Haworth victorious in $400,000 lawsuit against supplier
Haworth furniture

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - Haworth supplier Shape Corp. is being forced to pay the office furniture giant more than $400,000 after an appeals court upheld a decision from 2020.

According to the suit, Shape Corp., which supplies Haworth with steel tubing for one of its furniture lines, agreed to a five-year contract in 2014. That contract stated that Shape would provide price reductions and rebates to Haworth.

But by 2015, Shape wanted out of the contract. So Haworth began taking over production. That transition finished in April 2018 and the contract was terminated.

Haworth then approached Shape according to the suit, asking for the rebates owed to the company from January 2018 until May.

Shape said it wasn't responsible and countersued, saying Haworth didn't pay consulting services during the transfer of production.

Shape ended up losing the case and was ordered to pay Haworth $391,000 in rebate fees and nearly $40,000 in attorney fees.

See the court document here.

Haworth is the third largest contract furniture maker in North America. Based in Holland, Michigan, the company employs 7,500 and makes contract and office furniture; including systems furniture, office chairs and seating, desks, filing/storage, casegoods, tables and upholstered guest chairs. It saw a revenue increase of 5 percent from 2018 to 2019.

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Robert Dalheim

Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at [email protected].