Blog

Summer is a reminder of how quickly time passes. Here at Stance, it is an opportunity to pause and reflect on how much we have achieved in such a short period of time. From launching new products and making recent industry appearances, to the charitable impact and operational improvements we’ve made in just the first half of the year, I’m once again proud of our team’s laser focus on one of our core values: Excellence is a moving target.

Our small-but-mighty team continues to position itself as an industry leader in the rapidly growing healthcare furniture marketplace. In January, we secured a two-year Premier contract, continuing our status as a select furniture supplier to their network of more than 4,350 U.S. hospitals and health systems. This mutually beneficial partnership is Improving Lives by Design. Ultimately, our Premier supplier status means we support the improved experience of more patients, providers, and loved ones in healthcare facilities across the U.S. We look forward to continuing to maximize the opportunities offered through Premier and are excited to attend their Breakthrough show later this month in Texas along with some of our friends from Cronan.

Speaking of conferences, NeoCon 2024 was a success – and we enjoyed seeing many of our reps and industry friends also in attendance. We proudly launched three new products at this year’s show: the Rochester Lounge Collection, Ventura Casework, and Flora Lounge Collection, all of which came through our recent Plural acquisition; and were also excited to preview two coming-soon collections: Flo Lounge and Abrazo, set to arrive this fall. The show marked the unofficial start to a busy tradeshow season ahead; following Premier in July, Stance will attend Healthcare Facilities Symposium and HCD in the fall. Stay tuned for sneak peeks at what we have planned for these shows!

The NeoCon product launches are just a handful of several planned for this year, and I want to thank all of you for your unique roles in bringing our 2024 products to market. Whether it be new collections or thoughtful, stylish evolutions to the many finishes we offer, our team always keeps innovation top of mind. On the heels of last fall’s Nightingale Gold award win for Lotus at HCD 2023, we began the year with the addition of three new, eye-catching roto colors to start the year. Podium is another Nightingale award winner set to expand next: Look for Podium’s sleep sofa to join our lounge offering later this summer.

As always, we are continually pursuing ways to evolve our products in ways that support an improved healthcare experience for patients, care providers, and loved ones. Every day, we channel another core value as product innovators: Small things are the big things. From softer, biophilic finishes that feel more residential versus clinical, to earth-inspired tones that soothe and invite healing, Stance’s attention to details and relentless commitment to continue abandoning the industry status-quo are central to what makes us exceptional. To this end, we are looking forward to launching three new wood, thermofoil and laminate finishes later this summer: Pebble, Sand and Chestnut.  

Of course, all of this impact starts here at home, in Kitchener. It’s here that we recently reconfigured our manufacturing plant, to feature a gravity conveyor flow system that increases production and promotes transparency at all levels – including for non-production staff. The intent is to move towards a pull flow system as opposed to the current push system. This will transition us away from the current operator selection of what’s next in line, to a more process-driven schedule adherence. In short: This improvement ensures our manufacturing processes remain ahead of the curve. I’m excited to share more details about the many benefits of this investment in the coming weeks.

At the end of the day, Improving Lives by Design is an inside-out mission. And thanks to you all, the first half of this year made a big charitable impact in the community and organizations we serve. Over the past few months, our team has supported organizations including CAMH, oneRoof, and Sakura House, fund-raised enough to cover over 10,000 meals through Food Bank of Waterloo Region and helped clean up our community on our eighth-annual Earth Day.

With all of this great work, we still make time to have fun and celebrate what excites us as a team. In the spirit of summer, I invite you to look at new content on our new Stance spotlight YouTube series.

Thanks for everything you do. Have a wonderful rest of your summer – and here’s to a fantastic remainder of 2024!

Carl