Crandall Office Furniture expands as remote work boosts demand

The work from home trend has been good for business at Crandall Office Furniture Inc. 

The Greenville-based company that remanufactures high-end chairs from the Big Three West Michigan-based office furniture makers has grown rapidly since the pandemic, as people who work from a home office searched for a better chair to use. 

The growth now has Crandall Office Furniture planning an expansion. By late this year, the 23-year-old company expects to complete a $1.2 million, 13,000-square-foot addition to its 34,000-square-foot facility in Greenville. 

Prior to the pandemic, 90% of the company’s business came from wholesale sales to large office furniture dealers. The pandemic and the resulting work-from-home movement opened up a new source of customers, who account for the majority of the company’s sales today. 

Keep up with all things West Michigan business. Sign up for our free newsletters today.

“When COVID hit, all of a sudden on our website and information portal, people started clicking on ‘buy it now’ because they were forced to work from home, sitting in a kitchen chair and their back was killing them,” President Steve Crandall told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “Our business went from 90% wholesale to retail work from home off the internet. That portion of our business continues to grow and grow solidly. Our other part of the business, the wholesale part with the big dealers, is coming back strong, and so that’s really the reason for the expansion. Both sides of our business are growing and gaining traction.” 

The Greenville City Council last week agreed to sell a 1-acre parcel adjacent to the Crandall Office Furniture facility in the city’ s industrial park for $6,000 to accommodate the expansion. The land provides Crandall Office Furniture room now and for future expansion as the business contines to grow, Crandall said. 

Cascade Township-based Veneklasen Construction Co. is serving as Crandall Office Furniture’s contractor on the project. 

With a workforce of 25 people, Crandall Office Furniture restores used office chairs made by Steelcase Inc., MillerKnoll Inc., and Haworth Inc. that are generally 12 to 15 years old. The company works on high-end chairs such as Steelcase’s Leap and Gesture, MillerKnoll’s Aeron and Mirra, and Haworth’s Fern executive seating. 

Workers generally replace casters, fabrics, foam, arm rests, mechanisms and gas cylinders that control the seat height, adding another 12 years or more to the chair’s product life, Crandall said. The chairs are then sold to furniture dealers to sell in their showrooms or directly to consumers through Crandall Office Furniture’s website. 

After recording strong sales growth in recent years, Crandall Office Furniture has run out of room in its present facility and leases storage space at a nearby location, Crandall said. He anticipates continued strong growth for the company. 

“It’ll be nice to get everything under one roof again,” Crandall said. “We’re getting a little cramped. We’re just looking forward to getting extra space so we can breathe again.” 

More from Crain’s Grand Rapids Business:

Med device firm secures top West Michigan VC deal with $40M raise in Q1

Federal freeze threatens Grand Rapids nonprofit’s urban farm plans

Miller Johnson expanding downtown Grand Rapids offices at Arena Place