Business Furniture, LLC history

Recognizing their area of expertise focusing on office desks, teachers’ desks, secretaries’ desks, and other office furniture, the company officially changed their name to Indiana Desk Company in 1929.

However, because of wise investing and financial stability, the company was able to purchase the A. Robineau Furniture Company in the nearby community of Dubois in 1932.

1936: The company adds its third and fourth manufacturing facilities in Huntingburg and Ferdinand, Indiana.

The next year it came out with a fireproof metal desk, and in 1937 the company debuted an oval desk designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Founded by the German-born Hans Knoll, the company was established in New York City in 1938.

The opening of the Johnson Wax Building in Racine in 1939 also heralded the arrival of a new office concept which also led to companies selecting practical furniture that fitted the architecture of the building.

However, it wasn’t until the 1940’s that designers really started to pay attention to the workplace and office furniture design.

In 1941, the company expanded its offices to accommodate a growing administrative and clerical staff.

In 1943, it acquired the Indiana Wood Industries, in English, Indiana, which it converted and renamed English Furniture Works.

1945: The company purchases partial ownership in Wood Cellulose Products Company.

In 1946, Huntingburg Furniture sold one of its Ferdinand plants to a new furniture company starting up in the area.

In fact, his ‘Home Office Desk’ launched in 1947 is still considered an iconic office furniture design classic, and the first modern workstation.

The company began to specialize in office environments by 1954 and was one of the early developers of partitions that led to office panel systems. It was founded in 1948 under the name Modern Products by G.W. Haworth.

Post-War expansion of the economy brought unprecedented growth during the 1950’s.

Up until 1953, bookkeeping and record keeping for all the various plants were centralized in the Huntingburg office.

The company began to specialize in office environments by 1954 and was one of the early developers of partitions that led to office panel systems.

In 1956, Huntingburg Furniture constructed a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Huntingburg, just east of one of its manufacturing plants.

Seating also began to play a greater role as staff looked for comfortable solutions with adequate lumber support, and so products like the Rosewood Swivel Chair and of course, the now iconic Eames Lounge Chair (launched in 1957) were introduced.

Also in 1958, the company bought out its partner in the Wood Cellulose Products Company for $200,000, becoming the sole owner of that subsidiary.

1960: Gunlocke invested in a Whittier, California operation to serve nine western states.

In 1961, the company took several steps forward, including enlarging its Stylemaker Furniture plant in Ferdinand, Indiana, and broadening its delivery capabilities by acquiring a fleet of tractors and vans that had previously been operated by a local trucking line.

1962: President John F. Kennedy makes crucial Cuban Missile Crisis decisions – from his Gunlocke chair in the Oval Office.

Two years later, in 1963, Huntingburg Furniture contracted with a landowner in Crockett, Texas, to establish the company's first operation in that state.

In September of 1964, Huntingburg's shareholders voted to okay the sale of the company.

In 1965, it acquired the assets of Carter Furniture Company, a Salisbury, North Carolina-based maker of upholstered furniture, office furniture, and stereo, television, and sewing machine cabinets.

In early 1966, the company changed its name to better reflect the diversity of its operations, becoming Dolly Madison Industries, Inc.

Their leasing success notwithstanding, 1967 was a difficult year for Dolly Madison Industries.

In 1968, Dolly Madison Industries embarked on an acquisition campaign that was to more than triple its size by the end of the decade.

1969: The Gunlocke family sold the company to Sperry and Hutchinson (S&H) Company.

In 1970, with $38 million in debt and a slowdown in furniture sales, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

National Business Furniture was founded back in 1975 by George and Julie Mosher in Milwaukee, WI, where its headquarters still remains to this day.

AFD was established in 1980 as an innovative, national office furniture dealer and furniture management company.

1981: Gunlocke returned to private management with the purchase of the company by its four top executives:

In 1982, NBF opened up its retail showroom in the Grand Avenue Mall right down the street from its corporate headquarters.

The 780-square-foot operation was among the first furniture catalog showrooms in a major shopping mall, and the showroom remained in operation until 1984.

In 1986 Indiana Desk bought Indiana Chair Company which added upholstered office seating to the company’s product lines.

Although there was a corresponding increase in United States exports—from $86.7 million in 1988 to $170.8 million the next year—this was not enough to offset declines in domestic sales.

Employment, meanwhile, has declined in the sector since 1989, when 71,300 people worked in the office furniture industry.

In the vigorous business climate of the 1990’s Indiana Desk was thriving and made many significant changes to the operations.

Also in 1993, preparing to be even more competitive in the industry at the turn of the century, Indiana Furniture Industries built and equipped a 60,000 square foot plant on the south side of Jasper to manufacture their own plywood.

Innovative design has long been its hallmark, so much so that it opened its own museum in 1997 to display its artistic-looking furniture.

In January of 1998, the company created their Home Styles division.

The company exceeded $2 billion in sales in 2000 and employs 8,000 people in over 120 countries.

DMI's performance suffered somewhat in 2001, with both net sales and income declining--the latter by a sizable amount.

Working with International Business Machines (IBM), in 2002 Steelcase created the BlueSpace line that combines technology with furniture in a more integrated design.

By 2005, however, supplies for all office furniture, excluding fixtures, cost manufacturers $4.925 billion on total sales valued at $12.79 billion.

The office furniture market represented a $10 billion dollar industry in the United States in 2006.

Steelcase employs 13,000 people worldwide and had an income of $106.9 million on $3.097 billion in sales for the fiscal year ending February 2007.

"Home Offices Are Here to Stay; By 2010 the Number of United States Employees Working from Home Will Be 100 Million; Invest in High-Quality Home Office Furniture That Will Last." Internet Wire.

2015 marks National Business Furniture’s 40th anniversary! We’re excited to reach this milestone, and we’re taking a look back through our catalog archives to see just how far NBF has come.