Richard Kirkley, President and CEO of Restyle, Inc, is a Purdue Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineer. His entrepreneurial career has included successes in HVAC, Health Care, Interior Design, and Office Furniture. In 1990, he founded Restyle, providing "Redistributed Office Furniture" based in the Mid-Atlantic, serving clients throughout North America. Click here to read "The Epiphany" an article on the inception of Restyle.
Restyle’s core business is the design, and execution of elegant, superb condition, major manufacturer furniture projects at ½ the cost and 1/3 the time of new.
The new furniture market is roughly divided in half. Half controlled by 4 major manufacturers - Knoll, Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Haworth - and the other by literally a 1000 other manufacturers. The majors sell through dedicated dealerships, who focus almost exclusively on one brand. These dealer are committed to the manufacturer and pricing is based on the manufacturer’s published list pricing.
Like buying a car, no one pays list price. It is common to see discounts of 40 – 50% and occasionally up to 60% for large volume purchases. Commonly we see discounts of 50%.
The benefit of buying new is primarily a huge range of product lines, and an almost limitless variety of fabric and finshes. You can purchase exactly what you want in minute detail, and can for the life of the product line and fabric availability repeat the purchase whenever you want more. For this flexibility in choice, you need a significant budget, the ordering process is usually complex, and you commonly see delivery cycles of 8 to 12 weeks.
As we’ve said before, new major manufacturer furniture lasts 20 years or more. On the other hand, we all would acknowledge how difficult it is in our business world today, to plan even a few years into the future. In that disparity between the useful life cycle of furniture and the impossibility to plan precisely, there is great opportunity in the Pre-Owned Furniture Market.
Major manufacturer’s products are so well made and so all pervasive that a remanufactured segment evolved. At first glance remanufactured product appears to be bargain, but let’s take a closer look.
Remanufactured furniture is generally understood to be refabriced, repainted, and overall reconditioned to a “like new” standard. The historically most popular new furniture lines have become remanufactured lines – such as Herman Miller Action Office, Steelcase 9000, and Haworth Unigroup. Pricing is loosely based on new manufacturer’s pricing and generally is seen at $0.35 to $0.40 on the dollar or a 60% to 65% discount from list prices.
Curiously, the more successful the remanufacture becomes, the more likely they will need NEW parts and components to fulfill their demand. Used product availability does not perfectly align with demand. Commonly these new parts are “knock offs” made over seas. Combining these parts with original domestic product blurs the line between remanufactured and new and distorts the meaning of just what product is being sold. Whole “clone” systems are now seen on the market – an outgrowth of the “knock-off” parts industry. For example is the product being sold truly remanufactured Herman Miller? – Clone Herman Miller? – or some assembly we might call “Franken-Miller?”
For the uncertainty of manufacturing standards, questionable parts, there are some benefits. Generally some savings over new, and somewhat quicker delivery.
Restyle’s business centers on this high-value segment of commercial office furniture. Superb inventories, drawn from throughout North America, are available each week – in strong economic times and weak. With Restyle’s unique method for specifying, finding, capturing, intalling, and warranting pre-owned furniture – we call it our Restyle Maximum Value Process – the delivery of pre-owned furniture is a controlled, predictable, and routinely successful process.
The benefit is original major manufacture furniture at 78% discount from list – delivered and installed! Pre-owned furniture is the least expensive and highest value segment of commercial grade furniture, is available in a broad range of choices, and can be delivered virtually instantaneously.
We invite you to investigate this powerful office furniture segment and put its remarkable speed, choice, and value to work in your business.