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• Twenty-nine years after becoming the first major international workplace furniture manufacturer to enter India, Haworth is expanding its manufacturing footprint in Chennai with a second facility underway to support its global portfolio.

• The company's India journey is underpinned by global quality standards, responsible production, sustainability and long-term investment in the communities it serves.

In 1997, when few global furniture brands saw India as anything more than a market to sell into, Haworth opened its doors here. Twenty-nine years later, the chairs and desks in some of the country's largest workplaces are not imported. They are built forty kilometres outside Chennai, by an Indian team, to the same specifications Haworth applies anywhere in the world.

That shift from 'selling in India' to 'building in India' is the story of Haworth's presence in the country, and it did not happen in a single announcement.

“India is one of our prime growth engines as the country embraces more and more technology and technology enabled services. The GCC's have further heightened the need for prime office spaces that enable innovation and help improve productivity. The talent that India has to offer is unparalleled. This current generation also provides us huge insights to the emerging sphere of work and workplaces. We look to further democratising these insights through our products and services. The growth of our India manufacturing footprint is all in that direction. We aspire to not only meet the Made in India aspirations of the Corporate sector as also of the Government but also look to exporting product from India.” said, Praveen Rawal, Vice President Sales, Asia Pacific, Haworth.

Haworth entered India in 1997 as the first major international office furniture manufacturer to enter the market. Manufacturing followed in 2005 with a seating facility in Pune, the first such investment by a multinational in this category. Workstation production began near Chennai in 2011, and in 2014 the company consolidated everything into its own plant at Sriperumbudur. In March 2024, it broke ground on a second factory, reinforcing India's role in Haworth's long-term manufacturing strategy.

Today, the Chennai facility spans 21,000 sq. m. and brings metal fabrication, plastic moulding, upholstery and complete workstation manufacturing under one roof, a degree of vertical integration uncommon in the category. More than 180 engineers, technicians and craftspeople work on the floor. An in-house pre-BIFMA laboratory tests products to destruction before they are cleared for customers, which means a chair built in Sriperumbudur is validated in Sriperumbudur.

Manufacturing in India reflects Haworth’s commitment to combining global design standards, engineering excellence, and local insight to create solutions that truly meet the needs of the market,” said Manish Khandelwal, Managing Director, Haworth India. “Every solution we build is shaped through close collaboration with our customers, designed for the realities of India’s workforce, and crafted to the same quality standards that define Haworth around the world.

Work on Haworth's second Chennai factory, located near the existing plant at Sriperumbudur, is currently under way. Once completed, it will double the space of current operations and serve as a hub for producing key Haworth products, reducing reliance on imports, fulfilling export demand and optimising delivery schedules across India and the wider Asia Pacific region. A facility originally built to supply India is now expanding to supply well beyond it.

India-manufactured Haworth products today support some of the country's most demanding workplace projects, including Synopsys' 42,000 sq. m. Bengaluru campus for over 3,000 engineering, research and design employees, as well as a global insurance group's first Global Capability Centre in India at Thiruvananthapuram.

The company's India-made seating, tables and desks are certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards under IS 17631:2022 and IS 17633:2022. The Chennai plant runs on 100% renewable energy through on-site solar generation and Energy Attribute Certificates and operates on a zero-waste-to-landfill basis. Across Haworth's portfolio, more than 70% of products hold BIFMA Level 3 certification and 83% of products by sales carry third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations.

Beyond manufacturing, Haworth has partnered with Sevalya since 2020 to support education, healthcare, clean water access, renewable energy and village development across rural Tamil Nadu. 

“Nearly thirty years in a market teaches you something,” Khandelwal added. “You stop asking what you can take from it, and start asking what you can build in it. That is the only reason we are still here, and still growing.”