When veneer in the assistants

Many pieces of furniture are used with veneer – a covering finishing material that never goes out of fashion, but few people work in the same way as KOZHAN. Veneer, in its rich variety, for furniture products of this brand was and remains the only and exclusive material for their decoration. The Kozhan couple (Alexander and Olga) – hence the name of the furniture brand – in 2013 and created it in an effort to create something special, unique. And for the assistant in this case took a veneer.

– And it is not accidental, – the co-founder of the company Alexander Kozhan specifies. – Since 2003 I have been professionally engaged in veneer. Moreover, he is a co-founder of Laminart Ukraine, which is a supplier of this material in a wide range and in almost all known types. Since the company’s customers who use veneer are mostly furniture makers, I, as a veneer supplier, had to be well acquainted with furniture production processes. This became the basis for starting their own production. And since I know veneer perfectly, it was decided that it should become the main feature of our furniture. Furniture under the KOZHAN brand.

– Knowing all types of veneer, you – as a furniture maker – do you prefer any of them in order to create your own, as you position them, original and unique furniture?

– With natural veneer from exotic woods you can really create unique in its beauty furniture. Knowing the huge decorative possibilities of veneer, young designers are happy to work with us, who have created a furniture series for us under the KOZHAN brand.

– The summer B2B exhibition “Furniture of Ukraine Business Expo” gave Ukrainian furniture a chance to increase the number of primarily foreign customers, and those who only intend to start exporting their products, get as close as possible to this goal. Did your company take this opportunity?

– We did not miss this exhibition, although we did not have our own stand: using our wall panels, partner companies set up their exhibition stands. So in this way we also got the opportunity to show the participants and guests of the exhibition their panel products.

And later we took the opportunity to show off our veneered 3D-panels, the release of which was established in front of colleagues in the furniture association, becoming one of the partners of a large-scale corporate meeting on the occasion of the anniversary of UAFM. Yes, they bragged, because what they showed is worth it. 3D veneering is a very complex technological process. It requires the manual work of experienced craftsmen, who have to veneer the milled parts so that the veneer covers perfectly and all the milled recesses on its plane. It is difficult to do this with the use of fine-line veneer, and especially difficult when using natural veneer. The handiwork of craftsmen is also used at the stage of selection and combination of veneer fragments for further stitching of the so-called “shirt”, which is already performed by the machine.

– Where do you find masters?

– We are preparing ourselves. We teach. Not only work with veneer, but also love it. You will not become a veneer master without this real love for this material.

Before introducing a complex technological process into production, launching a product, I master it myself, sometimes through long experiments, and only then teach my employees such skills.

– If not a secret, which companies have already become for your recently associated company not only colleagues in UAFM, but also business partners?

– This is primarily LTL Group and BST. This is exactly what I meant when I spoke about the companies that used our panels in the design of their exhibition stands.