Sauder Manufacturing Co

Nursing Homes, Dec, 1999

Established 1946

930 W. Barre Rd.

Archbold, OH 43502

Phone: (800) 537-1530 Fax: (419) 446-3697

www.saudermfg.com

Cabinetmaker Erie Sauder had a passion and a knack for crafting furniture people liked. He founded Sauder Woodworking Company (today's world-leading manufacturer of ready-to-assemble furniture) in 1934 and was just getting started in his business--making kitchen cabinets, trim for houses and doing custom woodworking--when fire destroyed a nearby church, including the pulpit and all the pews. Sauder was enlisted to help the congregation rebuild. He won the bid on the job to replace the woodwork, pulpit and pews, and that first job led to 65 years of business--so far.

The popularity of Sauder products was evident from the earliest days of Sauder Woodworking. Its plant in Archbold, Ohio, was producing both tables and church pews. It was 1946, and demand was high for both products. So high that operating just that one plant was going to limit growth. But after having launched Sauder Woodworking into the pew business, Erie was reluctant to give it up. He didn't have to. His cousin, learning of Erie's dilemma, presented a challenge to Sauder Woodworking's employees: If each put up $5,000, Erie would enter into a partnership with them to build a plant dedicated to making church furniture.

These were craftsmen who were accustomed to putting their all into their work, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when they put all they had financially into the new plant. "At 11:00a.m. we called them in, and at 4:00 p.m., $5,000 from each of them was laying on the desk," Erie recalled. And Sauder Manufacturing Company was born.

Church furniture--particularly pews--would only be the foundation upon which Sauder Manufacturing Company would grow. Recognizing a need of churches for flexible seating in the worship space, the company entered the chair business after purchasing a British ply-bent chair manufacturer in 1971, which it moved lock, stock and barrel to Stryker, Ohio. Sauder Manufacturing's commitment to quality was clearly evident in every product that was produced, and soon word spread well beyond the religious market. Today, in addition to being the largest producer of church furniture in the United States, Sauder Manufacturing Company chairs and tables can be found on more than 600 college and university campuses and in libraries, government facilities, hospitals and nursing homes across the country.

Sauder Manufacturing made its entry into the long-term care industry by providing pews for nursing home chapels. In the 1990s, the company began to focus its attention on other seating and furniture needs in healthcare facilities. In 1993, Sauder Manufacturing was awarded the coveted Nightingale Award, sponsored by the Symposium for Healthcare Design. The company was honored for its Wedgewood series of molded wood upholstered furniture. The Sauder Wedgewood Motion Chair, a durable, stable and comfortable rocking chair, is especially popular in long-term care facilities and dementia care units because of its soothing, therapeutic rocking action.

Sauder Manufacturing continues to expand its offering of healthcare furniture to meet the seating and table needs in residents' rooms, dining rooms, activity/common areas and lounge areas of long-term care facilities. The Sauder Autumn Chair, introduced this year, is specifically designed for healthcare dining.

The company's contribution to the long-term care industry is providing comfortable furniture that lasts. Sauder will continue to strive to provide furniture that makes residents of long-term care facilities feel at home and secure.

Current Sauder President Virgil Miller said, "For many companies it's their business and marketing savvy that drive their growth. But in all honesty, that really isn't the case with us. We just focus on doing the best job we can, making the best products we can, and the growth and new opportunities always present themselves. There's always demand for the best."

Sauder Manufacturing's pride in its heritage is equaled only by its tenacity to achieving an even better tomorrow: new facilities, newproducts, new markets, new ideas. There's a lot that will be new about Sauder Manufacturing in the coming years.