The Muscatine company that became a Fortune 500 leader in office furniture and hearths.
HNI began in 1944 in Muscatine, Iowa, as The Home-O-Nize Company, founded by C. Maxwell Stanley and partners to make metal products and, soon, office furniture under the HON brand.
Under longtime leader Stanley M. Howe the company grew into one of the country's largest office-furniture makers, and later a leader in home hearth products through Hearth & Home Technologies.
HNI turned a small Iowa river town into the headquarters of a Fortune 500 manufacturer, employing generations of Muscatine-area workers and pioneering employee-ownership and lean-manufacturing practices.
Co-founder C. Maxwell Stanley was also a noted engineer and philanthropist whose Stanley Foundation promoted world peace and global governance.
HNI Corporation is based in Muscatine, Iowa. Fortune 500 (NYSE: HNI); a global maker of office furniture and fireplaces, based in Muscatine
1944.
C. Maxwell Stanley — co-founder (1944); engineer and philanthropist
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