March saw the annual Meble Polska exhibition, a key event where companies from Poland and around the world are able to present their products to buyers and retailers. The exhibition was held between 5-8th March and Steve Platts from Furniture News' sister publication, Furniture Production, was invited to Poland to experience the show, and also take a look around some Polish furniture factories ...
For many Polish furniture manufacturers and distributors, the British market is a bit of quandary. Talking to people at their stands I found two distinct responses to the notion of importing into the UK. The newer, smaller companies were all for it whereas some of the bigger, more experienced luxury brands simply said there was no market for their products.
Indeed many of them had tried, and the feeling I got was that it simply wasn’t worth the money, effort and time it takes to comply with Britain’s famously strict health and safety restrictions, only to find there was no market for high-end Polish furniture.
That’s not to say Polish furniture doesn’t find its way into the British market – in fact the reality is quite the opposite. According to FIRA’s 2012 Statistical Digest, Polish products accounted for 8% of the UK’s furniture imports in 2011, making it the fourth largest furniture importer to the UK.
But, as Krzysztof Dukat, deputy director for export at manufacturer Ludwik Style, was keen to point out during a factory tour, these are often mass-produced, unbranded products that end up in UK shops without the consumer even knowing they are buying Polish furniture.
“Many business owners I spoke to believe that there is a stereotype amongst UK retailers that Polish furniture should be cheap”
Indeed this is at the heart of the problem with importing into the UK. Krzysztof – and many other business owners I spoke to – believe that there is a stereotype amongst UK retailers that Polish furniture should be cheap. So, after companies have invested a considerable amount into making products conform to UK regulations, they are simply turned away by UK retailers due to prices that don’t fit the stereotype.
The irony, of course, is a lot of the higher-end furniture available from Poland is very competitively priced. I was joined on the factory tour by a number of retailers from Britain who were surprised by the comparatively low asking price for furniture they believed would be successful in the UK.
It is fair to say that the furniture industry is very important to Poland. In a 2011 report compiled by Miedzynarodowe Targi Poznanskie (MTP) – the organiser behind Mebel Polska – the company claims that the furniture industry accounts for 2.1% of its total economy, meaning furniture manufacture and sales is four times as important as it is in the EU on average, in which the furniture industry only accounts for 0.5% of the total economy. So the commitment of exhibitors to shows such as Meble Polska, and the strong desire to increase foreign trade is noticeable throughout the show.
During the three years since the introduction of the new formula of Meble Polska, the event has grown almost twice in terms of area and number of exhibitors, and the number of visitors has nearly tripled.
At this year’s fair 203 exhibitors presented their offerings in an area of 28,000m². The event was visited by more than 13,000 people from 42 countries. A large group of visitors were German furniture buyers – up to 22% of all the show’s foreign visitors.
Subsequent places in this year’s trade fair visitor statistics were taken by representatives from Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Holland, Belarus, Belgium, France, Hungary and Italy.
The growing interest in the event among foreign merchants confirmed that over the last three years Meble Polska has marked its presence on the furniture map of Europe. The organisers do not hide their satisfaction and are already planning activities to make next year’s edition even more successful.
“It’s true, we are very pleased with this year's edition”, says Józef Szyszka, director of Meble Polska. “We managed to strengthen the international character of the fair and further improve the quality of our services. But we will not rest on our laurels, this event and the Polish furniture industry has great potential!”
