Trump Tariffs Force Howard Miller, Hekman Furniture to Close

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have begun to shrink the furniture industry, taking with it two historic names: the Howard Miller Company and Hekman, two Michigan-born firms steeped in history.

Press reports indicated that Howard Miller, which took over Hekman in 1983, will begin to halt operations, with plans to close by next year. Since the dawn of the housing market downturn, Howard Miller’s sales suffered. Higher tariffs were an added hurdle, resulting in unsustainable costs for materials and components, according to various local news outlets.

A representative for the company declined to comment. The West Michigan Chamber of Commerce confirmed the announcement on Friday via a media post on its website.

In an interview with West Michigan’s Fox17, the chamber’s president Jodi Owczarski said she “gasped when she heard the news.”

“It’s easy to watch the news and hear things out of Washington and think that’s happening far away, but these policies have implications. As the tariffs get put in place, it got increasingly difficult for them to be able to meet the needs that they had for production,” Owczarski commented.

The company’s workforce totals 195 workers across four manufacturing facilities, with one in Zeeland, one in Traverse City, Mich., and two in North Carolina.

Howard Miller Company, located in Zeeland, Mich., was founded in 1926 by Howard C. Miller, son of contract furniture legend Herman Miller, a forefather of MillerKnoll. During the 1940s Howard C. Miller rose to the fore with his collectible, avant-garde clock designs. In the 1960s the firm began to develop grandfather clocks and in 1989, they added curio cabinets.

Howard Miller’s current president and chief executive officer, Howard J. “Buzz” Miller, is Howard Miller’s grandson.

The Hekman Furniture Company was started in 1922 in Grand Rapids, Mich., by brothers Henry, John and Jelle Hekman and their friend James Boonstra, an experienced furniture production engineer.

The area around Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa, where Howard Miller and Hekman are based, has been a heartland for upscale American design and furniture since the 19th century. The influx of Dutch immigrants starting from the 1800s is a major factor establishing the area around Zeeland and Holland, where furniture peers Haworth and MillerKnoll are also based. In March, MillerKnoll’s chief executive officer Andi Owen also addressed tariff concerns and said the company’s game plan involved price increases and increasing efficiency throughout the supply chain.

In June, MillerKnoll, which owns  Design Within Reach, Holly Hunt, textile firm Maharam and international brands like Denmark’s Muuto and Hay and U.K.-based NaughtOne, cut the ribbon on a 12,000-square-foot archive space located at its Michigan Design Yard Headquarters in the city of Holland, drawing the international community to the area in celebration of America’s midcentury design legacy.