TORRANCE, Calif., June 16, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- As a follow-up to last year's introduction of the affordable, ergonomically contoured ZUMA(r) classroom furniture collection -- which continues to register new sales at a record-breaking pace -- Virco's (AMEX:VIR) sustainable, supportive and classically styled ZUMAfrd(tm) line has just been honored with a Best of NeoCon(r) 2005 Silver Award for design excellence at America's most prestigious contract furniture trade show.
ZUMAfrd features seats, backrests and worksurfaces made from Fortified Recycled Wood(tm), enabling models in this product series to contain 40-50% renewable materials (wood and agricultural fibers) and 65-75% post-consumer/post-industrial recycled-content material. This highly sustainable, 98% recyclable furniture line for intermediate schools, high schools and college and university environments includes a 4-leg classroom chair, a reverse cantilever chair, and a 4-leg chair-desk combo unit.
With proper care and use, the service life of ZUMAfrd furniture exceeds standard depreciation schedules by several orders of magnitude. Even more significantly, this product collection gives educators the option of "closing the loop" by recycling suitable materials from their out-of-service furniture through Virco's new, in-house Take-Back Program, which transforms their old components into the Fortified Recycled Wood that's used in ZUMAfrd.
Designed by the acclaimed team of Peter Glass and Bob Mills, ZUMAfrd features important ergonomic details found in the original ZUMA line, including comfortably sculpted backrests, supportive seats with gently sloping fronts, and spacious bowfront worksurfaces. Glass and Mills worked with Virco's engineering team to combine proprietary chemistry with innovative mold design and process control, enabling ZUMAfrd's ergonomically contoured components to transcend the basic linear shapes of traditional compression-molded classroom furniture.
Aesthetically speaking, ZUMAfrd's classic combination of clean lines and balanced contours will enhance any classroom setting, as will a deliciously intriguing 17-color palette -- including chocolate, papaya, apple, fuchsia, pink, coral and natural -- that elegantly highlights the reprocessed-material particles included in ZUMAfrd's Fortified Recycled Wood.
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