On the heels of news that Herman Miller now owns a majority of Hay, the upstart Danish furniture and ancillary product company, the industry might wonder what the brand brings to the office furniture giant. Plenty, it turns out.

That's because HAY is more than just another European brand gobbled up by an American office furniture company. It brings distinct advantages to Herman Miller's overall portfolio and adds to its design chops as well.

HAY is cool, hits a price point rarely found in Herman Miller's portfolio and its founders — who will remain on with the brand — are on the cutting edge of design that goes well beyond the world of office furniture.

R.J. Stelter, vice president of elements at Herman Miller, said the company is proud of its HAY acquisition (and others) because they all have those same characteristics of problem solving, design, high quality products, sustainability and a commitment to operational excellence.

“So (the HAY acquisition) is a natural fit to the point where when you talk with (company founders) Rolf and Mette Hay, they talk about how Ray and Charles Eames were their inspiration and that they were very, very passionate about finding the right partner for North America that fit with their values and their focus on design and design for the masses,” he said. “So that's more kind of at the values and the kind of brand level, but as far as when you get into actually putting together a floor plate for a customer, it fits really well with our other products.”

The ability to blend HAY with Herman Miller's other brands creates endless possibilities, he said. That was shown at NeoCon, where Herman Miller highlighted one setting that used an Eames table, two Eames shell chairs and two HAY About a Chair chairs that looked perfectly natural sitting together.

“So you could see there some of our most iconic products with our newest, freshest designs, and they integrated beautifully,” he said. “You get this ability to mix and match so that it feels like a customer space that talks about how they work and their brand versus looking like a Herman Miller showroom. It fits in really seamlessly from a design and aesthetic perspective. I'd say the other part that was really important, we've had a big focus on ancillary as the floor plate's been changing over the last five years. As we got into it with the existing family and were working with customers, we've had a lot of great choices, could get to most spots, but we were missing that what we'd call accessible or a democratic design price point.”

Hitting that lower price point is critically important as Herman Miller and the industry watch an influx of residential players move into the contract space. HAY is not designed to be a substitution for a piece from Herman Miller, Geiger or naughtone, but it's meant to compete with the likes of Restoration Hardware, Blu Dot, West Elm and CB2. HAY competes at that level, but with contract quality and Herman Miller standing behind it from a quality and an operational perspective.

It also gives Herman Miller dealers access to the HAY brand in a way that is familiar and easy to specify and order, Stelter said. It was important for Herman Miller that the HAY acquisition feel like a product line addition, not a brand integration.

“We've set it up just like we are launching the Cosm chair or launching a new workstation product,” Stelter said. “And so for our dealers, it's really simple in terms of the visualization tools, the specification tools, the price books, the way they search and select product. It feels very much like a Herman Miller add even though it's an entirely new brand. That was based on the learnings of other acquisitions where it was less integrated, and it took us longer to really launch and ramp that through the channel.”

That ease of access for dealers is a big reason why the ramp up for HAY has been even faster than Herman Miller anticipated in its first year with the brand. Herman Miller has created a holistic program from specification to pricing to creating a package of products on an entire floor plate.

The design story is important as well. Rolf and Mette Hay are being retained as the creative leads for the company. Rolf Hay leads the furniture offering, and Mette Hay is in charge of accessories and the color palette curation. The Hays have worked with many of the same designers as Herman Miller and some of its other brands like Maharam and Magis.

“There is great ability to collaborate and to help them as we look across our brands and organize our product organization so that it's leveraging the best across everyone and having even more divide and conquer in terms of a global product team with a global viewpoint that's deciding how to make sure we're getting the most from all these design studios across the globe,” Stelter said.

The Hays also give Herman Miller strong allies in Europe. HAY is one of the hottest brands in Europe, and the HAY brand has a huge social media following there. The Hays have been ranked as some of the most creative people in the world. That can only help Herman Miller as it tries to position itself as the expert in modern living.

The iconic design duo has created a lot of partnerships outside the furniture industry. The couple redesigned IKEA's iconic blue and yellow Frakta bag. HAY also designed a limited edition Sonos One smart speaker and is working with fast casual restaurant Sweetgreen on a redesign.

HAY, of course, also bolsters Herman Miller's residential offering. The residential portion of the HAY business is focused on bringing an accessible price point and focus on modern living to a group Herman Miller wasn't reaching before, mainly through its Design Within Reach retail locations.

“This expands our offering on the residential side to help us get to a more youthful audience,” Stelter said. “So that's a big learning. I'd say the other piece is they use their accessories, their lighting, their home goods and a lot of that to really help amplify the brand message. And so that's something that we continue to learn even in our contract showrooms and our styling approach that has been really helpful for us so far. I was at the HAY studio opening in Chicago a couple weeks back, and I mean it's really impressive. They've got three sides of glass that's right on a key corner in Chicago, and it's super inviting and it's the accessories and the warmth and the way they've layered it that invites people in.”