29 different office furniture dealers and/or manufacturers at a mandatory project walk-through this past Monday. For the time being, I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb to say it remains a "buyer's market" for office furniture.
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Thursday, 23 July 2009
Any doubts about the severity of the depression in the office furniture industry were erased this week, with the announcement that
Steelcase Inc. has decided to abandon the largest tribute to corporate ego in the history or our industry - their Pyramid:
Originally designed and built in 1989 for $111 Million, the Pyramid served as Steelcase's tribute to itself, and as the companies Corporate Development Center. Plans call for Steelcase to move "Pyramid employees" into their main Headquarters building in Grand Rapids MI. by 2012.
(Click HERE for a full article).
Posted by
Expert Gadget Reviewer on Thursday, 25 June 2009
Quarterly results from some of the major Office Furniture manufacturers signifies the "pain" the office furniture industry continues to go through.
Steelcase the largest North American office furniture company reported that sales fell 33.1% for the latest quarter, and that they intend to layoff an additional 200 white collar workers (
link).
Herman Miller reported a sales drop of 38.4% for the latest quarter (
link). In a separate release, Herman Miller reported the purchase of Health Care manufacturer
Nemschoff , which will further strengthen Herman Miller's product offering for the Health Care industry (
link).
Allsteel's response to the current industry slowdown has been to "ask" their workforce (excluding manufacturing and customer service) to take a "week's vacation" immediately prior to the 4th of July. Essentially a nice way of furloughing their workforce for a week to reduce costs.
