Growing for the future need/demand of furniture

KI is an education, healthcare, government and corporate furniture manufacturer headquartered in Green Bay.

A pair of expansion projects at KI to be completed within the next 18 months

By Rich Palzewic

GREEN BAY – KI Furniture – an education, healthcare, government and corporate furniture manufacturer in Green Bay – recently announced it is adding 33,400 square feet of additional space, with an estimated completion date by the end of May or early June, to help meet the company’s future needs.

“It’s an aggressive timeline,” Tim Heyrman, KI general manager, said. “We’re getting our ducks in a row so we’re ready to go. Fortunately, from a winter standpoint and the frost in the ground, it’s been pretty good to us.”

Heyrman said the steel building addition – with Bayland Buildings serving as general contractor for the project – will function as a warehouse “at least for the first year.”

“We are still going through our final approval with the Village of Bellevue, but we’re signed off from the state and the building is approved, as is stormwater, so we’re just waiting on a few more things,” he said. “We’ve gotten approval for an early start, so I would anticipate breaking ground by the end of February.”

Headquartered in Green Bay, Heyrman said KI is an employee-owned company with a dedicated presence across the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

“The steel for the building has been on order for some time now – that’s one of the things in the process that takes the longest to get,” he said.

Tim Heyrman, KI general manager, said the company’s biggest growth has come in the K-12 and college universities markets.

Heyrman said the expansion is being added to KI’s current location at 1330 Bellevue St.

“It will be added onto the east of our 2012 expansion,” he said. “We’re constantly evaluating our cost structure where we can leverage savings versus investment, and this is one of the items for us that supports our ability to be in control of our quality, be in control of our lead times and operations and leverage continuous improvements for us.”

Heyrman said he started planning for the expansion project about a year ago.

“I tried to gain traction with payback, ROI (return on investment), justifying the necessity and getting it budgeted,” he said.

Another future expansion

Another function of the planned 2025 addition, Heyrman said, is to facilitate another expansion, set to begin later this year.

“The first phase of the expansion – the 33,400-square-foot building – needs to be completed before we do another expansion,” he said. “They’re kind of a package deal. The first one allows us to do the second one.”

Heyrman said the initial addition provides some of the infrastructure on dock doors – loading doors that allow trucks to back up to a warehouse to load or unload goods – because the second expansion will temporarily take down some of those dock doors.

“The first build will provide us with the square footage and functionality to get through that second build cycle,” he said. “The second expansion will be another 120,000 square feet, and I expect that to commence this fall and be completed by May 2026.”

The two expansion projects, Tim Heyrman said, will add increased square footage to KI’s warehouse space.

Heyrman said after the two builds are completed, it will bring KI’s space on Bellevue Street to more than 500,000 square feet.

“The current facility (without the additions) is about 363,000 square feet,” he said.

Additionally, Heyrman said the two projects support the company’s efforts to develop “what I call the ‘factory of the future.’”

“These two layouts provide us with the opportunity to re-layout our facility to gain optimal flow,” he said. “Right now, with our current building design, it is not optimized. We know we have some opportunities there, and it also allows us to focus on future automation – automated-guided vehicles and automatic storage and retrieval systems – and really leverage more technology because we’ll have the square footage. It provides us with that footprint to be very successful going forward.”

Fueled by schools

Heyrman said because KI has undergone two previous expansions – one in 2012 and the other in 2017 – it shows the company is growing and doing well.

He said he has been with KI for more than 25 years and used to be the company’s engineering manager.

Heyrman said KI has set record sales years in the facility during the last two years.

“I kind of owned the previous two expansions,” he said. “In 2012, we expanded 120,000 square feet, and then in 2017, we added another 63,000 square feet. Those were added to the original building, which was about 200,000 square feet.”

According to the company’s website (ki.com), the 2012 addition helped with manufacturing, shipping, receiving and warehousing space, allowing its current plant to reduce costs through streamlining production. 

The 2017 expansion accommodated the relocation of large custom injection molding equipment and provided an additional seven shipping docks to support the shipping of KI products.

KI furniture was recently showcased on an episode of HGTV’s renovation show “Home Town”

And now with the two future expansions on the docket, Heyrman said that will set KI up for even more growth.

“As a company, we are doing well overall, but the last few years have been especially good,” he said. “Our big growth has come in the K-12 and college universities markets – both have been huge for us over the last five years. That growth comes with heavy production in June, July and August, where our peak gets even higher. The additions will add additional capacity in assembly and fabrication areas, as well as warehouse storage to get us through those peaks.” 

National exposure

The company’s longtime collaborations with schools led to it being featured on HGTV’s renovation show “Home Town”.

The episode, which aired last month on HGTV, showcases KI furniture in the transformation of a Victorian home into a K-12 learning center – Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center in Laurel, Mississippi.

Bryan Ballegeer, vice president of education markets at KI, said the company was “honored to play a part in creating a new home for Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center.

“We were excited to help Dr. Amanda Cooley – (who founded Unlimited Dreams) – bring her vision to life as she continues her phenomenal work of growing young minds,” he said.

The newly renovated space includes five classrooms, a library, a principal’s office, a cafeteria and an outdoor playground.

Ballegeer said KI donated versatile furniture aimed at creating an inviting, functional learning space that reflects the school’s unique character.

He said the center’s classrooms are now equipped with several products from KI’s award-winning Ruckus collection – including desks, which double as dry-erase boards for an interactive learning experience; chairs; stools; and lecterns.

The cafeteria, Ballegeer said, features Tributaire nesting tables and Doni seating with elegant design finishes.

The episode featuring KI is available on HGTV’s streaming platforms.

View Original Article