Stewartville furniture maker wins national awards as $127.5 million sale wraps up
Jun. 27—STEWARTVILLE — Halcon
, a Stewartville office furniture maker, took home the top award at a national industry convention, just days after
a competitor closed on its $127.5 million purchase
of the local company.
Earlier this month, Halcon participated in the annual prestigious NeoCon office furniture conference, "the largest exhibition of contract furnishings in North America." The long-time Stewartville firm won the "Best of Competition Award" for its new Helm executive table that it created with help from Germany designer jehs+laub.
"Helm seamlessly incorporates technology and height-adjustability into a sculptural metal base, creating modern and timeless tables to meet the needs of today's workplace," stated Halcon President Ben Conway of the table.
This is the latest in a string of NeoCon Best of Competition awards for Halcon. They also won the top award in 2011 and 2017.
The Helm table also received a gold award for conference tables plus an additional gold award for height-adjustable tables.
This latest recognition comes as Grand Rapids, Mich.-based
Steelcase Inc.
closed the deal to buy the 45-year-old Stewartville company for $127.5 million. In addition to the purchase price, the agreement includes "potential additional consideration of up to $9.5 million payable to the seller over three years based on the achievement of certain performance targets and continued employment of Mr. (Ben) Conway."
The agreement was announced in May. The sale to Steelcase was finalized on June 10. Halcon will now operate as a subsidiary of Steelcase.
As one of the largest office furniture makers in the country, Steelcase has long been a competitor of Halcon. The 110-year-old company posted $2.8 billion in revenue in fiscal 2022 and is estimated to have more than 12,500 employees.
Halcon, which tallied approximately $70 million in revenue in the past year ending in April, has about 400 employees.
It was founded by Peter Conway, Ben Conway's father, in 1977. He sold it to Canadian furniture maker Teknion in 1999. However, the
family bought Halcon back
in 2009.
Jeff Kiger tracks business action in Rochester and southeastern Minnesota every day in "Heard on the Street." Send tips to
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