A rich history built on a foundation of innovation and invention
when Harry Sebel left England and landed in Australia. Soon after his arrival he was producing the well-known Mobo toys, and a new furniture range based around the innovative Stak-a-Bye chair. Within a few short years Harry made his mark in his newly adopted country.
A true inventor, pioneering plastic chair moulding during those years, he turned furniture design on its head. With a perfect balance of form, function, and affordability, Harry made great design and quality furniture available to everyone and millions of his iconic chairs were bought and loved around the globe.
He was so successful, that in the late Sixties, the decision was made to drop the toy side of the business and focus on the ever-evolving furniture range.
Harry was an engineering genius, and in 1974, he transformed seating by becoming the first manufacturer in the world to produce a monobloc plastic moulded chair known as the Integra. Designed by Charles Furey & Associates for Sebel, the Integra chair is a truly iconic design. On exhibit at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum, it won the Australian Design Award in 1977 and has been hugely popular ever since due to its classic design, strength, and durability. This total classic is still widely used today in behavioural institutions, healthcare, hospitality, leisure centres, construction, and mining sites all over the world, and has never been out of production.
He backed that up by being the first to replace wooden chairs in schools with Polypropylene, with millions of students sitting on our Postura chairs every day, making them the most popular but also the most copied school chair in the world.
Harry's secret? Clever design, solid engineering and quality materials all the way. He kept it simple but made it smart. And that’s exactly what we do today.
Harry Sebel and his products became total Aussie legends and we intend to keep on creating legends in the making.
1953 Stak-A-Bye Chair. The fist chair produced in the Sebel factory. A great example of early industrial design.
1953 - Charles Furey designed the iconic polypropylene stacking Furey chair
1973 - The enduring and iconic Furey-designed Hobnob chair was introduced into clubs and hotels
1973 - The world's first one-piece moulded plastic chair was invented. Still in production, over 4 million Integra chairs have been sold worldwide
The Integra Armchair - also a one-piece moulded plastic chair
One of Sebel's early mass seating products, Mojo
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