It began with two people and a belief: every company deserves the standard of service the industry saves for its biggest names. Howard’s parents opened Harkel on that conviction and built it the slow way, one delivered promise at a time.
Howard grew up inside it, learned every corner of the work, and chose to carry it forward, not as a monument, but as a working promise. Today Harkel is a team of more than 40 people furnishing the Greater Toronto Area’s workplaces, healthcare environments, and learning spaces, and the conviction has never changed: whether the order is one chair or one hospital, the client in front of us is the biggest name we have.
The founder's values became the company's operating system.
One small showroom in 1979. A partner to the Greater Toronto Area ever since.
Howard Klerer
THE founder's STORY
Howard Klerer, Owner & CEO
Howard grew up watching his parents keep promises for a living, and he has spent his career doing the same. He is the first call for many of Harkel’s longest relationships, the voice clients trust when the stakes are high, and the reason a handshake here still means what it did. Ask him what he sells and he won’t say furniture. He’ll say certainty, on opening day and every day after.
01
Integrity · Our word is our work.
Our Core Values
at the heart of harkel
The nurse on her feet for twelve hours. The student who needs to focus. The employee whose chair shouldn’t hurt by three o’clock.
Every selection, layout, and material begins with who will use it and what they need.
02
Human-Centered · Every space starts with the people in it.
From a first office, a single classroom, or a two-chair clinic to the prestigious 1.2 million square foot Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, the standard of care is identical.
03
Customer-Centric · Built around you, not around us.
Internal coordination meetings. Safety nets that catch problems early. Crews that check every piece, and leave it ready. You rarely see this work; you feel it, because everything just works.
04
Attention to Detail · what sets us apart.
Marc keeps the promise operational.
Every order, every drawing, every delivery date runs through systems he has tuned for years, which is why installations land inside live hospitals and short summer windows with calm, on-schedule precision.
Keeping the legacy in the family works because Marc treats every client’s deadline like the family’s name is on it. Because it is.
harkel leadership
Howard has led Harkel for decades, and clients still call him first. He knows the buildings, the boards, and the people by name, and he still walks sites the week installations land.
The standard everyone at Harkel works to is the one he set: care first, stay after, and let the work speak. He trained in design at Sheridan College, worked the warehouse as a student, and after almost five decades still says he doesn’t think of it as work. These days the part he loves most is mentoring the team to be the best in the business.
Away from the showroom, he serves on the boards of the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce and the Jewish Community Centre in Vaughan.
Howard Klerer
ceo / owner
Marc Klerer
vice president - operations
'Advisor' is not a job title at Harkel. It is the promise.
One advisor carries your project from the first call to opening day, and their job was never to sell you furniture. It is to listen until they understand what you are actually responsible for: the budget you have to defend, the deadline you cannot move, and the people who will live in the space.
Then they walk ahead of you. They price the honest options, catch problems while they are still small, and turn a thousand decisions into one plan you can approve with confidence. You remain the hero of your project; your advisor exists to make sure it ends the way you promised it would. And when opening day has come and gone, the same person still picks up the phone.
your Advisors
Andrew K.
sales advisor
Andrew is the schools specialist: principals, administrators, and growing companies planning their next move.
Lynn G.
sales advisor
Lynn guides healthcare procurement and facility teams to the right product with straight answers.
David N.
sales advisor
Clients thank David for his patience and expertise, and for making it easy to ask for help outside your own field.
Geoff B.
sales advisor
Clients thank Geoff for knowing the products cold and staying on it until every last detail is resolved.
Irene D.
sales advisor
Irene works hand in hand with designers and office managers, keeping every detail moving.
Jason H.
sales advisor
Jason’s clients return project after project, and thank him for speed matched with accuracy.
sales advisor
Yasemin B.
For Yasemin, the work is deeper than selling furniture: it’s making sure every client knows they can count on us.
Greg A.
Greg carries a project from the first call to opening day, and clients keep his number long after the install.
sales advisor
Clients feel it... the same faces, the same standard, project after project.
People stay at Harkel for 20 and 30 years.
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Culture & Legacy
Ask Howard where the heart of the company is and he won’t point at a room. He’ll tell you it’s everyone, from the front desk to the cleaners, like a bicycle wheel: every spoke has to align, and when one doesn’t, you feel it.
The culture is the one his parents set and the company has protected ever since: no hierarchy, open doors, quarterly town halls where everyone hears where the company stands, potlucks and long-weekend barbecues, wins celebrated together and tough days carried together.
So this page belongs to all of them. The advisors you’ll meet. The Harkel Design Support Studio designers who turn measurements into plans you can walk through. The installation crews who check every piece and leave your space ready. The operations team who make a thousand details invisible. People build careers here that run twenty and thirty years, and Marc Klerer, Howard’s nephew and next in command, carries the same standard into the company’s next generation. Every one of them plays a role in your project’s success. That’s not a slogan; it’s the operating system.
Every spoke of the wheel.
The whole company
The wheel doesn’t stop at the walls. Harkel gives back to the community that built it, and the focus is children: sending kids to day camp who wouldn’t otherwise go, sponsoring minor hockey teams, and helping two young women earn their way into a college golf program. The family has always preferred to do this quietly, because for them giving was never a business strategy. It’s the same care that shows up in the spaces, showing up in the community around them. Through the Harkel Community Initiative, that commitment now has a name and a future.
Purpose beyond profit.
giving back
