Sedus

About

Sedus is a German office furniture manufacturer that trades as Sedus Stoll Aktiengesellschaft. Its registered office is at Christof-Stoll-Straße 1 in Dogern, in the Waldshut district of Baden-Württemberg, and it is entered in the commercial register at Freiburg im Breisgau under HRB 621114. The group runs a second German production site at Geseke in North Rhine-Westphalia, operated by Sedus Systems GmbH. The range covers task, executive and visitor chairs, stools, sofas and lounge chairs, single and team workstations, conference and meeting tables, bistro, coffee and side tables, storage units, lockers and desk pedestals, and room elements such as office cubes, freestanding and desk-mounted screens and acoustic products, alongside workshop tools and accessories. The company describes its furniture as made in Germany and states that development and manufacturing take place at its two German locations. The business dates from 1871, when Albert Stoll I and Max Klock set up the Stoll & Klock chair factory in Waldshut, producing bent wood chairs. Klock left in 1879 and the firm was renamed Albert Stoll OHG. After Albert Stoll I died in 1897 his wife Bertha Stoll took over the business, while their son Albert Stoll II trained in mechanical engineering. In 1926 Albert Stoll II presented the Federdreh at the Leipzig trade fair, which the company describes as the first swivel chair with a rotatable column suspension and as its entry into the office furniture market; a swivel chair with swivel castors followed in 1929. The Sedus brand name was registered in 1958, when Albert Stoll OHG was split and Christof Stoll KG was established at Waldshut. Production moved gradually to Dogern from 1970, where a dedicated development and testing department was set up. In 1973 the company developed the Similar mechanism, which it describes as the principle of dynamic sitting, alongside an anatomically shaped chair and a permanent-contact backrest. It was reincorporated as Sedus Stoll Aktiengesellschaft in 1995, completed a development centre at Dogern in 2010, and relocated its headquarters to Dogern in 2018. The Geseke site has separate origins. Karl Bröcker, who took over management of the Stoll furniture operations in 1937, acquired an industrial site at Geseke in 1961 and founded Bröcker GmbH & Co. KG there in 1962. The Gesika trademark was registered in 1965, and the business was renamed Gesika Büromöbelwerk Bröcker GmbH & Co. KG in 1974. Sedus and Gesika merged in 2002, and the Geseke company was renamed Sedus Systems GmbH in 2008. A production facility called Futura 2 started operating at Geseke in 2023 after a two-year construction period. Sedus Stoll AG describes itself as an unlisted public limited company held mainly by two charitable foundations, which it says exist to maintain the company's independence. The Stoll VITA Stiftung, seated in Waldshut, was established on 8 March 1985 by Christof Stoll and Emma Stoll, who transferred their majority shareholding to it as a gift; it promotes scientific research, public healthcare, education, environmental protection and nature conservation. The Karl Bröcker Stiftung, seated in Lippstadt, was established on 26 January 1999 and is credited by Sedus to founder Renate Bröcker, who died in 1998; it primarily supports educational projects and medical and therapeutic projects and facilities for children in Germany and abroad. In its report on the 2024 financial year the company stated that around two thirds of profit goes to charitable causes. In the group's published key figures for 2025, the Stoll VITA Stiftung holds 60.95 per cent and the Karl Bröcker Stiftung 32.45 per cent, with 6.6 per cent held by other shareholders. The same figures give group turnover of about 216 million euros and more than 1,063 employees, counted as a quarterly average and excluding board members, managing directors and trainees; sales were about 243 million euros in the 2024 financial year. The 2025 key figures also report ten subsidiaries in Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and direct export to more than 70 countries. The management board is made up of Daniel Kittner as speaker, Cornel Spohn and Jens Kastning, and Dr Klaus Eisele chairs the supervisory board. Named product families include the open mind and open up chairs, the se:motion, se:motion net, se:flex and se:joy swivel chairs, the se:fit stool and stand-up seat, the se:spot and se:mood chairs, se:lounge and se:works lounge seating, the se:café seating range, se:cube room-in-room modules, and the se:wall and se:screen partition and screen systems. The on spot chair is credited on its product page to Judith Daur of the Sedus Design Team. The company also publishes a textile collaboration with Kvadrat and a colour design approach it calls Limbic Office. Sedus publishes management system certificates for DIN ISO 9001:2015, DIN ISO 14001:2015, DIN ISO 45001:2018 and DIN ISO 50001:2018, the SA8000:2014 social accountability standard, and PEFC chain of custody, reference PEFC/04-31-2603, for Sedus Systems in Geseke, stating that the majority of the Geseke range has been PEFC-certified since 2016. Product groups including upholstered seating, metal and plastic chairs, mobile screens, carcass furniture, room-dividing elements and tables hold FEMB level certification, and the company states that it meets FEMB Level 3. Individual products carry the GS label issued by TÜV Rheinland LGA Products, GREENGUARD certification, the AGR seal of the Aktion Gesunder Rücken association and the QUALITY OFFICE seal. Sedus publishes Environmental Product Information sheets for more than 100 products; these are based on the European standard DIN EN 15804 and follow the structure of an Environmental Product Declaration, and the company notes that they are not verified by an external organisation. Its published history records an EU eco-audit in 1995 and EMAS III certification in 2010, and a commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative in 2025. Sedus states that 66 per cent of its purchased materials come from Germany and 85 per cent from Europe. Sedus groups its furniture by application area, naming single and team workstations, meeting and seminar rooms, project rooms and workshops, lounge and reception areas, canteen, bistro and cafeteria spaces, quiet zones and retreats, and the home office. Products reach buyers through the company's own subsidiaries, showrooms and dealer network, and product information, downloads and configurators are published on sedus.com.