KI Kicks Off 2017 with New $3.3 Million Expansion

By Jeff Bollier

BELLEVUE - Furniture manufacturer KI is looking to make a Ruckus in the educational furniture market and the Green Bay area, as well.

Before it can, the Bellevue-based commercial furniture manufacturer needs more space to produce the Ruckus, a new line of chairs it plans to introduce in February. 

The company will break ground in mid-January on a $3.3 million, 60,000-square-foot expansion at its main manufacturing plant at 1330 Bellevue St. 

KI General Manager Stuart Kolb said the project will give the company's injection molding operation room to add infrastructure and machinery to ramp up production of the Ruckus and its commercial market focused cousin, the Doni. 

"It's a growing department. We've always had injection molding in the operation, but we're seeing accelerating growth in newer products that are fully injection molded," Kolb said. "We've really been advocating game-changers in the industry. The Doni and Ruckus lines are very, very innovative in their design. We expect those sales to hit their business plan goals in the next three to five years."

The expansion might not create many new jobs right away, but it won't reduce the company's workforce either. Kolb expects the project to move quickly. He said the expansion will be complete by the end of June.