Post by Bonobo on Mar 26, 2011 22:54:23 GMT 1
The world sits on Polish chairs
You can find them easily at South African football stadiums, French finance ministry and the local post office branches. Within 20 years a small plant, producing chairs at Krosno in South-East Poland, has become one of the largest furniture corporations in Europe – Nowy Styl Group.
- When we first started our business, we simply wanted to have something to make our living - recalls Adam Krzanowski, founder and co-owner of Nowy Styl Group. He established the company in the early 90's, along with his younger brother, Jerzy. Adam brought the business idea from the US, where he had gone to make some money. He worked at a small furniture factory in New York, owned by Henry Stern. There he got into the secrets of chair production and decided to give himself a chance and start up a similar business in his home town in Poland. The plant in Krosno lead off in 1992 offering 3 chair models. Adam was 25, and Jerzy - 22 years old at that time. In the beginning their whole family used to be engaged in the production, as they had to supervise everything from the beginning to the end: montage, upholstery, loading, delivery coordination. They decided to reinvest all the profits and live modestly. Belt-tightening brought results: Nowy Styl Group has been developing year by year. Now it produces about 6 million chairs per year, employs 4000 people (2700 of them in Poland). Beside chairs, it offers furniture and the wooden parquet sold under 4 brands: Nowy Styl, BN Office Solution, Forum Seating and the Baltic Forum Seating Wood. Half of Nowy Styl’s production is exported and is sent to 60 countries, including Australia, Namibia, South Africa, Japan and most of European.
Recently Nowy Styl took over a German furniture company, Sato Office, which produces chairs dedicated to offices, cinemas and theaters.
There were several critical moments in the history of the Nowy Styl Group. Krzanowski brothers took their first lesson on how to deal in the furniture business at the trade fair in Moscow. They had to learn how to develop business contacts and present their products. Another milestone was when they tried to start to export chairs to the West. They started with France and soon realized that Western customers are much more demanding and that their company needs to compete with a number of experienced and well established local companies. – We had to improve the quality of our chairs, their packaging and delivery accuracy. And we had to catch up very fast - says Magdalena Tokar-Cyran, marketing director at Nowy Styl Group. Another revolution came with the financial crisis of 2008-09: orders fell dramatically, exchange rates have been jumping up and down like crazy. For the company, which sold 65 percent of the production at the foreign markets, it was a drama. - We were forced to reduce production and cut jobs. It was a very difficult period for our company - says Roman Przybylski, member of the board responsible for trade relations in Nowy Styl. The crisis has also halted company’s plans to enter the Warsaw Stock Exchange. - We have done a lot of work and we can reactivate these plans at any time if we believe that it is necessary - added Przybylski.
You can find them easily at South African football stadiums, French finance ministry and the local post office branches. Within 20 years a small plant, producing chairs at Krosno in South-East Poland, has become one of the largest furniture corporations in Europe – Nowy Styl Group.
- When we first started our business, we simply wanted to have something to make our living - recalls Adam Krzanowski, founder and co-owner of Nowy Styl Group. He established the company in the early 90's, along with his younger brother, Jerzy. Adam brought the business idea from the US, where he had gone to make some money. He worked at a small furniture factory in New York, owned by Henry Stern. There he got into the secrets of chair production and decided to give himself a chance and start up a similar business in his home town in Poland. The plant in Krosno lead off in 1992 offering 3 chair models. Adam was 25, and Jerzy - 22 years old at that time. In the beginning their whole family used to be engaged in the production, as they had to supervise everything from the beginning to the end: montage, upholstery, loading, delivery coordination. They decided to reinvest all the profits and live modestly. Belt-tightening brought results: Nowy Styl Group has been developing year by year. Now it produces about 6 million chairs per year, employs 4000 people (2700 of them in Poland). Beside chairs, it offers furniture and the wooden parquet sold under 4 brands: Nowy Styl, BN Office Solution, Forum Seating and the Baltic Forum Seating Wood. Half of Nowy Styl’s production is exported and is sent to 60 countries, including Australia, Namibia, South Africa, Japan and most of European.
Recently Nowy Styl took over a German furniture company, Sato Office, which produces chairs dedicated to offices, cinemas and theaters.
There were several critical moments in the history of the Nowy Styl Group. Krzanowski brothers took their first lesson on how to deal in the furniture business at the trade fair in Moscow. They had to learn how to develop business contacts and present their products. Another milestone was when they tried to start to export chairs to the West. They started with France and soon realized that Western customers are much more demanding and that their company needs to compete with a number of experienced and well established local companies. – We had to improve the quality of our chairs, their packaging and delivery accuracy. And we had to catch up very fast - says Magdalena Tokar-Cyran, marketing director at Nowy Styl Group. Another revolution came with the financial crisis of 2008-09: orders fell dramatically, exchange rates have been jumping up and down like crazy. For the company, which sold 65 percent of the production at the foreign markets, it was a drama. - We were forced to reduce production and cut jobs. It was a very difficult period for our company - says Roman Przybylski, member of the board responsible for trade relations in Nowy Styl. The crisis has also halted company’s plans to enter the Warsaw Stock Exchange. - We have done a lot of work and we can reactivate these plans at any time if we believe that it is necessary - added Przybylski.