By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
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GRAND RAPIDS — Many aspects of business are cyclical, and at times, executives find themselves returning to a company’s roots for answers and opportunities.

That was the case recently for American Seating Co. For nearly the first century of the manufacturer’s history, it made furniture for the K-12 education market. In the early 1980s, the previous ownership decided to exit that market and expand the office furniture business. But with a new alliance with School Specialty Inc. and the debut of a new seating product, called Core, American Seating is back in the familiar market in which the company began in 1886.

“Our start was in education and K-12, so we’ve somewhat come full circle in that sense,” said Bruce Weener, VP of customer satisfaction at American Seating. “It’s kind of neat to go back to the company’s roots.”

Even after backing out of the market, the company continued to sell products to the schools, but it just wasn’t a key piece of its strategy, he said. This new effort has American Seating back at full swing in education.

School Specialties is a full-service education supplier that sells a range of products, including school furniture. Weener said School Specialty had been looking to fill some voids in their product portfolio, and American Seating had products that fit the bill. Under the agreement, School Specialty will be the primary distributor of American Seating products and services to the K-12 segment.

“They were excited to get that American Seating name,” he said. “We had been in that market, but we had not made a big push there. Our focus was in colleges and higher education. (School Specialty) has so many people on the street, and we see it as a great marriage of the strength of their sales force and the quality of our product.”

Since forming the alliance earlier this year, Weener said American Seating has received about 20 projects “we weren’t on at all” beforehand. School Specialty has the sales force to take American Seating products to schools across the country at a time when those buyers are interested in buying U.S.-made products.

He attributed the early success to the adaptability of the company’s existing products — including several fixed-lecture seating, other seating and table lines — to the K-12 environment. At the same time, American Seating introduced Core, a new auditorium-style seating product, with that market and others in mind.

“We took a look at the Core product and said, you know what, this would be a great product to bring us back to the K-12 market. We were successful in some projects in K-12, but they’re very budget conscious, and most of the time, we’re not the low price,” Weener said. “We put the American Seating quality and durability into that product.”

Core was designed as a high-value, lower cost product that would fit the pricing demands for K-12, but that would also work elsewhere, such as in indoor sports facilities. American Seating is installing about 20,000 Core chairs at the Superdome in New Orleans.

“Higher education is looking for a value-based product as well,” he said.

The company tapped mostly in-house designers during the yearlong process from idea to market. Because almost all K-12 projects pursue LEED certification at some level, the company paid close attention to the green attributes of the chair, Weener said. About 60 percent of its weight is made from post-consumer recycled goods. The backs, for example, are made from post-consumer plastic in a process called ReTek. The seats can also be disassembled and recycled at the end of their life cycle.

“The customer demand for this is across the board,” he said of sustainable design.

The company has developed a presentation focusing on sustainability for auditorium seating and aimed at the architecture and design community.

American Seating also invested in new automated upholstering equipment for Core’s launch, and the company aims to take the process to other chairs in its portfolio, Weener said.