On the heels of another namesake business closure July 10, MillerKnoll has announced it will close its Norton Shores plant at Estes Street, according to reporting from WOOD TV-8.
The closing process is expected to last two years, the outlet wrote, beginning this summer, and will relocate “most” jobs and product lines to two sites near Spring Lake.
“As a longstanding employer in West Michigan, MillerKnoll is committed to supporting its employees in the lakeshore community throughout this transition and will provide support and resources to all affected employees,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to WOOD.
The spokesperson, according to WOOD, didn’t say how many of roughly 250 employees will be given the option to relocate their role to Spring Lake.
In a separate statement, Norton Shores City Administrator Anthony Chandler wrote the municipality is now working “with local and state economic development agencies to figure out how this will affect the Greater Muskegon Area.”
“The plant has been a long-standing employer and contributor to our local economy,” Chandler wrote.
MillerKnoll is the result of a significant merger in 2021, when Zeeland-based Herman Miller completed the acquisition of furniture designer Knoll. Through the merger, MillerKnoll became one of the largest furniture design companies in the world.
According to the company’s website and local historian Steve VanderVeen, Herman Miller was formed in 1923, when D.J. De Pree convinced his father-in-law, Herman Miller, to purchase a majority of the shares of Michigan Star Furniture Company, which opened in Zeeland in 1905.
DePree was also responsible for the Herman Miller Clock Company, which he later turned over to his brother-in-law, Howard Miller, who later incorporated the Howard Miller Clock Company.
The latter company announced July 10 it would shutter after nearly 100 years of iconic clockmaking, citing a “convergence” of market influences, including tariffs and the larger furniture industry.
— Cassandra Lybrink is the local editor of The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at clybrink@hollandsentinel.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Report: MillerKnoll to shutter in Norton Shores, consolidate to Spring Lake
Reporting by Cassandra Lybrink, Holland Sentinel / The Holland Sentinel
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