Bigger facility, sales growth means 50 new job opportunities at Grand Rapids Chair Company

A bigger, newer facility for Grand Rapids Chair Company that will bring its three locations under one roof could bring 50 new skilled manufacturing and office jobs to the region.

Grand Rapids Chair Company operates from three manufacturing facilities on Godfrey and Chestnut streets in Grand Rapids. The company, founded in 1997 by Dave Miller in his garage, has grown from a one-person sales rep firm to a 130-person furniture manufacturer.

Grand Rapids Chair Company manufactures tables and chairs for two distinct markets: the hospitality industry (hotels, restaurants, nightclubs) and the contract furniture industry (healthcare, corporations, education).

"We'll add 50 jobs over the next three years," says Geoff Miller, co-owner and son of founder Dave Miller. "We'll need assembly workers, upholsterers, woodworkers, millworkers, engineers, operations managers, administrative personnel, and customer service representatives."

Miller says the company has purchased a 140,000-square-foot building at 1250 84th Street, Byron Center, and will relocate there in phases over 2013. The consolidation of manufacturing will allow the company to reduce redundancies and gear-up with new equipment -- a blend of new and vintage woodworking, metalworking, and finish line machines.

"The reason the job growth is spread across the board is because we are a small, young, vibrantly-growing business," Miller says. "Our factory is a high-mix, low-volume factory with a lot of different processes under one roof."

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Source: Geoff Miller, Grand Rapids Chair Company
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor