Office Furniture Projects Resuming Unchanged From Pre-COVID: Steelcase
Steelcase customer activity is taking “a few different forms,” now that companies are beginning to return to the physical office as COVID-19 wanes, said CEO Jim Keane on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q1 ended May 28. Most of…
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the activity is on “projects that were inflight before or were on the drawing boards and were delayed because of COVID,” he said. “Those projects are getting restarted and the designs are often unchanged from what the customer would have done before COVID. We also see some activity specifically related to the post-COVID workplace, including the emergence of the hybrid work experience.” The world’s largest office furniture manufacturer is seeing “a new wave of interest” among some customers to provide “specific office furniture applications for their employees to use at home,” often starting with a “task chair and height-adjustable table,” said Keane. Office closures and telework mandates at the peak of the pandemic sent Steelcase sales plunging nearly 30% in its fiscal first half ended late August (see 2009230056). Fiscal Q1 orders recovered, rising 11% year on year and 25% sequentially from Q4, “reflecting momentum as companies plan to return to the office,” said the company.