Sauders have tradition of seizing opportunities
Ray Allegrezza, Editor in chief -- Furniture Today, May 26, 2003
Our story last week about Sauder Woodworking's acquisition of Studio RTA, which sources much of its mixed-media ready-to-assemble furniture from Asia, made me think of Erie Sauder, the man who founded Sauder over five decades ago.
They say the apple never falls far from the tree. But on first blush, Kevin Sauder appears to be as different from grandfather Erie as night is from day. Kevin, current president and CEO of the nation's largest RTA furniture maker, has multiple degrees, including an MBA from Duke University. Erie only finished the eighth grade.
But what Erie may have lacked in formal education, he more than made up for with hard work, ingenuity and a keen eye for opportunity, a trait certainly passed down to sons Maynard and Myrl, and again to grandson Kevin.
In Erie's case, his opportunity came when a traveling salesman spotted some tables that Erie, then making church furniture, had made from scrap lumber. The salesman bought a few tables and took them to a Chicago furniture show. The next day the salesman called to place a big order for those small tables — 25,000 of them to be exact. Erie took the order, stuck it in his shirt pocket and headed for home.
As much as a visionary as Erie was, I suspect he had no idea this order would become the foundation of a company projected to end this year with sales of about $750 million.
During one of our visits, I remember asking him what his dominant memory of that day was. Erie said, "That I didn't have a building, raw materials, money or employees."
Undaunted, he rounded up some friends, formed a corporation and delivered the 25,000 tables as promised. (Sauder still has the reputation of being a supplier that hits its delivery dates.) Thus Sauder Woodworking Co. began. Until his death in July 1997, Erie not only witnessed a steady stream of change, he had the vision to see those changes as opportunities for growth.
In the gloom that followed the Depression, Erie saw a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a then-new category: ready-to-assemble furniture. Sons Maynard and Myrl, who came on board to head marketing and engineering, shared that vision. With the acquisition of Progressive Furniture in April 2001 and last week's move to buy Studio RTA, Kevin Sauder has proved he is keeping the tradition alive and well.
I had the pleasure of meeting Erie several times and found him, even in his 90s, to be articulate and passionate about the furniture business. Now, I find myself wondering if he would have been stymied by the wholesale changes affecting our business since his passing.
He might have been surprised, but never disarmed. My bet is that the man with only an eighth-grade education taught his grandson that sometimes change is just opportunity in disguise.
