Founded in 2006, The European Furniture Industries Confederation (EFIC) now represents about the 70% of the total turnover of the furniture industries in Europe, a sector that employs about 950.000 workers in close to 130.000 companies generating an annual turnover of around 96 billion €.
EFIC’s aim is to duly represent the furniture manufacturers, defend and promote their interests, by establishing and maintaining a constructive dialogue with the European Institutions, social partners and other stakeholders. The European Furniture Industry is a labour-intensive and dynamic industry, dominated by SMEs and micro firms, which produce kitchen, office, bedroom and other specialist types of furniture. Its success factors lie in creative capacity for new designs and responsiveness to new demands, ability to combine new technologies and innovation with cultural heritage and style, highly skilled employees and performing production systems. The European furniture manufacturers set the trends at the global level, which is reflected by the fact that 12% of designs registered in the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market relate to the furniture sector. The EU is also a world leader in the high-end segments – nearly two out of three high-end furniture products sold in the world are produced in the EU.
Here’s a list of members of EFIC with short information on the organizations in each country:
Austria – Austrian Furniture Industry: The Austrian Furniture Industry consists of 47 furniture manufacturers with approximately 6,700 employees. The production value of this industry amounted to €2.29 billion in 2011. Exports amounted to approximately €1.31 billion in 2011.
Belgium – Fedustria: Fedustria represents the textile, woodworking and furniture industry’s companies. In Belgium, these sectors account for 45,000 jobs in 2,231 companies and generate a turnover of €12.4 billion.
Denmark – TMI: TMI is responsible for defending the common interests of the Danish wood and furniture industry. It accounts for approximately 350 members. TMI’s members come from all over the timber industry value chain as: Furniture; Saw Mills; Building components, including windows, doors and floors; Kitchens.
Germany – VDM: The total turnover of the industries represented by HDH-VDM reached about 39 billion € in 2008, 20 billion € of those for the furniture industry. There are about 200.000 people employed in these industries.
Italy – FEDERLEGNOARREDO: The wood-furniture industry represents 8% of total employees in the Italian manufacturing sector, and with 15% of companies it is the second largest Italian sector. Employees 400,000; industries 74,000; turnover 32 billion Euro; export over 33% of revenues.
Norway – Norsk Industri: Norwegian Industrial furniture + interior is a trade association that works to strengthen the competitiveness of the furniture and interior design industry. It consists of about 500 companies that produce furniture and interior for a value of 14 billion, of which, approximately 8.5 billion in furniture. The furniture industry employs 6,000 FTEs (2012) and interior about 4000.
Portugal – AIMMP: The mission is to represent, promote and defend the interests of firms belonging to the five sectoral divisions. These industries account for 2 billion €s in sales volume and 1.1 billion €s in exports. Wood and Furniture sectors are the most important part of Portuguese socioeconomics.
Russia – Amedoro: The Association of furniture and woodworking enterprises of Russia (AMEDORO) has been established since 1997. It is non commercial nongovernmental public organization. The Association has a broad based membership including furniture manufactures, wooden panel producers as well as a member of suppliers to the industry, retailers, media and exhibition companies.
Sweden – TMF: The national trade and employers’ association of the wood processing and furniture industry in Sweden. It represents approximately 800 member companies who jointly have over 26,000 employees.
Turkey – Mosder: Represents more than 50% of Turkish furniture sector in terms of endorsement. 60.000 companies operate in the furniture industry throughout Turkey, including all large and small manufacturers and retail stores. The number of jobs in the industry is approximately 500,000, including the supply industry.