by Plant of parent company Howard Miller provides capacity for the US-made portion of its home office segment
ZEELAND, Mich. — When Hekman restarted production of some of its home office line here several years ago, the goal was to use the capacity available in the manufacturing facilities of parent company Howard Miller.
It began with lift desks then grew the line to include executive desks and file cabinets, plus desk and accent chairs. While demand has settled some since the breakneck pace of the pandemic, the line remains popular because of its custom options, including multiple finishes, fabrics for chairs and in the case of desks and file cabinets, multiple finishes and configurations.
“We just keep adding to that assortment to augment our Hekman office category, which just has a ton of product we have developed through the years,” said Jim O’Keefe, vice president of sales at Howard Miller and Hekman. “The custom element added a new twist on it to be able to make it uniquely your own.”
The adjustable-height desk line as seen on the website, for example, shows about seven models that customers can personalize by choosing the wood finish for the top and a metal finish for the base. The executive desk models offer multiple sizes and drawer, door and open-shelf configurations, visible on each pedestal. These also come with multiple wood and hardware finish options.
“Where we provide value is the style and finish and hardware choices and base colors and the level of quality you would expect from Hekman,” O’Keefe said.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, the majority of Hekman’s office sales are from imported product, which features dozens of SKUs ranging from executive and writing desks, to L-shaped and junior executive desks plus credenza and deck units. These are sold as shown, each with married hardware and finishes, including base finishes.
The custom options in the domestic line are made possible because of the capabilities of the Howard Miller plant, which Home News Now visited in June 2023. In addition to select pieces in the Hekman office line, this plant produces Howard Miller’s storied line of clocks, as well as curio and storage cabinets.
Those items made in the U.S. are shown on the website with an American flag, which includes most of its grandfather clocks, all of its curio display cabinets, about 10 of its wine and bar cabinets, and its custom TV consoles, which the company expanded in April with new transitional and contemporary styles.
To help consumers and retailers envision its myriad of custom options, the company added a tool on the website where they can see the consoles in multiple finishes, plus with multiple door styles and hardware options. It has a similar tool in place for the accent and office chairs shown on the Hekman site.
At retail, the salesperson can demonstrate these tools to consumers right on the sales floor, thus allowing their customers to see how the piece looks in a different finish or configuration.
“The more dealers respond to these rendering tools, the more they want done,” O’Keefe said, adding that while many consumers still like printed catalogs, “we are seeing consumers transition to the strengths of digital because you can see the options in what you have created.”
“Quite frankly, it has been driven by our retail stores,” he added of the tools being available on multiple categories including the consoles. “They can generate custom orders for their consumers that are walking through the doors.”
The company also has been working to offer similar rendering types of tools for the domestic wood office furniture line that’s also similar to the tool that’s in place for the office seating line.
“Where we can do a better job is to make the (wood office) product renderable so the dealer and consumer can see it fully configured,” O’Keefe said. “That is on our project list, to get that done.”
Neil McKenzie, director of product development at Hekman, said the domestic office segment is doing well, representing as much as 20% of the Hekman office segment overall.
“It has been working its way up,” McKenzie said of overall demand. “It has evolved over time and you always have some winners and some losers, but we have been able to gain a little every year.”
Having the custom model and capabilities only stands to help grow the segment even further.
“It is giving people something that is unique in our industry,” McKenzie said. “There is not a lot of domestically made office, with choices in finish, in styles and hardware etc. …”
He said the configurator will offer retail salespeople another tool to help explain custom options to the consumer.
“Once we have the configurator going, that will ease the level of entry on the sales floor and help them feel comfortable selling the product,” he said. “When you have a a lot of options, it can become confusing without the proper sales tools.”
