The next generation wasn’t interested. What’s next for Brutzman’s 77-year store legacy

A Richland office furniture, supply and blueprint business faced an uncertain future as it entered its 77th year.

Brutzman’s Office Solutions, established in 1946, was in its third generation, with siblings Ken, Kathy and Keith at the helm.

The Brutzmans wanted to retire, but no one in the fourth generation wanted to take over.

With no family succession in place, they found an alternative.

The Brutzmans sold the furniture business, closed the supply business and kept the small blueprint operation, along with the Brutzman’s building, 2501 N. Columbia Center Blvd. The arrangement preserves the thriving parts of the company.

Furniture, the majority of its business, was sold to Boise-based Freeform, a furniture and design company, in a three-year buyout deal announced in March. It will be Freeform’s third location, after Boise and Spokane.

Freeform is leasing the building and has options to extend the lease or buy it outright. It agreed to hire most of the 11 employees, including Ken and Kathy, who will stay on during the transition.

The office supply business, already shrinking, will close down.

Freeform said it was “excited” to enter the Tri-Cities and honored to continue the Brutzman family legacy. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Ken Brutzman said the family began talking to Freeform, formerly Business Interiors of Idaho, four years ago as it contemplated a succession strategy.

Talks slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but eventually resumed.

Brutzman acknowledged a sense of urgency. Few family businesses make it to a third generation. Even fewer make it to four. Without family to succeed them, the Brutzman siblings needed a plan.

“Here I am turning 68 in a month and no succession plan,” he said.

The arrangement gives the family an ongoing relationship with the business their grandfather started shortly at the end of World War II. Notably, it lets them retire.

Back to its roots

The furniture business sale returns Brutzman’s Office Solutions to its roots as a branch office.

Hal Brutzman started in Kennewick as a branch of Henderson Office Products of Walla Walla. When the owner died, he bought the store from his widow and formally launched in 1946.

He started selling general office gear and soon added Remington Rand typewriters, along with servicing office machines. When typewriter division faded, Brutzman replaced it with other office equipment, such as movable shelving by Kardex.

It “dabbled” in greeting cards and stationery in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ken Brutzman said.

By the 1970s, the family concluded it didn’t want to be a “Saturday and Sunday” retail business. It refocused on commercial office gear, such as tables, desks and chairs, and supplies for engineers and drafters.

It added a business printing large format blueprints for architects, engineers and contractors. It has always been a small but important part of the business, said Brutzman.

The focus shifted again when Ken and his brother and sister joined their parents as they entered adulthood in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a challenging time for the office supply business.

Computers and Costco Wholesale were eating into sales and it wasn’t clear the family business could support the entire family.

Brutzman said the family realized it had to grow, or some of the “kids” would have to go find other work.

“We opted to stick together as a family,” he said.

Furniture focus

It decided to grow by focusing on office furniture. That necessitated its move from a 2,500-square-foot spot in downtown Kennewick to a 20,000-square-foot showroom on Canal Drive, near Columbia Center mall.

It became a dealer for the Haworth office furniture line and the strategy paid.

Furniture sales took off while its traditional business faded. It sold fewer bookkeeping systems as computers took over desktops.

Drafting and engineering equipment sales fell too as those customers embraced AutoCAD design systems.

“Making the switch to furniture was good for us,” Brutzman said.

The business moved again in 2000, when it relocated to North Columbia Center Boulevard. It thrived and built its own building in 2012.

“Between my brother and my sister and myself, we’ve been able to build the business through the ups and downs of the Tri-Cities over the decades,” Brutzman said.

COVID impact

Pandemic shutdowns hurt Brutzman’s as offices closed and workers went home.

Brutzman recalled panicky weeks in early 2020. Commercial sales paused, but were offset by demand for office furniture from local professionals forced to work from home.

The blueprint business remained steady and contributed to its survival. Construction stopped briefly, but Brutzman said customers for blueprints kept working, anticipating that projects would revive once the pandemic abated.

Ken Brutzman credits the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided forgivable loans to businesses to retain employees, for keeping it afloat in the early days.

The Small Business Administration made nearly 200,000 PPP loans in Washington state totaling $18.3 billion. Brutzman’s received two loans, $134,000 loan in April 2020 and $160,000 in January 2021, according to Federal Pay, which tracks the loans based on SBA data.

“But truly, if not for PPP program, we would have been in trouble. We kept everyone on payroll even though they didn’t have a thing to do,” he said.

Freeform indicated it will adjust the Brutzman’s brand in a way that respects its tenure in the market. It said the merger will benefit customers through its combined abilities and greater efficiencies and purchasing power.