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Home > Focus On
DESIGN AND NEW MATERIALS FOR THE CHAIR DISTRICT
Rome (Ign) - The crisis can be fought with innovation. This is what Italian chair producers realised and immediately took steps to achieve. For some time the sector has been going through a period of deep crisis, which in 2005 saw exports fall 10% on the previous year. This was a problem that could be dealt with only by taking appropriate steps. And the Italian chair industry did so by beginning to focus on product innovation, following two precise approaches. The first was the choice of materials: plastic and metals instead of wood. This made it possible to lower raw material costs and also tied in with the second approach, namely design innovation.
Everything started with the chair district of Udine: this area in the region of Friuli, only partly affected by the crisis, accounts for 30% of world chair production. The majority of the companies are found in a "triangle" of towns (Corno di Rosazzo, Manzano and San Giovanni) on the banks of the river Natisone. Their total production - for the residential, hotel, contract and office sectors - exceeds 44 million items per year, equivalent to 80% of Italian and 50% of European production. The range on offer is vast, and 80% of the turnover is accounted for by exports. As well as the production of chairs there are tables and furnishing accessories, a more limited range but which nevertheless completes the overall offer. Almost 1200 companies operate in the district, and are all highly specialised in the individual phases of the production process, from component production, to product assembly and finishing. Of these, around 250 present finished products on the market, providing 4000 jobs out of a total of over 14,000 .
Thanks also to Promosedia (http://www.promosedia.it/), a consortium of 95 producers, and to the local Chambers of commerce, the district in Friuli has begun to develop its own distribution network, encouraging products with a highly innovative content and progressively delocalising the initial processing phase in Croatia. This has been backed up, as said, by the massive use of design, the growing use of alternative materials to wood such as plastic and metal, and the consequent extension of the production range, which now also includes beds and sofas. These strategies of change over the last 10 years have allowed some of the major companies to achieve average annual growth of 9%, even in these times of crisis. Promosedia also organises the International Chair Show, whose last edition attracted 144 Italian companies, both large and small, brought together by technological and aesthetic quality.
But other businesses, in addition to those in Friuli, have also managed to make a mark. An ideal example is Bericoplast from Brendola, in the province of Vicenza, which won the contract to supply chairs for the press gallery and media centres of all the German stadiums used in the 2006 World Cup. This was a major success for a small company (around 30 employees and €5m profits in 2005), which still has great potential for growth.
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