Design industry leader, John Edelman, makes his triumphant return to the furniture industry with his purchase of the iconic American furniture manufacturer Heller, where he will serve as President and CEO, effective immediately.
“I’m incredibly excited to be back in the furniture industry, especially with Heller, which is responsible for so much of the magic of modern design as we know it,” says Edelman. “I’m ready to tell the stories of design, roll up my sleeves and to honor Alan’s legacy.” Edelman’s plans for Heller include reinvigorated digital and social media initiatives and establishing a new e-commerce presence. This formula, paired with Edelman’s innate understanding of the paramount importance of design and quality, is expected to launch Heller to even greater heights.
An Iconic Brand is in Good Hands
Barbara Bluestone, the widow of Alan Heller adds, “I’m delighted to welcome John Edelman as Heller’s new owner,” she says. “I’m confident that John will carry on Alan’s unique, 50-year legacy of ‘good design at affordable prices’ while enriching the brand with fresh thinking and new design icons.” In an interview with officeinsight, she pointed out that the company’s mantra of good design at affordable prices was there since the early days of the company, beginning with his Heller ware, designed by Massimo Vignelli, and again with the Bellini chair. “Alan always said a machine doesn’t know if it’s making a terrible design or a great design,” she explained. “So why make poor design when you can make beautiful things for a good price.”
The Frank Gehry furniture collection was special to Alan Heller because he knew that many of Gerhy’s buildings or other designs were out of reach to the consumer. “I think that’s what convinced Frank Gerhy to work with Alan from the beginning,” says Bluestone. “ You want to make great design available to everybody but you still want to keep it at a high level.”
Incorporated in 1971, Heller’s first product was a line of stacking dinnerware designed by Massimo Vignelli. winner of a prestigious Compasso d’Oro award in Italy, it is included in the Museum of Modern Art permanent design collection, New York. Heller’s furniture division was launched in 1998 and the first chair, The Bellini Chair designed by Mario Bellini, also won the Compasso d’Oro in 2001. Since then, Heller has worked with other celebrated designers including Massimo & Lella Vignelli, Philippe Starck, Mario Bellini, Vico Magistretti, William Sawaya, De Pas, D’Urbino & Lomazzi, Frank Gehry, and Studio 65. For many years, Heller was one of the few American companies (along with Emeco and Knoll) to exhibit at the Salone del Mobile.
Edelman’s Industry Expertise Will Help Propel the Brand
John Edelman brings substantial experience across multiple industries having previously spent a decade as CEO of the Herman Miller Consumer Group and Design Within Reach, the modernist furniture retailer he bought, transformed, and sold to Herman Miller (now MillerKnoll) in partnership with John McPhee.
Spending 14 years at Edelman Leather, including six as President & CEO, Edelman’s leadership approach was defined by his family’s principles of authenticity and “doing well by doing good”. Along with John McPhee, the duo re-envisioned the company, and soon established Edelman’s family’s namesake brand into a global trademark by expanding into four luxury lifestyle categories — Private Aviation, Hospitality, Corporate Interiors, and Residential Interiors — before helping facilitate the company’s sale to Knoll, Inc in 2007 for $67 million.
In 2010, Edelman and McPhee purchased Design Within Reach (DWR), at a time when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, (The company’s stock, which at one time was about $18 a share, had fallen to about 12 cents). And at the same time, Alan Heller was suing the DWR for knocking off his Bellini chair.
The chair, designed by the Italian architect Mario Bellini in 1997 for Heller, was ideally a good fit for DWR, having appeared on the back cover of the company’s first catalog in 1999. Over the years, DWR has sold thousands of Bellini chairs, but then in the spring of 2009, before Edelman and McPhee joined the DWR, the company started selling a “confusingly similar chair” that wasn’t the Bellini which DWR named the “Alonzo” and was being priced at about $50 less than the Bellini.
“John McPhee and I went to go visit Alan Heller in February of 2010 and agreed that it was wrong what DWR had been doing and that’s when our friendship with him started,” said Edelman in an interview with officeinsight.
In just a few years, Edelman and McPhee doubled the revenue of DWR while halving the number of stores down to 35. They moved away from producing knockoff designs, and revitalized the once-troubled retailer into the world leader in authentic modern design by repairing vendor relationships, re-training sales teams, adding Trade and Contract divisions, expanding Product Development, and opening new DWR Studios. Edelman also ended Tools for Living, DWR’s 700-item collection of accessories— ranging from sleek pens to a croquet set— that was introduced in 2008 to refocus the company’s emphasis on furniture.
At DWR, one of their major contributions was to go beyond just selling midcentury modern classics and partner and promote some of the most exciting brands in the industry, such as Hay, Moooi, J.L.Møllers, Brown Jordan, and Luceplan, in addition to championing under-the-radar designers like Norm Architects and Egg Collective. They also introduced designer discounts and a trade program which made up a significant portion of DWR’s revenue, while expanding the company’s reach from the architecture and design industry and into the consumer market.
All of this strategically paid off, with Edelman and McPhee in making the company incredibly profitable. In 2014, Herman Miller, Inc. purchased the renewed DWR and Edelman stayed on as CEO of both DWR and Herman Miller Consumer Group before departing in 2019.
This formula, paired with Edelman’s innate understanding of the paramount importance of design and quality, is expected to launch Heller to even greater heights. Edelman’s acquisition of Heller is in partnership with his longtime friend and entrepreneurial collaborator John McPhee.
It’s no secret Edelman long admired Heller and its founder, Alan Heller, for his shared values of commitment to affordable, quality iconic design. Heller has been featured in museums globally, recognized by the industry’s prestigious institutions, and has been an influence throughout international design history.
Photo courtesy of Heller
A Friendship Built on Trust
“When I first started to get to know Alan the person, one of his biggest fears was that design was dying, and it was my job to convince him that it wasn’t and that there was a future,” says Edelman who fondly remembers the early conversations he had with Alan were the beginning of his romance with not just Alan the person, but the brand, “I’ve been in his shoes. I’ve been in leather. I’ve been in furniture. I’ve been in retail, and I love the simplicity of his business,” says Edelman,” You make the incredibly expensive mold, you work with a world-famous designer, and you create something that you believe where the designer can have the opportunity to be iconic.”
Edelman always believed that the Heller brand was so much bigger than its business, and it is an untarnished brand. “Allen didn’t cut corners, and he never did anything just for money. it really is like a startup still, but some kind of ammunition,” he says.
Edelman’s Plans for the Future
What are Edelman’s immediate plans for the company? “I have to get the website available to ecommerce, update the photos and all the collateral” says Edelman. “We need to let people make it easy for people to buy the product, we’ll slowly build a sales team, and just educate the consumer about how cool Heller is and tell all the authentic stories;”
Heller’s products are manufactured in the USA, giving it an advantage at a time when there are global supply chain issues.
When asked which designer he would like to work with at Heller, Edelman immediately suggested Hyner Atlason, but cautions us that he’s not going too fast. I’m only five days into this role,” he says.
The new ownership of Heller will be celebrated in both New York City in May and Chicago at the Merchandise Mart, with a new location, Space 1123-A in June, Alan Heller’s two favorite cities. “We also plan on having a vintage 1977 VW bus decked out with Heller Gehry furniture, driving around both cities and have some fun,” says Edelman.