USM is a Swiss furniture manufacturer founded in 1885 by Ulrich Schärer as an ironmongery and metalworking workshop in Münsingen (Canton of Bern) — the USM acronym stands for the founder's initials and the location name. Headquarters and production remain in Münsingen to this day. The company is family-owned and managed in the third and fourth generation. The first half of the 20th century was defined by window fittings and precision metalwork. The decisive transformation came in 1961 when Paul Schärer Jr. commissioned Swiss architect Fritz Haller (1924–2012) to design a new modular factory complex — and then jointly developed with him a furniture system following the same modular logic.

The result is the USM Haller System: three basic elements (chrome-plated brass ball connectors, chrome-plated steel tubes, powder-coated metal panels) that can be combined in any direction and reconfigured at any time. Patent: 1965. Series production began in 1969 with the first order from the Rothschild Bank in Paris. Included in the permanent collection of MoMA New York: 2001. Greenguard certification: 2007. Cradle to Cradle certification for USM Haller and USM Kitos. Extensions include USM Haller E (wireless light and power integration) and USM Haller Lock C (electromechanical locking via app). More than 500 employees, subsidiaries in the USA, France, Germany, UK, Japan and China. 70 countries, over 900 sales partners. Project references: The Gherkin London, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris (Frank Gehry). Limited editions with Supreme, Rimowa, Ghetto Gastro.

USM is the reference system for architects and workplace planners seeking a generationally reconfigurable, MoMA-permanent-collection furniture system for office and home — manufactured in Switzerland, certified to the strictest sustainability standards, with a reference history in landmark buildings worldwide.