Ergonomic Chair Manufacturer Is a Sit-Down Success
Published Nov 21, 2008
Neutral Posture Inc. is a firm in high gear.
The Bryan-based company started 20 years ago with a mother-daughter team working in their garage.
Within 5 years, it was making and selling $6 million worth of chairs and workstations that support neutral body posture. By its 10th anniversary, revenues had doubled.
Today, Neutral Posture is a $24 million enterprise, says Rebecca Congleton Boenigk, chairman and CEO.
She’s the daughter of the mother-daughter founding duo. At the outset, mom Jaye Congleton told her, “ ‘You’ve been telling me what to do since you were three years old. You will run the company.’ ”
Using a design Jerome Congleton, Rebecca’s father, created for his doctoral dissertation in ergonomics, the women raised the capital and built the early chairs. Boenigk estimates they made the first 1,500 chairs themselves; today, the company moves about 50,000 units a year.
Sustainability is an issue, too. In 2008, the company introduced a keyboard tray made from recycled aluminum that itself can be recycled.
Both the company and Boenigk have received multiple awards. Buildings Magazine gave Neutral Posture its Innovation Award in 2006; the same year President George W. Bush named Boenigk to the National Women’s Business Council.
The company is setting standards in other ways, too.
At the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association annual meeting in June 2008, Boenigk became the first woman to hold the position of president of the organization, which was established to lead, advocate, inform and develop standards for the North American office and institutional furniture industry.
Long a leader in ergonomic furniture, Neutral Posture marks 20 years in January 2009. Its NTune system, a newer product line, lets workers shift from sitting to standing throughout the day.
“The problem is just standing or just sitting, you are going to have issues either way,” Boenigk says. “With this you can do both, when you want.”
Story by Pamela Coyle
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