Mission-driven Indy furniture maker partners with national distributor

Indianapolis-based furniture maker Purposeful Design LLC this week announced a partnership with Kl, a Green Bay, Wisconsin-based contract furniture company, that will see the local enterprise produce handcrafted solid-wood tabletops for one of Kl's top lines.

In reaching its first large-scale supply agreement, Purposeful Design - which operates as a ministry division of nonprofit think tank Sagamore Institute - intends to further its mission of training and employing men who have experienced homelessness and addiction.

Currently, Purposeful Design employs 18 craftsmen at a time. These workers use Indiana hardwoods such as maple, elm, ash, and walnut to create handcrafted furniture for local businesses, such as TWG Development and Elanco, as well as area schools. The Kl partnership will be its first foray into creating a product that will be widely distributed, and leaders hope will allow Purposeful Design to ramp up hiring.

Social welfare organizations, including Wheeler Mission, Good News Ministries, and Dove Recovery House, frequently refer men who are ready to work to Purposeful Design. These individuals go through a 30-hour program called the "Advance! School."

The Christian-based program includes curriculum on personal development, job skills, and positive worker traits such as timeliness and organization.

About 600 people have graduated from the program, including 200 in the last year, according to Brady Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing. Of those, Purposeful Design is only able to hire18 individuals at a time and refers the rest to other employers looking for entry-level workers.

"You can see the huge delta between those two numbers, and we would love to be able to hire as many as we possibly could; he said. But that hiring is limited by customer purchases, which make up about 80% of the social enterprise's revenue. The other 20% is covered by charitable donations.

Roberts expects the partnership with Kl to drive up the amount of business Purposeful Design is able to do, and thus the number of people it can employ.

Purposeful Design has seen an increase this year of about 30% over the previous year in paid production hours, or time workers spend creating custom furniture. Roberts said the company's leaders hope the work with Kl will "significantly help these numbers on our way to reaching the maximum number of manufacturing employees by the end of 2029." He declined to predict what that number might reach.

Both partners declined to share financial details of the agreement. Roberts said that's partially because it is too early to predict demand for Purposeful Design products used by Kl.

Roberts said the partnership is "a really good example of trying to revive quality products built in the United States· after years of furniture manufacturing work being moved overseas.

Kl manufactures a diverse lineup of furniture - tables, chairs, desks, workspace systems, etc. in Wisconsin facilities. The company sells its goods mostly to schools and universities, but also in the corporate and health care sectors. Melissa Jorgenson, Ki's senior manager of product marketing, said the company also works with suppliers to built components for Kl, such as Purposeful Design's solid wood tabletops.

Specifically, Purposeful Design tabletops will be available on Ki's Tributaire line tables, which includes a tall cafe table and a low occasional table. The list price of the pieces reaches up to $3,615, depending on customer specifications.

The partnership came together organically. Roberts was at Lebanon Community School Corp. working alongside a Kl distributor, Susan Binford of Binford Group of Indiana, and struck up a conversation. Ki's chairs were part of the project, since Purposeful Design doesn't manufacture seating. Binford then introduced KI's leaders to Roberts.

Jorgenson said there were adaptations needed from both companies. Purposeful Design had worked for years delivering tables themselves to customers within a 250-mile radius of Indianapolis, and now needs to expand shipping operations. On the other end, Kl had never worked with a supplier to create co-branded products.

"They're a very passionate team in the work that they do, and we're just thrilled to be able to be part of their mission and support what they're doing,” Jorgenson said.

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