With the acquisition of HB Workplaces last week and Continental several weeks earlier, Creative Office Resources has grown into an office furniture dealer that from its roots in the Northeast has now spread coast to coast and is one of the largest office furniture dealers in the world.
A MillerKnoll Certified Dealer and WBENC-Certified WBE, Creative Office Resources (COR) is impressive in its size and scale, but it is also part of a larger industry trend that is literally changing the way office furnishings are specified and delivered.
“HB Workplaces brings decades of expertise and a strong regional presence, making them a natural partner for COR,” said Denise Horn, CEO and partner of Creative Office Resources. “By joining forces, we can continue to leverage our combined strengths to deliver innovative, client-focused workplace solutions nationally. Our teams have collaborated for years, and we’re excited about the opportunities this acquisition creates for our clients and the communities we serve.”
For COR, the journey began just four years ago, when Creative Office Pavilion and Office Resources merged to create Creative Office Resources. Both companies were long established dealers in the Boston and New York markets with Creative Office Pavilion a long-time Herman Miller dealer and Office Resources a Knoll dealer.
When Herman Miller purchased Knoll, COR CMO and Partner Kevin Barbary said the industry experienced an inflection point, which has accelerated since HNI’s acquisition of Steelcase.
Those events, along with the impact of the dot-com bubble bursting, the banking crisis and the pandemic fundamentally changed the office furniture distribution model. Dealers, once small and often family run, began growing through acquisition. Instead of serving one small city or geographic region, dealers began expanding. First, they grew into statewide dealers, then regional and now national.
“When I started in this industry, most distributors were small family-owned distributors that were embedded in the community. If you were in Des Moines or Portland, Maine, or whatever city or town, you were the Steelcase dealer, you were the Haworth dealer and so on. The marketplace has evolved to a point where there’s a certain expectation of service delivery, of technology, of expertise. You have to get to a certain scale to be able to deliver that. As we’ve seen, you have to be at a certain scale so that you can deliver that service model that is being expected of you by the corporate end user, A&D community and the OPM community,” said Barbary.
In a way, COR’s expansion is part of an industry renaissance. Following the aforementioned industry speedbumps — dot-com bubble, banking crisis and the pandemic — few believed in the long term future of the industry. The industry struggled. Yet post-pandemic, it has shown itself as surprisingly resilient and adaptive.
“The time that everybody was out of the office (during the pandemic) forced everybody to redefine what the office means,” said Barbary.
No one escaped this redefinition. Corporations, architecture and design firms, office furniture manufacturers and dealers were all forced to rethink the workplace, which continues today. Momentum from these events are still affecting office design — sometimes in surprising ways such as the recent introduction of Knoll Dividends Skyline, which looks and functions a lot like systems furniture of the past.
Dealer consolidation and expansion is part of the larger redefinition of the industry and Barbary said it is the ideal time. “We feel it’s a great time to expand. We have a great manufacturing partner. We think we have great people, great processes. And we feel the opportunity is there.”
When COR purchased Continental in Columbus, Ohio, it was the first time the company expanded outside the Northeast, its traditional home. The addition of HB takes COR coast to coast.
“I think we’ve been in the right place with a tremendous partner in MillerKnoll,” said Barbary. “None of this is even in front of us or available to us without their involvement and their blessing.”
HB Workplaces is a well-established MillerKnoll Certified Dealer with offices in Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah; Boise, Idaho; Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada; and Seattle, Washington. Since 1980, HB Workplaces has earned a strong reputation for delivering furniture, interior construction, and more to clients across the Western United States. Supported by a team of more than 170, the firm is known for bringing clients’ vision and goals into focus and creating modern workplaces that support how people work today, serving organizations across a diverse range of industries.
“Joining COR is an exciting step for HB Workplaces and our team,” said David Colling, principal and CEO of HB Workplaces. “We’ve long valued our relationship with the COR team, sharing knowledge as fellow MillerKnoll partners for decades. This partnership allows us to provide clients with even greater resources and support while maintaining the personal relationships and local focus that define our approach. We look forward to growing together and delivering exceptional workplace experiences.”
It is important to COR that the companies that it adds maintain their name and heritage. HB Workplaces will now operate as HB Workplaces, A COR Company, with Creative Office Resources serving as the parent organization. The same is true at Continental, which is now known as Continental Office, a COR Company. COR will provide strategic support to ensure a seamless experience for clients and employees, as both HB Workplaces and Continental Office continue to serve their clients and industry partners with the same focus and expertise.
It is important to note that HB Workplaces will keep its name and identity. Barbary said it is part of COR’s strategy to “not disrupt those very special service packages and relationships that have existed, especially in those markets,” he said, though he added that COR will be able to enhance the companies through certain technology programs or expertise at a higher level.
They are not gobbling up their acquisitions or forcing them to make changes that will destroy their identities. And since COR has grown rapidly through multiple acquisitions over the past few years, they understand how to integrate new companies into the fold, leaving things alone that are best left alone and changing things if it makes sense to change them.
While the most recent acquisitions take COR west, in reality, the company has worked well beyond its Northeast home for years. COR has worked on projects in all 50 states. And over the past few years, COR has selectively hired key employees in different parts of the country, including project managers who live on the West Coast and Southeast.
MillerKnoll is pleased with the direction COR is moving. “Creative Office Resources and HB Workplaces share a longstanding dedication to designing spaces that perform at the highest level,” said John Michael, President of the Americas, MillerKnoll. “This acquisition strengthens HB Workplaces’ ability to deliver strategic insights and innovative solutions, empowering clients across offices, education and healthcare facilities to meet the evolving demands of today’s work environments.”
So how much farther will COR expand? According to Barbary, as far as the industry and the marketplace allows. “I don’t know that we’ve ever really sat down and said, ‘Oh, we want to get to a certain number, or there’s a certain revenue target,’” he said. “I think this speaks loudly about the culture of both Continental and HB. There are many opportunities right now. And I think we have an opportunity, as we did with Continental and HB, to be incredibly selective. It is very important to us that the companies we acquire have a certain culture, have a certain chemistry, have a certain passion for what it is we do.”
As long as there are opportunities, Barbary said COR will continue to look at them, but he added that it is not a mission to go out and buy anybody and everybody.
