I love a family business. I believe family businesses are a big part of what made America great. And Tuohy Furniture Corporation is definitely one of those family businesses. In 1952 the hobby of Joseph Francis “Joe” Tuohy, making church pews and alters, blossomed into Tuohy Church Furniture. Its first manufacturing facility was a rented former blacksmith shop in Chatfield, Minnesota.
Said his son, Francis Michael “Mike” Tuohy, who joined the firm in 1955, “Every step in the start-up of anything must originate with an inspiration – call it a vision – of what is possible. From there success or failure is really a matter of rugged determination, often against seemingly impossible odds.” As you might guess, Mike Tuohy went on to figure prominently in the growth and success of the company.
While Joe Tuohy loved the manufacturing side of the enterprise, Mike figured large in the development of the business systems, sales and marketing. Even though the company was very successful in providing furniture for many of the most prestigious
churches built in that period, Mike Tuohy recognized a bigger opportunity in the world of business and institutional furniture, and soon the company formally dropped the “Church” from its name, to become today’s Tuohy Furniture Corporation.
Broadening the purview of the company has been rewarded with success in a diverse set of market segments, including financial institutions, law firms, corporate offices, hospitality, education and retail fixtures and displays. But Joseph Tuohy’s love for wood and its use in Tuohy furniture has continued unabated, no matter the market segment.
Perhaps that is because Chatfield, Minn., is located in the Richard J. Dorer State Forest, a hardwood-rich area in southeastern Minnesota. On a recent visit to the Tuohy headquarters and manufacturing facilities, I was struck by the beauty of the rolling topography and the stately hardwood trees – even in their leafless winter dress.
“Wood is still a big part of our business,” said CEO Dan Tuohy. “We own a separate company, Saunders Wood Specialties, which is a nice business employing 45 people laying-up veneer faces. About half of their production comes to us with the rest being used by custom millworkers for store fixtures, large wood panels and custom conference tables where special veneers have been spec’d. So while wood is still ‘what we do’ we realize that we have to speak in other languages. We are also well aware of non-wood materials and many of our current products are of mixed materials including steel, aluminum, stone and glass.”
Whatever the materials, the running of the company is now firmly in the hands of the second and third generation of Tuohys. Joseph Tuohy’s eighth son, Bernard is the VP of Marketing, and two of Mike’s sons are very active; Dan as CEO and Michael as COO.
On the afore-mentioned trip to Chatfield, Bernard took me to see the St. John’s Abbey church in Collegeville, Minn., on the campus of St. John’s University. It is a fabulous example of brutalist architecture, designed by Marcel Breuer. When word reached Joe Tuohy that an internationally renowned architect was designing the abbey church at Collegeville, he resolved to win the project for all the wood furnishings. And he did.
Bernard told me, “It was the most prestigious project going in this category, and my father became nearly obsessed with winning it. And win it he did, though it almost bankrupted the company. The huge solid oak pews cost far more to produce than he had projected, and they were so massive that installing them was nearly impossible with the equipment and manpower available to lift and move them.”
Nonetheless, the job was finished and beautifully installed, the company endured, and the project became a marketing springboard for the company, nationally. On our visit to the Abbey church I admired the sense of permanence of the solid wood pews – in absolute harmony with the unbelievable sense of permanence of the concrete structure itself. The visual rhythm of row after row of pews, facing and behind the alter, and the minimalist quality of the furniture add to the overall success of one of Breuer’s masterworks.
Today the company has parlayed its knowledge and experience with wood into an ability to deliver large wood projects at a high level of visual consistency, from elevator cabs through to open plan workstations, private offices, conference rooms and dining areas.
”We are manufacturers, we really are,” Dan Tuohy said. “But we understand design and making our products fit into an environment. We want to complement the interior designer’s vision for the whole picture. We adjust and personalize our pieces to fit to the environment. What we’re seeing now is that client companies are very concerned with what their people want, and we work very well in that type of situation because we can adjust and specialize the look of our products to fit what the client and designer want.
“We’re a family business – we’re tight – we know what we’re doing. But we’re not just a little woodshop. It’s a balance of understanding the special qualities of woodworking with the size and capability to deliver 600 casegoods workstations and conference rooms on-time. We are strong across many market segments, but in the workplace segment I’d say we are strongest in the financial services and legal sectors because that’s where the clients still want the richness of wood furniture.”
While at Tuohy I had the pleasure of meeting the product development team and previewing a new chair designed in collaboration with Populous, the global design and architecture firm based in Kansas City. The chair is currently called Pleat, and it’s scheduled for introduction in the spring, well ahead of NeoCon. As my friends know, I love product development and reviewing the new chair was a highlight of the visit. But not the only highlight. When it comes to furniture, one is allowed more than one love, and I also had a chance to revisit my love of manufacturing with a plant tour expertly provided by COO Michael Tuohy.
The plant tour made it easy to believe Dan’s words about the company’s capabilities. It is a well-organized, flexible plant with many of the hallmarks of lean manufacturing evident. The high-volume output is balanced by the workstation here and there doing finishing touches by hand where that is required. Quick-change features seen on the paint line attest to the ability to meet varied demands without undue disruption.
It was cold outside when I visited, so cold in fact that on the drive to Chatfield from Minneapolis, Bernard and I witnessed a gorgeous phenomenon of very cold weather. We saw a perfect rainbow making a complete circle around the sun, caused, Bernard said, by frozen crystals of moist air refracting the sunlight. I took it as a good omen. It wasn’t the kind of rainbow with a mythical pot of gold at its foot. It was a complete circle – implying the continuation of luck, success and good cheer, on and on.
