KNU IN THE NEWS: An Interview with IWC/Knú CEO Brad Davis

What's Knú
Monday, December 10, 2007 - MiBiz
By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz

ZEELAND — Sustainability is more than a passion for Industrial Woodworking Corp. (IWC) CEO Brad Davis. It’s a way of doing business that has allowed him to prove to his high school guidance counselor that he could do more in life than pump gas.

After manufacturing office furniture and hospital patient room furniture for more than 12 years for the recognizable names in the business, IWC has launched Knú, its own contemporary line of eco-friendly home desks, tables, shelving and storage, a line of products Davis sees as "inanimate motion in crisp, sustainable form."

"We started doing a lot of product development for folks – and we were very good at it – so I said, ‘Why don’t we start doing this ourselves?’" said Davis, who sketched out product designs over 18 months before coming up with the final line of 14 Knú products.

Davis made a prototype of one of the Knú desks for his office and people who saw it encouraged him to start selling it. Gradually, he developed the Knú line and is now to the point where he’s secured a few dealers and has begun marketing the product while still serving the office and healthcare furniture industry.

"It’s taken off slow, but I’m OK with that," Davis said, estimating that the Knú might take three years to get going. "We’ll take it nice and measured and see where it takes us. It’s nothing that we have to set the world on fire with right away, but I think that’s a good thing. You can afford to be slow and thoughtful. We’ll get the sales; let’s just do it right."

Davis exudes enthusiasm for green manufacturing and reducing the company’s environmental impact as much as possible.

The veneers for Knú are made with a very fast maturing poplar grown in tree farms in Italy and dyed with environmentally friendly dyes in several different finishes, including one that’s a dead-ringer for Madagascar ebony but "doesn’t damage any rainforest." IWC uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified cores whenever possible, but the products are limited in their availability. To offset the use of non-FSC products, IWC collaborated with the National Arbor Day Foundation to plant a tree in fire-ravaged or otherwise devastated public forestlands for every piece of Knú furniture the company sells.

IWC was also one of the original members of the Sustainable Furniture Council, a nonprofit industry association founded to promote sustainable practices among manufacturers, retailers and consumers.

Davis ensures that materials are optimized to reduce waste to a minimum and that everything used in the plant that can be recycled is recycled or reused in some other way. Oftentimes, he said he gets the ideas from his employees.

"Since our inception, we’ve been very interested in preserving resources and recycling, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also I think it ends up saving you money. I think it turns you onto thinking about everything (from the standpoint of sustainability)," Davis said. "It’ll come back to us in real dollars."

IWC’s recently expanded facility features an energy-efficient infrared finishing oven and lighting and recycled heat from some of the company’s tools. Finishes are applied using waterborne low-emissions processes, and the company uses more efficient water-based rather than oil-based presses for applying veneers to cut down on energy consumption.

Knú is also sold exclusively online, eliminating the energy and waste used to produce and distribute catalogs.

Nearly all of the company’s suppliers are within 50 miles of its Zeeland facility, and IWC ships Knú products directly to purchasers to reduce emissions as much as possible. The company also achieved status as 100 percent carbon neutral by purchasing enough wind power credits to offset its 389 metric tons of carbon emissions.

"Maybe it does cost you some more, but you’re going to drive alternative energies," Davis said. "Our government hasn’t done jack. It’s consumers demanding alternative energies and wanting to leave our kids a better place than what we received. Governments don’t do anything but muck up the waters and tax us to death and start ignorant wars as far as I’m concerned."

Davis said going the extra mile for sustainability just makes sense for him and for the company. He wouldn’t do business any other way.

"What else is there to do? I guess if you’re into boats and stuff like that, you could spend money like it’s going out of style," Davis said. "But is that really all that fun to own more crap? I don’t think it is, really. I think it’s more fun to do things and make a change. I think we run a different company than a lot of companies and it shows in our numbers, in our on-time deliveries and our people."

Davis came to West Michigan at the urging of his mother to attend Hope College after living in the New York City area as a child. At Hope he met future business partner Greg Raczok, now the vice president of IWC.

IWC grew 48 percent last year and continues to be at the top of the list for product quality and order reliability.

"We’re 100 percent on-time and 100 percent no rejects," he said. "Show me another supplier out there that can do that."

That’s not bad for a guy who’s guidance counselor told his mother that he would never do anything but pump gas, he said.

"When we started, we thought maybe in six years we’d have four or five employees and we’d be making some kitchens," he said. "You never think it’s going to go where it’s gone."


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This article appeared in the Monday, December 10, 2007 issue of MiBiz, read by upper management executives in West and Southwest Michigan. Print subscriptions are free to qualified individuals who are employed in West and Southwest Michigan. For further information about MiBiz, visit www.mibiz.com.