Archbold, Ohio, home to Sauder Manufacturing, is a quiet little town nestled in America’s heartland. The land is undisturbed. The people unassuming. The prevailing rule is as golden as the seemingly endless rows of corn.

You treat people right – like you’d want to be treated – and they’ll do right by you. You can look back at Sauder Manufacturing and see how sowing the perfect blend of people, products, and principles has yielded years of success.

Our pride in our heritage is equalled only by our tenacity to achieving an even better tomorrow. New facilities, new products, new markets, new ideas. There’s a lot that will be new about Sauder Manufacturing in the coming years.

But only because our old-fashioned values never get old.

Sauder Manufacturing Then: People Who Put Everything They Had Into Their Work.

Erie Sauder, president of Sauder Manufacturing for 24 years and founder of Sauder Woodworking, had a passion and a knack for crafting furniture people liked. Erie’s Woodworking company – founded in 1934 – is best known today for being an industry leader in ready-to-assemble furniture offering many distinct styles of cabinets, tables and desks. And in helping create Sauder Manufacturing in 1946, his name is also synonymous with industry leading furniture products for the religious, college and university, and health care markets among others.

The popularity of Sauder products was evident from the earliest days of Sauder Woodworking. Its plant in Archbold was producing both tables and church pews. Demand was high for both products. So high that operating just that one plant was going to limit growth.

Erie’s initial products had been tables and furniture for homes and offices. But after having launched Sauder Woodworking into the pew business, he was reluctant to give it up. He also recognized the potential conflicts that lied in trying to manage a single plant to produce both make-to-stock (tables) and make-to-order (church furniture) product lines. So instead, he presented a challenge to the men who were making pews at Woodworking: if they put up $5,000 each, he would enter into a partnership with them to build a plant dedicated to church furniture.

These were craftsmen who were accustomed to putting their all into their work. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when they put all they had financially into the new plant. "At 11:00 in the morning we called them in and at 4:00 that afternoon there was $5,000 from each of them laying on the desk," Erie recalled.

Sauder Manufacturing was born.

"People thought we were crazy for thinking that we could start a business and keep a business going making church furniture."

-Ceaphus Schrock, Sauder Manufacturing Co-founder

But it was 1946 and the timing was impeccable. There was a post-war building boom, and as co-founder Orval Sauder put it, "there was an interest in churches right after the war. People were conscious of religion."

A cohesive, family-like working environment helped the fledgling company take flight. Sales grew, leading to the addition of more salespeople, which led to more sales, and so on. "We wanted to make Sauder Manufacturing Company the best known church furniture company in the country," said Frank Ulrich, who was hired in 1955.

But church furniture – particularly pews – would only be the foundation upon which Sauder Manufacturing would grow. "We were hearing some of our church furniture customers talk about the need for ‘flexible seating’ or ‘ chair pews’ to allow for multiple configurations of their floor space. When we sensed that this market was going to more flexible seating, we knew we had to be a chair manufacturer, too," recalled Frank.

After a visit to an impressive British chair manufacturer in 1971, the ply-bending company was purchased and moved lock, stock, and barrel to Stryker, Ohio. "They shipped everything over here, even the sawdust," joked Ceaphus.

Sauder Manufacturing Now: People Who Put Everything They Have Into
Their Work.

"I think what’s exciting about Sauder Manufacturing is that, their emphasis on meeting customer needs in the church market opened the doors to other opportunities – like the health care and college markets. That opens unlimited potential."

- Maynard Sauder, Chairman of the Board of Sauder Manufacturing and son of founder Erie Sauder

Sauder Manufacturing’s commitment to quality was clearly evident in every product that was produced. And soon word spread well beyond the religious market.

As Virgil Miller has seen so many times, a quality product provides plenty of impetus for growth. Today you’ll find Sauder Manufacturing furniture in over 25,000 houses of worship nationwide, and in hundreds of colleges and universities. In hospitals and nursing homes. In government facilities.

Commitment. Service. Stewardship.
These are all traits that characterize Sauder Manufacturing.

But, there is an equally strong force that has held the company together throughout the decades -- teamwork.

"We definitely need more than people’s hands and backs and feet, we need people’s minds to help us work more effectively," Virgil said. "Today’s marketplace is very competitive, and the same kind of teamwork that was evident from the very beginning is and will be the real strength of our company."

Old-fashioned values like giving it your best not only for yourself, but because the person next to you is giving theirs, too.

It’s no wonder that there’s much more than corn growing in Archbold.