Every few years, it seems, Vari gives the industry a reason to reconsider what it thinks it knows about the Dallas-based brand.
For a long time, Vari was synonymous with its flagship product, the VariDesk — the original height-adjustable desk. As the category rose (pun intended), Vari rose with it, helping redefine the modern workstation and normalize the idea that a desk should move with its user. Then it became known as the direct-to-consumer disruptor, bypassing traditional channels and proving that speed and simplicity could win market share. Today, under CEO Jason McCann, the company is evolving again. While you weren’t looking Vari has started working on projects across the country, intent on building deeper relationships with architects and designers.
That shift did not happen overnight. McCann describes the company as being well along a journey that has paralleled the elevation of its brand and the expansion of its product offering. As Vari leaned more heavily on the A&D community to serve mutual clients, what began as transactional interactions evolved into something more strategic. The relationship, in his view, became a natural one to build.
The numbers tell part of the story. Since the onset of COVID, Vari has installed more than 6,000 projects across the country. A company that was not meaningfully involved in the project business just a few years ago now finds that well over half its revenue comes from corporate clients rather than online sales. That segment has become its fastest-growing area.
Changes in the broader industry makes the evolution understandable. Dealer consolidation continues. Manufacturers have merged and restructured. Architecture and engineering firms have grown larger and more geographically dispersed. Corporate clients operate nationally and expect consistency. In that environment, McCann believes customers are looking for a centralized point of accountability and a simplified experience.
“I think ultimately, customers want a great experience,” he said. “Projects are all over the country, and so while there are some nuances in these individual markets, we want to give them a centralized point of contact with a nationwide presence and the ability to execute.”
Vari’s direct model has always positioned the company differently. The company can serve a client with multiple locations across the country without the internal territorial conflicts that sometimes arise in dealer networks. That structure, McCann argues, aligns with what many corporate buyers now want: a nationwide solution with streamlined communication.
If that operational story is one pillar of Vari’s repositioning, product breadth is the other.
On January 16th, the company opened a 42,000 square-foot showroom inside its corporate headquarters, located in Coppell, Texas. The space functions as both ideation lab and brand statement. Designers, facilities managers and real estate professionals touring the showroom are often surprised by the scope of what they see. The company that many still associate primarily with desks now presents a far more comprehensive offering.
Soft seating has expanded into curated collections designed to cover the majority of project needs without overwhelming specifiers with excessive options. Executive casegoods and conference solutions round out private office applications. Architectural wall products address privacy and specialized environments, including federal SKIF rooms. Seating, once a category McCann doubted Vari would meaningfully enter, now generates tens of millions of dollars in sales.
Perhaps most notable is Vari’s renewed focus on systems furniture. The company’s QuickFlex Cubes represent its attempt to rethink the cubicle for a workplace that has cycled through open-plan enthusiasm and back toward a more pragmatic appreciation of privacy.
As organizations recalibrate return-to-office policies, many are discovering that hoteling and benching models become strained when employees are in the office three or more days per week. Designers and facilities teams, navigating fluctuating attendance and uncertain long-term real estate strategies, increasingly seek solutions that can flex over time.
Vari’s response has been to simplify the system. QuickFlex Cubes are built from fewer than 10 primary components, incorporate quick-connect power and allow panels to be added or removed with relative ease. The emphasis is on rapid deployment and reconfiguration without excessive complexity. In one recent 500-station installation, the project reportedly concluded without a punch list — an outcome that underscores the company’s focus on execution.
That bias toward simplicity is consistent with Vari’s origins. The same thinking that produced a desk that could be assembled quickly and adjusted easily now informs larger-scale solutions. McCann frequently frames the company’s innovation process around identifying and addressing pain points. In its early days, that (back) pain was literal. Today, it is operational: compressed timelines, changing headcounts, budget pressure and uncertainty about how AI-driven analytics and space utilization data will shape future layouts.
The company’s product development cadence is a direct response to what Vari hears from its customers. Vari launched roughly 100 new products last year and plans a similar number this year. Many of those introductions are incremental, responding directly to feedback gathered from project work.
There is also a recognition that Vari does not need to be everything to everyone. It is not chasing the largest global headquarters projects. Instead, it is targeting small- to mid-size installations, regional offices and national rollouts where speed, flexibility and cost control are paramount.
“So for the designers, they’re able to come in and go, ‘Wow, I can do everything for most projects, 80% of projects with Vari.’ So for the right audience, if that’s what they’re looking for, we fit in that niche. If you’re going out for the headquarters of Toyota, that’s not us, and that’s okay,” said McCann.
The path has not been without missteps. An earlier attempt to operate 15 small showrooms across the country proved unsustainable and was ultimately abandoned. The current strategy consolidates the brand experience in Dallas while relying on national installation capabilities to serve clients elsewhere. The flagship showroom acts as both proof of concept and an educational platform. Vari also relies heavily on virtual tours where a host takes a virtual visitor on a walk-through of the main Dallas showroom.
For McCann, the immediate challenge is not engineering but communication. He is candid about the difficulty of earning time and attention from designers who may still view Vari through an outdated lens. The company wants to demonstrate value through service, responsiveness and a curated product mix that addresses the majority of project needs, he said.
In many ways, the industry’s narrative has come full circle. Systems furniture, once maligned for its excesses, is being reconsidered in a more disciplined form. Privacy is again valued. Flexibility is a necessity, not a buzzword. Hybrid work has complicated design decisions rather than simplified them.
Vari’s bet is that a streamlined, adaptable approach — supported by national execution and a growing product portfolio — can meet that moment.
“Our ability to execute over a thousand projects last year — that’s like five or six a day across the country — every project we’re getting better and better and listening and learning from our the clients. During the product ideation, we are working alongside the designers and the internal facilities teams, and they giving us feedback on what the pain points are that they’re trying to solve. We’re then able to innovate new products and bring them to market,” said McCann.
The company that began with desktop risers and height adjustable desks is now trying to elevate its standing within the design community. If the steady flow of tours through Coppell is any indication, the conversation is already well underway.