Imm Cologne 2009 Bolsters Industry Optimism Amid Downturn
2009/06/05 | By Steve Chuang
Despite being known as a key venue for deal-making, Imm Cologne was not immune to the ongoing global economic downturn, hence suffering a slight fall in the attendee number, but still attracted over 100,000 local and overseas visitors, who came to view the offerings by 1,057 exhibitors from 49 countries, according to official estimates.
The business potential of Imm Cologne 2009 was not dampened significantly by the modest fall in the visitor number-with ample sales having been made-according to Gerald Boese, CEO of the Koelnmesse Executive Board. "I am convinced that under the prevailing circumstances we have had a good furniture trade fair. For seven days, the realistic optimism of the industry was reflected in the exhibition hall," he said.
Echoing the upbeat mood, Dirk-Uwe Klaas, Managing Director of the Association of the German Furniture Industry, said: "The high level of order activity and the many trade buyers from all parts of the globe confirm our optimistic forecasts that 2009 will be a good year for furnishings, despite the global economic crisis."
Living up to its role as trend-setter, Imm Cologne 2009 revealed inside two specially set up rooms containing furniture that captivate the four dominant trends for the near future: "Extra Much," "Near and Far," "Tepee Culture" and "Re-run Time."
"Extra Much" is achieving extremes in furniture materials, shapes and construction via revolutionary production technologies; "Near and Far" punctuates the importance of design as self-sustaining just as nature works; "Tepee Culture" is developing each piece of furniture to have its own place and an inherent order impressing users more directly; and "Re-run Time" has designers concentrate on stability instead of change, refining traditional shapes by reducing them to their essence to highlight the basic ideas.
Honoring the Best
Having built a global reputation in the furniture exhibition sector for attracting cutting-edge designers also gives the organizer of Imm Cologne the credibility to hold one of the most coveted design competitions in the industry: the "Interior Innovation Award" this year awarded 25 products, five of which were honored with the "Best of the Best" titles, including Glas Italia's OSCAR table, Plunk's MYTO chair and e15's SH05 Arie shelf.
Not being a prize-winner is not a judgment on the other exhibitors at Imm Cologne 2009, for plenty of emerging design concepts were seen in the pieces displayed by the thousands of suppliers spread across 260,000 square meters in the 18 venues.
White was still as common as the snow that fell across Europe this winter at the Koelnmesse, with the color undoubtedly being mainstream at this year's Imm Cologne, a trend confirmed by Michael Schutt, marketing manager of Paul Serafini GmbH & Co., KG., a leading German supplier of wall units and furniture.
Schutt's sentiment towards white obviously differs from that of most Asians: "White is a clear color and conveys warm-heartedness," he said. "Also, it denotes innocence of angels. In other words, it makes good sense that a color able to relax people would become the hottest trend in the furniture industry...especially when people nowadays get anxious and nervous easily."
Female-oriented Designs
Designing furniture with personalized features and colors for women has been a growing trend in the European furniture sector in recent years, which continues unabated in 2009. One maker tapping such trend is Bretz Wohntraume GmbH, who displayed a line of high-end sofas at Imm Cologne 2009.
Clearly sensitive to women's needs for personalized features and colors, Bretz displayed the Don Corleone, Tiziana, Marilyn and Cloud 7 series sofas, with the Tiziana line available in black, pure white and purple, and featuring manually-stitched stripes and contrasting colors for visual attraction.
Established in 1895, Bretz is known as a maker of sofas in Germany who turns out masterpieces in the European market, a veteran insisting on hand craftsmanship for better custom design and stitched patterns, according to Britta Bretz, Customer Service Manager. Being solidly positioned in the luxury segment shelters the sofa maker from the recession, she said.
Asked why personalized, feminine furniture designs are going mainstream, Bretz answered: "European women are getting richer in recent years from working at home instead of just being housewives, so they can afford personalized furniture." "Above all and unlike Asian women, they decide on furniture purchases, in many cases without even having to discuss with their husbands," she added.
Montana Mobler A/S., a Denmark-based furniture maker established in 1982, also pursued the female-oriented trend and displayed a series of colorful cabinets, TV cabinets and shelves with modular units for easy installation that are female-friendly. With a somewhat enigmatic slogan "Women Making Room for Personality," the firm boldly adopted warm, deep colors to boost visual appeal that effectively drew intense attention from visitors.
Apparently the global financial fallout has not rattled the common sense among European furniture makers; after all ecological health still outweighs the fiscal one, for the El Nino can render any vacation budget worthless. Eco-friendly furniture continues to be a centerpiece in the industry, a trend shown by a number of exhibitors at Imm Cologne 2009.
Since its establishment in 2007, Qui est Paul of France has made ample headway in its R&D of furniture made of rotomoulding or rotational-molding PE or polyethylene, according to Nicolas Le Nocher, designer of the firm: "Such recyclable material is becoming increasingly popular in Europe."
Nocher introduced one of the newest collections debuted this year-Translation Armchair, a piece with subtle, well-defined gentle curves and featuring ergonomic engineering. Completely of PE, the chair can be produced in any RAL color, a color matching system widely used in Europe, and is surprisingly comfortable and quite durable for either outdoor or indoor. He said that PE is recyclable, and enhanced durability makes the chair material-efficient. The other new, equally green pieces included Sliced Chair, Rock Garden Planter and Organic Lounge Chair.
Vondom from Spain is also an eco-friendly furniture maker, unveiling its JUT series of recyclable PE-resin chairs, tables and planters at the show. Michelle Poon, the firm's marketing representative, said it is the cutting-edge rotational molding technology that sets Vondom's furniture apart from others, a technique that takes longer in production but assures enhanced durability and lightweight.
The Spanish furniture maker also believes in multi-functionality: its PE-made planter has integrated water-recycling sprinkler and energy-saving LED (light emitting diode) lighting, according to Poon, adding, "Although Spain's furniture market is stalling currently, such green products are still popular with local residents from the low end to the high."
The star of Imm Cologne 2009 was perhaps the MYTO cantilever chair, developed by Plank of Italy, a veteran chair-maker founded in 1893: a double "Best of the Best" winner for the "Best Item" and "Material Innovation" in the Interior Innovation Award.
Michael Plank, general manager of Plank, said that MYTO is made of the special plastic Ultradur(r) High Speed, already eco-efficiency labeled in Europe, is completely recyclable, not-toxic, UL-resistant and thermal-resistant. Besides, Ultradur has the right viscosity for single-injection-making MYTO a unibody chair with perforated seat and back. "The chair has been well-received all around Europe since its debut in 2008," Plank said, "Because the product perfectly meets European need for compact, practical and green furniture."
Nature-loving Furniture Makers
Whether Europeans in general deserve their reputation as tree-hugging naturists who embrace co-existence with other life forms, their love of nature and natural materials was widely expressed at Imm Cologne 2009.
The furniture maker "IGN Design AG" from Switzerland, a land still known for pristine natural beauty, may have set the standard at the German exhibition for being a totally green designer, maker of wooden furniture. Charles Romeo Kobelt, both CEO and chief designer, faithfully adheres to his corporate motto "One tree for one piece of furniture," implying that the wooden raw material is not to be squandered. IGN Design farms its own trees, carefully dries and processes logs, and then precisely crafts finished products with minimal wastage. Such methodology may be time-consuming but is the best way to identify quality.
Kobelt introduced one of IGN's proudest pieces: the Card Table, touting that the wooden uni-body tabletop has been finely finished for excellent feel; while the geometric forms of the metal legs complement the simplistic design. In addition, he said that the Pin Rock series table combines a tabletop of high-grade solid wood and one of the oldest building materials available-concrete-which have been formed into conic legs that enhance the overall brevity in design, as well as providing solid support.
The Swiss furniture maker also shares most insiders' view in Europe that the global recession has not diminished his company's optimism for this year, for "mid-level demand has gone but not so at the top of the pyramid."
Another eco-friendly exhibitor was De Vorm of the Netherlands, who debuted its newest "Extrude Me" collection of chairs and tables. Inspired by nature when creating the collection, Annet Neugebauer, design and sales representative, said the aim was to build furniture that is structurally durable, recyclable and relaxing. The solution is to use specially-extruded wood to turn out structures that are thin and light, yet tough and comfortable as well as feature greens and browns seen in nature.
One of the biggest draws at the show was TEAM 7 Naturlich Wohnen GmbH of Austria, whose main appeal is "naturally made furniture." This leading furniture brand in Europe is known for its line of health-enhancing, antistatic, antibacterial and metal-free bedroom and kitchen furniture.
Jubilant to celebrate TEAM 7's 50th anniversary this year, Dr. Georg Emprechtinger, CEO of the firm, personally introduced the firm's award-winning Girado series dining table and chairs, which won the Reddot Design Award in 2007 and Merit Winner of Interior Design and Best of Year Award in 2008. The Girado series table is made of naturally-processed solid wood, finished with herb oil, has an extendable tabletop, while the chairs feature unique linear profile and streamlined, open backrests. The series evokes a touch of nature in the house, according to Emprechtinger.
"In fact, Austria's furniture industry is also good at designing and manufacturing, though many think the nation is merely sandwiched between Italy and Germany that sells their furniture," stressed the TEAM 7 chief. The Austrian firm's recent achievements and 50 years of dedication to its nature-oriented philosophy are disproving such popular misperception.
Fewer but Stronger
The show management conceded that Imm Cologne 2009 was swept by the financial tsunami, resulting in lower number of visitors, especially from emerging Asian countries, who would have contributed to the growth of the show. However, not all Asian makers stayed away, with a few Chinese and Singaporean exhibitors putting on impressive displays to both wow visitors as well as dispel a negative stereotype.
Oldies but Goodies
Mainland Chinese exhibitors stole the show among Asian counterparts at Imm Cologne 2009, with none so striking to European buyers as OPAL Furniture Company, who successfully rejuvenated centuries-old pieces to not only differentiate from western rivals, but also shatter the stereotype that Chinese furniture makers are only notorious copycats.
Zhu Xiaojie, founder and chief designer at OPAL as well as deputy director of the China Furniture Design Committee, unveiled a spate of furniture, including the Rose Chair, Capital Chair, standing cabinets, and Flying Sky Table, which are mainly made of Zingana wood, a high quality wood common in South Africa, and brimming with classical Chinese styles.
Showing OPAL's knack for modernizing a Ming-dynasty classic, Zhu introduced the Rose Chair, one typically for scholars in the past, which has been updated: instead of being bulky and solid wood, the Rose Chair combines metal and wood, with streamlined, compact design and adopts slender 16mm diameter tubing as supports that can surprisingly carry 300kg.
"I am giving new life to classical Chinese furniture," Zhu said. "The Chinese should be born furniture makers since wooden furniture has been part of Chinese culture for over 5,000 years." Confessing humbly that many Chinese suppliers are globally infamous for copycatting, Zhu said: "In China, we are trying to educate local makers to tap the abundant cultural backgrounds to design furniture, rather than resort to imitation to compete worldwide."
Even more important than OPAL's image-reversing feat at the Imm Cologne 2009 is that the maker was the only Chinese furniture exhibitor approved to set up a showcase in Hall 10, which was filled by virtually all European firms. The organizer allowed only furniture makers engaged in innovative production, a criteria that explicitly confirmed Zhu's creative design expertise, as well as showed European peers that mainland Chinese furniture makers are capable of originality, perhaps paving the way for others from China.
Industry Branding for Singapore
With a collective effort pronounced in huge red-lettered banners draping from the ceilings of the Koelnmesse, the Singaporean furniture sector's message was "Singapore Mozaic," the title of the Merlion State's industry branding project, the first adopted by the nation to bolster the development of its furniture industry.
Tan Soon-kim, Deputy Director of Business Services and Lifestyle Divisions of International Enterprise Singapore, an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and KODA Ltd.'s executive director Koh Jyh-eng were interviewed to talk about the government-sponsored industry branding project.
"In consideration of globalization and cost efficiency, the Singaporean government is encouraging local furniture companies to move production lines abroad; instead, keep R&D resources domestically," Tan said, "To help these Singapore-headquartered companies boost competitiveness and gain ground globally, the government hence initiated the industry branding project."
"A series of strict criteria are set to test local furniture makers; only excellent ones are qualified to join the project. Under the Singapore Mozaic umbrella, they enjoy a stronger brand credibility endorsed officially to earn trust of foreign buyers," Tan said. "Also, official resources are invested to promote the industry brand at such important international trade fairs, which can more effectively impress, inform foreign buyers."
Echoing Tan's words, Koh said that 31 local furniture makers have joined the project, including his company KODA, a large supplier of dining room and related furniture in Singapore with plants in Malaysia, Vietnam and China, adding that Singaporean makers are good at balancing price against quality to achieve operating efficiency, but such advantage may not be enough to differentiate Singaporean makers from rivals. "So, the project helps to raise global presence for local makers, especially when the Singaporean furniture industry's competitiveness is gradually diminishing."
While the global downturn simmers, the success of Imm Cologne 2009, besides bolstering industry confidence and optimism, has set the stage for the next fair slated for January 18 to 24, 2010 at the same venue, where global buyers and furniture professionals will again gather to see the newest in home fashions and creature comforts.