Historical Story

It all began with a carpenter and craftsman named Erie Sauder who had a passion and a knack for crafting furniture people liked.

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 platform furniture. Working alone, Sauder successfully completed the job in eight months and added church furniture to his growing business.

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. Around this time, a traveling salesman saw the tables and took some to a furniture show in Chicago. The next day, Sauder received a long-distance telephone order for 25,000 tables, and local Sauder Woodworking Co. went national.

Because of the popularity of Sauder furniture, more room was needed to produce both table and church furniture lines. 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. The company saw its first expansion in 1951, when it delivered its first long-distance order to Oregon. Sauder Manufacturing Company purchased a used milk truck to help with the delivery.

In 1971, to stay at the forefront of changing church trends, Sauder Manufacturing bought an English chair company that made ply-bent chairs and moved the entire factory to Stryker, Ohio. The new venture pioneered the use of chairs in worship spaces.

We recognized that its products and core competencies could be applied in other markets beyond the religious communities. So, the company began testing the waters of the contract market by selling chairs to colleges and universities in 1983, and soon our Sauder Education brand came into existence.

Making a commitment to the contract market, Sauder Education established a dedicated national sales force independent from its worship furniture sales force. 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 2006, we again introduced a new innovation we call Trey - a multi-function task chair purposefully designed for the way students live, relax and study in their residence hall room. This new product introduction further strengthened Sauder's position as a leader in the college and university seating market.

Over the years, a shared dedication to core values and innovation had served to create a natural link between Wieland Furniture and the Sauder family of companies. Out of the need in the mental health profession to provide furniture in institutions that would last, renewable seating was born due to the creative and inventive efforts of Wieland Furniture. Wieland expanded into both the education and healthcare markets and grew exponentially throughout the years due to their continued innovation and commitment to understanding the needs of their customers.

In October of 2000, our long-term relationship and shared vision culminated in Sauder Manufacturing's acquisition of Wieland Furniture, thereby strengthening and solidifying the competitive position of each firm within the contract marketplace. Our strength lies in the blending of the best from both companies to continually bring new products and ideas to the public in all our markets: Religious, Education, Healthcare, & Government. Increasingly we strive to bring renewability and the concept of conserving resources to meet today's demands.

Today, Sauder Manufacturing is well positioned for the future with a strong management team in place to guide the company. Sauder continues to apply its unique combination of skilled craftsmen and modern technology to serve customers in all its core markets providing them with unmatched creativity, quality and value. In staying true to the past, while planning for the future, Sauder strives to "preserve the core while stimulating progress."

At Sauder Manufacturing, how we do our work-new technology, new products and new ideas-changes constantly. But our values-how we treat our customers, suppliers and each other-never change.