An exciting exchange with the upholstered furniture industry that confirms our ecosystem approach.
In November of last year, we as tapio participated in a panel discussion as part of the furniture manufacturing congress. There, we also got to know LECTRA. Subsequently, tapio was invited by LECTRA to speak at their own event "Revamping the Future" on April 4th.
We have outgrown the manufacturing step and are currently focusing primarily on the production of kitchens and furniture in large and small scale. LECTRA itself is at home in the upholstered furniture world. Thus, there were plenty of points of reference for an exciting discussion, but also enough new things to learn. I found it particularly fascinating how little automation is possible today in the actual upholstery production step. The cutting process is already highly optimized, but the entire industry is still largely characterized by manual labor, as Dr. Mark Reuber from the IWT Institute has demonstrated very clearly.
The insights into market developments over the last 10+ years and the changing requirements from customers by Ralf Jackels from IFH Cologne provided a nice start to the day. Even in long-term observations, no real changes in the form of distribution channels in furniture sales are visible. It is still the case that nearly 80% go through specialist retail. This is certainly a peculiarity in the German-speaking area, but it was a surprise for me, as we have seen several larger new companies emerging, particularly in sales, in recent years. Compared to 2005, these companies have only been able to increase their share from 0.1% to 3.6% by 2018. I also found it exciting that the most important criterion for customers in online furniture retail apparently is "Online Assembly Videos." This fits very nicely into the YouTube culture and the DIY trend. I am sure that quite a bit will change in the coming years. IKEA, as one of the big players, has made very interesting approaches with its activities over the past two years.
The special thing about the LECTRA event was that afterwards we could talk in small groups about various topics, which led to an intensive exchange rather than just a purely frontal presentation. These conversations showed me that our idea of an open ecosystem for an industry is the right approach. All customers confirmed that they share this approach and also see the danger that they will later need various solutions, but that there are no synergies.
