How do you start a seating company? An even better question would be why would you want to start a seating company in the early 1990’s when there were already plenty of seating companies around?
Al Agramonte, our company’s founder, left Cuba as a young man to escape a new political regime led by Fidel Castro. He came to the US with literally the clothes on his back, so working hard to earn money for food, clothes and shelter was the only path he knew to take.
Al started in the furniture industry some 40 years ago creating a wood case goods company. As that segment evolved Al and his wife Patricia found themselves in need of a reinvention. A company they worked with approached them and asked if they made seating. They said they could. And they did. In their garage. When all you know is how to work hard and make the best of what you have, that is where you start. Because Al and Patricia knew you have to be financially strong to grow and wanted to build their new company to be financially independent and strong. And they did.
Al knew he could build a better chair to answer the question “why start a seating company when there are so many out there already”. He could listen to the customer, work with ergonomists and build chairs which would work for them.From this Ergonomic Comfort Design (ECD) was born and grew.