Americas Segment
Our Americas segment serves customers in the United States (“U.S.”),
Canada, the Caribbean Islands and Latin America. Our portfolio of integrated architecture,
furniture and technology products is marketed to corporate, government, healthcare,
education and retail customers through the Steelcase, Coalesse and Turnstone brands.
We serve Americas customers mainly through approximately 400 independent and company-owned
dealer locations, and we also sell directly to end-use customers. Our end-use
customers tend to be larger multinational, regional or local companies and are
distributed across a broad range of industries and vertical markets, including
healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, higher education, insurance and
information technology.
The Americas office furniture industry is highly competitive, with a number
of competitors offering similar categories of products. The industry competes
on a combination of insight, product performance, design, price and relationships
with customers, architects and designers. Our most significant competitors in
the U.S. are Haworth, Inc., Herman Miller, Inc., HNI Corporation and Knoll,
Inc. Together with Steelcase, domestic revenue from these companies represents
approximately one-half of the U.S. office furniture industry.
EMEA Segment
Our EMEA segment serves customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa primarily
under the Steelcase and Coalesse brands, with an emphasis on freestanding furniture
systems, storage and seating solutions. Our largest presence is in Western Europe,
where we believe we are among the market leaders in Germany, France, Spain and
the United Kingdom.
Our end-use customers tend to be larger multinational, regional or local companies
spread across a broad range of industries and vertical markets, including financial
services, higher education, healthcare, government and information technology.
The EMEA office furniture market is highly competitive and fragmented. We compete
with many local and regional manufacturers in many different markets. In several
cases, these competitors focus on specific product categories.
Other Category
The Other category includes Asia Pacific, Designtex and PolyVision.
Asia Pacific serves customers in the People’s Republic of China (including
Hong Kong), India, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and
other countries in Southeast Asia, primarily under the Steelcase brand with
an emphasis on freestanding furniture systems, storage and seating solutions.
We sell directly and through approximately 50 independent dealer locations to
end-use customers. Our end-use customers tend to be larger multinational or
regional companies spread across a broad range of industries and are located
in both mature and emerging markets. Our competition in Asia Pacific is fragmented
and includes large global competitors as well as many regional and local manufacturers.
Designtex primarily sells textiles and wall covering products specified by architects
and designers directly to end-use customers through a direct sales force primarily
in
North America.
PolyVision manufactures ceramic steel surfaces for use in multiple applications
but primarily for sale to third-party fabricators and distributors to create
static whiteboards and chalkboards sold in the primary and secondary education
markets globally.