New offices boost furniture sales

The boom in the real estate market, especially along the segment for high-quality buildings, has also brought significant gains to companies furnishing the newly built spaces.

Corporate Office Solutions (COS), the single representative of Steelcase, one of the world”s biggest producers of office furniture, forecasts turnover of around 8 million euros, an increase of over 40% from 2004, when the company reported sales worth 5.6 million euros.

“The advance is based, on the one hand, on the growth of the overall market. There are several companies that have moved their headquarters and this is why they needed furniture for their new locations,” stated Tudor Chindea, the company”s sales manager.

Over the past year, several top-quality office space projects have been or will be delivered onto the market, such as Charles de Gaulle Plaza (the current headquarters of Connex mobile telephony operator, as well as of Raiffeisen and HVB), Bucharest Business Park, and America House. Investments involved in these projects exceed 120 million euros, and the buildings were pre-rented by multinational firms long before they were completed.

Multinationals are similarly the main customers of COS.

“Until some time ago, the most important criterion in choosing office furniture had been the price, followed by design and only then by quality. At present, though, companies have increasingly higher demands,” stated Elena Tanase, Steelcase Romania country manager. She says that Romania has already gone through the initial stage, when Steelcase was only operating alongside a few other players, and now has an increasingly attractive market for foreign companies.

Practically, the Romanian office furniture market has now reached maturity, Chindea believes, and this is attracting increasing numbers of major global players.

“The market has grown and continues to grow. Demand is growing ever higher. With regard to the new buildings, customers understand they need to think about space and office furniture differently. Before selecting a location, they need an adviser who can offer advice and think out the entire organisational complex. The market has become more educated lately,” he stated.

COS is one of the main players in the domain of integrated solutions in Romania.