What’s the Future of Height Adjustable Tables?
SiS Ergo, the Company Credited with the First Ever Product, Has Some Answers
FOR THE COMPANY THAT PIONEERED THE FIRST HEIGHT-ADJUSTABLE TABLE 50 YEARS AGO, THE FUTURE LOOKS JUST AS PROMISING TODAY AS IT DID THEN.
by Emily Clingman
Have you ever wondered about the origin of the standing desk? It’s a simple concept, yet the height-adjustable table has steered the modern office into a new era. Danish company SiS Ergo is responsible for that. In 1970, aggravated that workers needed two tables at different heights — lower for seated desk work and higher for typing while standing — SiS came up with one table design to accommodate all the tasks. “Why not make two in one,”
said Claus Hansson, SiS Ergo principal owner who bought the company in 2008. “It was a simple pin and post adjustment. And at that time, it was not about needing to stand for health.”
For many years, the adjustable table sold exclusively as a typewriter table. Then, at one point, IBM ordered 30 of them for the purpose of giving employees choices for movement at their workstations. In the 1980s, SiS USA was introduced in the states. Since that time, the company has quietly continued its tradition of developing products with high design, easy customization and quick delivery — three traits noticeably absent, observed SiS, from other manufacturers who offer height-adjustable table products today. One company taking notice of SiS was Innovative Office Products (IOP).
In February, SiS Ergo was acquired by IOP, the parent company to HAT Contract, another leading height-adjustable table provider. IOP’s other brands, Innovative,
ErgoTech and CompuCaddy, manufacture ergonomic product solutions for office, health care and other specialty workspaces.
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