Flagging attendance hasn't quashed innovative spirit
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, 5/19/2006 7:54:00 AM
20 countries represented at show
*Also see Copenhagen flashes more color
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| A purple table with an acrylic top and aluminum base, and chairs that each featured 900 broom-like PVC straws, turned heads in the showroom of Italian producer Edra. |
In 2005, and for the second consecutive year, trade attendance declined 20% to 11,975 visitors. This year saw a slight dip in the number of exhibitors to 352 companies from 363 in 2005. Twenty countries were represented. In recent years, attendance has been hurt by consolidation among Danish furniture makers, said Keld Korsager, managing director of the Assn. of Danish Furniture Inds. From 1999 to 2005, Denmark lost about a third of its furniture manufacturing base, with some 200 companies either closing or being swallowed up by competitors. Retail consolidation has been another issue, he said, and that’s in addition to retailers bringing smaller delegations here than in the past. It’s also become common for some of Denmark’s largest manufacturers to skip the show. Tvilum-Scanbirk, for example, pulled out a few years ago. Today, it’s more difficult for retailers to get a complete picture of what Denmark has to offer, and Korsager worries these developments also are taking the edge off the country’s long-held reputation for innovation and bold design.
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| What’s new is old. The Wingchair, in a spring green fabric, was designed by Hans Wegner in 1960 and marketed on a limited basis for about seven years. The new chair, from Carl Hansen & Son, is produced nearly the same way except the base in now stainless steel instead of chrome and the cushion is molded to the frame. |
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