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Sauder Woodworking history
Sauder Woodworking company history timeline
In 1934, he founded Sauder Woodworking, and a local congregation in Northwest Ohio hired him to rebuild all the woodwork in their recently burned church—including the pews and chancel.
The company grew quickly, with Sauder relocating his company and its five workers to a new and expanded location in Archbold in 1935.
Sauder principally manufactured items for residents in surrounding communities, but in 1937, he began to manufacture church pews.
1940: Sauder Woodworking Co. is incorporated.
In 1940, the workmanship of these tables eventually inspired a traveling salesman to place an astounding order of 25,000 — a seemingly impossible purchase order for a budding company.
Several years later in 1940, Sauder Woodworking Co. turned the high-quality wood scraps left over from the production of the pews into end tables.
Six employees each scraped together $5,000 to start a new, separate corporation in partnership with Sauder—several employees even mortgaged their homes and more to come up with the money—and Sauder Manufacturing Company was officially born in 1945.
1951: The First RTA Table
Of import to Sauder Woodworking's success was a request from a furniture retailer in Detroit in 1951.
In 1951, Sauder created the "knock-down" table.
First ready-to-assemble table in 1951.
He was one of eleven businessmen who formed the Mennonite Economic Development Association (MEDA) in 1953.
Fast forward to 1953 for Sauder to find the answer to its calling — a patented table that could be assembled at home.
In 1954, Sauder formed the Sauder Manufacturing Company, which assumed control of manufacturing church pews, while the Sauder Woodworking Company continued to produce other furniture.
A family business, 1965, from right to left: Erie, president; Maynard, general manager; Leona, secretary; Delmar, factory worker; and Myrl, engineering R&D.
In 1971 to stay at the forefront of changing church trends, Sauder Manufacturing bought an English chair company that made plybent chairs and moved the entire factory to Stryker, Ohio.
The majority of Sauder Woodworking’s sales in 1974 came from the sale of church furniture and ready-to-assemble pieces.
Sauder remained as president of the Sauder Woodworking Company until 1975, when his son, Maynard, succeeded him.
The company began testing the waters of the contract market by selling chairs to colleges and universities nationwide through the Collegiate Products Incorporated (T.O. Allan) sales agency in 1983, and soon Sauder Education came into existence.
In 1984, the Sauder Woodworking Company and its subsidiaries employed 1,200 workers.
In 1989, Sauder Education introduced its patented three-position PlyLok chairs for use as task seating in residence halls/student rooms, libraries and computer workstations.
In 1993, the various Sauder companies created a co-gen plant to produce electrical power for its facilities.
Similarly, Maynard Sauder’s son-in-law, Garrett Tinsman, was hired to oversee Sauder Woodworking’s new production facility scheduled to open in 1994.
After only a few years in the export business, by 1994 Sauder Woodworking was exporting $40 million worth of product to more than 60 countries worldwide.
The company launched a national RTA advertising campaign in 1994, with a goal of doubling company sales by the turn of the century.
A History of Sauder Woodworking Co., Archbold, Ohio: Sauder Wood-working Co., 1994.
The one painful incident occurred in June 1997, when Erie Sauder, at the age of 92, passed away, but the legacy he left behind was displaying encouraging vitality.
So the company started formally addressing all segments of the library market in 1997, including public and K-12.
In 1999, Sauder Woodworking entered the Indian market, establishing exclusive showrooms in Bangalore and Hyderabad, which extended the company’s geographic reach into more than 70 countries.
2000: First television commercial campaign is launched.
In early 2000, the company’s firm grasp on the domestic market promised to tighten after the debut of a national television commercial campaign, the first for Sauder Woodworking and the first national campaign for an RTA furniture manufacturer.
In 2006, Sauder proudly introduced Trey – a multi-function task chair purposefully designed for the way students live, relax and study in their residence hall room.
Early in 2007, Sauder introduced 3 new lounge products – Moment, Allure, and Cavetto – designed to accommodate the comfort students desire and the durability and quality the university desires.
"Sauder Woodworking Company ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 21, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/sauder-woodworking-company
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Sauder Woodworking competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saudermfg.com | 1945 | $87.2M | 200 | - |
| Martin Furniture | 1980 | - | 500 | - |
| AmeriwoodHome | - | $2.5M | 50 | - |
| Sabra | 1986 | $800.0M | 500 | - |
| Kaydon | 1941 | $475.2M | 2,187 | 2 |
| Webster Industries | 1876 | - | 300 | 4 |
| National Packaging Co | - | $31.0M | 200 | - |
| Harmac Medical Products | 1981 | $27.0M | 200 | - |
| Hearthside Food Solutions | 2009 | $1.0B | 1,978 | 1 |
| PM Plastics | 1946 | $8.3M | 48 | - |
Sauder Woodworking history FAQs
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Sauder Woodworking may also be known as or be related to Sauder Woodworking, Sauder Woodworking Co, Sauder Woodworking Co. and Sauder Woodworking Company.