European office furniture markets a natural target for overseas exporters
Top 100 list of suppliers will help Americans form strategy, says John Sacks, managing partner at JSA Consultancy Services
As the world gets smaller and the instant communications revolution continues apace, one relatively unnoticed casualty is the design individuality of offices around the globe.
Time was when you could walk into an office and the furniture would tell you whether you were in Paris, Frankfurt, New York, Milan, Moscow or London. The colours, shapes, materials, construction and overall image of the furniture and furnishings were all very local, almost parochial.
Who could fail to be struck by the muddy oranges and greens of a French office? Or the inevitable mahogany or teak real-wood veneers used throughout UK workplaces? The panels, worksurfaces and storage units which made up American work cubicles were rarely seen outside North America, and the massive, dark-wood desks and cabinets in central Europe overawed visitors and staff alike, just as they were intended to.
What do we see today? A blandness, born of internationality. Manufacturers wanting to 'emulate' everyone else and create products that don't look out of place anywhere. Rather than trying to give their customers just what they want, the producers of office furniture just try to avoid putting customers off and, as a result, products increasingly lack individuality and personality.
Still, there is at least one upside to this trend. With markets that are happy with me-too products and customers who are prepared to buy from almost anywhere, international trade in office furniture is on a high and barriers to trade, both tariff and non-tariff, continue to drop away.
If their own home market goes quiet, American manufacturers can increasingly look to Europe and today, at least as far as products are concerned, they are often in with a good chance of making a sale.
What potential exporters do need is information, and for American manufacturers one problem is that Europe isn't one market, but at least 27. That's the number of individual nations inside the EU, not to mention Switzerland, Norway and others that aren't members. That's one of the reasons why, until recently, there's been a dearth of market statistics and information on the companies that make up the markets.
Specialist international consultancy firms such as JSA in London, which works exclusively on international office furniture-related projects, can help companies with tailor-made strategic and tactical advice and introductions. However, as a first step, American manufacturers might learn a great deal and begin to identify potential local partners by subscribing to the informative League Tables published by JSA of the 100 largest office furniture companies in Europe. (jsacs.com/european-league-table.php).
European corporate financial transparency varies from country to country, with high levels in the UK, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries and much less in say Switzerland and Turkey. Within these limitations, JSA's information is very helpful. The information is updated and reissued to subscribers with improved levels of accuracy and disclosure every three months.
John Sacks, managing partner, JSA Consultancy Services. john.sacks@jsacs.com
