Haworth

About

Haworth is an American manufacturer of office furniture, workspace systems and architectural interior products, based in Holland, Michigan. It is a privately held, family-owned company and one of the larger office furniture manufacturers operating internationally. Its catalogue spans movable walls and raised-access flooring, panel and systems furniture, desks, task and lounge seating, tables and storage, supplied mainly to corporate, healthcare and education interiors. The company was founded in 1948 by Gerrard W. Haworth, generally known as G.W. Haworth. While teaching industrial arts at Holland High School, he began a woodworking shop in his garage and launched a business called Modern Products in Holland, Michigan, initially making wood office accessories. During the 1950s the company moved toward the emerging market for modular office partitions and for a period was known as Modern Partitions, gradually concentrating on the products that would define it. Haworth is closely associated with the development of the pre-wired office panel. Under Dick Haworth, the founder's son, the company developed movable wall panels that routed electrical wiring inside the partition, and it introduced the ERA-1 pre-wired panel in the mid-1970s, a design that led to its UniGroup systems line. By carrying power and data within the panels themselves, this approach was influential in the growth of the electrified open-plan office, and the business adopted the Haworth name as it expanded. Ownership has remained with the founding family. Haworth is privately held, with Matthew Haworth serving as chairman and Dick Haworth as chairman emeritus, and the company reports manufacturing sites and a dealer network across many countries. It frames its product development around workplace research, studying how the design of space and furniture relates to the people using it. Beyond its core contract business, Haworth owns a group of high-end design brands. In 2014 it acquired a majority stake in the Italian Poltrona Frau Group, in a deal reported at around 270 million US dollars, bringing brands such as Poltrona Frau, Cassina, Cappellini and Alias into its portfolio. Later additions, including JANUS et Cie in 2016 along with brands such as Zanotta and Ceccotti Collezioni, were organised under a division focused on high-end residential and design furniture (Haworth's Lifestyle Design group), which operates alongside the contract-focused Haworth brand. Among Haworth's better-known products are the Zody task chair, which the company describes as the first chair to be Cradle to Cradle certified, and the Fern chair, alongside its systems furniture, movable walls and raised-access floors. Many of its products carry GREENGUARD Gold and BIFMA LEVEL certifications, and the company runs sustainability programmes covering materials and operations. Its furniture is specified by architects and designers and sold through a dealer network, with warranty coverage that includes a 12-year term on many products. As a research-driven, family-owned manufacturer with a global footprint and an ownership of several established Italian design houses, Haworth spans both the workplace and high-end residential ends of the furniture market.