Herman Miller Inc. in Zeeland, a large office furniture and equipment manufacturer, today announced it will expand its retail presence this fall with the unveiling of its first concept stores dedicated to high-performance task chairs and products that support the home office.
The company, located near Grand Rapids, said it had a record-breaking summer with Herman Miller Retail – the retail arm of Herman Miller comprised of Herman Miller, Design Within Reach, and HAY – reporting its strongest quarterly financial performance to date. The jump in sales was helped by the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people set up or enhanced their home office space.
“We are excited to reveal our first retail destinations dedicated to offering customers the opportunity to explore the quality and breadth of Herman Miller’s work from home solutions firsthand,” says Debbie Propst, president of Herman Miller Retail. “We are currently seeing unprecedented sales across these categories.
“The stores are a direct response to our collective need, which has been building over time and heightened by the pandemic, for more versatile home environments and our customer’s desire to test drive these highly-considered products in person.”
The on-demand economy has driven a trend toward workplace flexibility for decades with 84 percent of the United States’ remote workforce largely working from home, according to a 2019 Buffer.com study.
“The office will always remain important, but a more distributed workforce – and the impact of COVID-19 — is accelerating this paradigm shift quite broadly, thus increasing the need of our domestic spaces to support evolving day-to-day work and life behaviors,” says Propst.
Each store will feature Herman Miller’s home office product categories, including performance seating chairs that are built with features to support health — from pressure distributions and individualized adjustment capabilities, to inclusive sizing and breathable suspension materiality, which contribute to healthy circulation, postural alignment, and overall comfort.
“Just as the mattress industry has done a great job of educating the general public on the benefits of a good night’s sleep, our goal is to drive home the science of sitting well – and how the effects of research-driven ergonomic solutions ultimately improve one’s well-being and day-to-day performance,” says Propst.
Store locations will be announced in the near future. For more information on Herman Miller’s Work From Home product offering, visit here.
Herman Miller was founded in 1905. In 2018, the company created Herman Miller Group, which offers such brands as Colebrook Bosson Saunders, Design Within Reach, Geiger, HAY, Maars Living Walls, Maharam, naughtone, and Nemschoff.
