By Keith Essenburg
\nThe Grand Rapids Press
\n GRANDVILLE — When the economy sputters, office products do not sell as well.
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\nHowever, chairs are another matter.<\/p>\n
Such basic purchases are helping H&L Advantage Inc. increase business.
\n \u00c2\u00a0Advertisement<\/p>\n
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The plastic-injection molding firm makes chair parts for Steelcase Inc.’s Leap, Criterion, Drive and Rally chairs. It also counts as customers Herman Miller Inc., Segue and Knoll.<\/p>\n
The firm, at 3500 Busch Drive SW, plans to nearly double operations in the next few months, said Steve Beurkens, H&L Advantage sales manager.<\/p>\n
The company, owned by Brad Alkema and Larry Hobbie, got a 50 percent tax abatement from Grandville for a $2.2 million investment including a 30,000-square-foot building addition and purchase of larger injection-molding equipment.<\/p>\n
“After 9\/11, people didn’t want to buy total office systems,” Beurkens said. “But they did buy chairs.”<\/p>\n
The new equipment will allow workers to produce parts for an entire office chair, including seats, backs and arm rests.<\/p>\n
Additional products H&L Advantage plans to market include large plastic panels and overhead doors, Beurkens said.<\/p>\n
“There’s a big need for some of that larger, 500-, 700-ton molding capacity,” he said.<\/p>\n
The company got its start in 1965 in a 15,000-square-foot facility on Roger B. Chaffee Blvd. SE. It moved to its present location in Grandville in 2000.<\/p>\n
Since then, the company has grown from 35 to 55 employees, and Beurkens anticipates the latest expansion will create 10 to 20 jobs.<\/p>\n
City Assessor Jim Uyl said without a tax abatement, the company’s building addition and new equipment would generate about $57,000 in tax revenues.<\/p>\n
The abatement will save the company about $25,000 in taxes initally, but that figure will drop — along with the company’s overall tax liability — as the new equipment depreciates, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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