On March 30-31, 2023, the FURNICON furniture conference was held in Lviv at the “Try slony” furniture centre. The event was organized by the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers with the support of the Lviv City Council and the Lviv Regional Military Administration. Proactive representatives from the woodworking, furniture, door industries, education, and government sectors came together to discuss the possibilities of creating the Lviv furniture cluster and to create a platform for communication between furniture and door manufacturers with architects and designers for further collaboration and joint projects. The event brought together over 150 participants from Lviv, the region, and Ukraine.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to active discussions on the possibilities of creating the Lviv furniture cluster, which would contribute to creating joint projects.

Dmytro Patis, the head of the Investment Attraction Platform of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, opened the conference by greeting all attendees and speaking about the activities of the UAFM during the war, as well as the industry’s results for 2022.

“The UAFM currently unites 312 companies, representing over 70% of the furniture market in Ukraine. From the first days of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the UAF organized a rapid response headquarters to requests for humanitarian aid and mobilized financial support from both industry participants and international funds to provide products and furniture for internally displaced persons.

The furniture industry in Ukraine has demonstrated significant growth in the production and export of finished products every year. More than 100,000 Ukrainians work in the wood processing and furniture industries on thousands of enterprises throughout the country. In 2021 alone, exports of Ukrainian furniture amounted to $1.05 billion USD. Ukrainian furniture manufacturers continue to supply products to world leaders in furniture retail, such as JYSK, XXLUZ, HOMECENTER, and others. Ukrainian furniture is sold online on all continents. In 2022, the export of Ukrainian furniture amounted to $806 million USD, with an average annual growth rate of 11.5% over the past 6 years. Ukrainian furniture has been delivered to 99 countries worldwide, with the largest buyers being Poland (34.9%), Germany (17.4%), Denmark (5.9%), Austria (4.5%), and others,” said Dmytro Patis.

Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, greeted the participants and called on business owners to unite, cooperate with other clusters in the city, and invest in Ukrainian business in general.

“Why is this important? Lviv has and will have new opportunities, so by working together, we can achieve ten times more than by having competition.

When I want a chair or table for my home, I first look for a craftsman who can make it here. It’s not always cheaper, but I want it to be made by our hands because I’m investing in our own. “Your own to your own according to your own” is precisely the principle that gave Ukrainians strength 100 years ago,” said Andriy Sadovyi.

The participants joined a panel discussion on the topic of “Creating the Lviv Furniture Cluster – Preconditions, Formation, Working Group”.

The speakers of the discussion were:

🎙 Orest Filts, Head of Investment Department of Lviv Regional State Administration

🎙 Halyna Zayats, Chief of the Economics Department of Lviv City Council

🎙 Orest Kiyko, Head of the furniture and wood products technology department of the ESI of woodworking technologies and design of UNFU

🎙 Andriy Varenytsia, Founder of Varenycia Group of Companies

🎙 Volodymyr Mytsyk, Head of Brand Roomio Furniture Production Company

🎙 Andriy Mandzhala, Co-owner of Furniture Park, ADS, Combina – wardrobe systems companies

🎙 Viktoriya Prymolenna, Owner of PrimaLetto Company

 

Later, the Director of the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine (USAID CEP), Olesia Zaluska, talked about grant opportunities for the furniture business. Mrs. Olesya called on representatives of the furniture and door businesses to take advantage of opportunities to attract additional resources for business development, receive support and advice from experts, which can help them improve the quality of their products, increase competitiveness in the market, and attract the attention of potential investors and partners, which can contribute to further business development and increase its stability.

 

 

During the Furniture Standup, transformation cases of furniture companies were shared:

🎙 Dmytro Shamin, CEO of MatroLuxe, shared about the partial relocation of the company and the experience of expanding sales markets;

🎙 Volodymyr Mytsyk, head of Brand Roomio Furniture Production, shared about the experience of company relocation and the social responsibility of business;

🎙 Vitalii Kyryliv, co-owner of Hochu rayu. Innovative design shared information about the project of transforming military infrastructure equipment;

🎙 Serhii Plandzhiiev, director of Development West Group, shared about how “Try slony” became a home for many Ukrainian brands;

🎙 Hennadii Sheludko, co-owner of Ki-Pro, shared a case of implementing a project with Ukrainian furniture in France during the war.

The discussion was moderated by Dmytro Patis, co-founder of Eskada-M and head of the Investment Platform UAFM.

Next, the conference participants joined cluster training led by Viktor Okseniuk, a lecturer at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School [kmbs] and an expert in cluster development. Mr Okseniuk shared pieces of knowledge about the methodology of creating a cluster and emphasized the importance of working with the cluster model based on the experience of successful clusters.

 

 

 

The big furniture networking event that took place during the FURNICON conference provided participants with a great opportunity to connect with colleagues and like-minded individuals in a warm “furniture” atmosphere.

The second day of the conference was focused on practical experience. Participants visited three production facilities accompanied by lean consultant Olga Peretyatko – a Lean 6 Sigma consultant and Lean coach in Lean Six Sigma, and learned how to optimize and improve production and management processes based on the examples of the following companies:

• Brand Roomio – a modern enterprise that produces custom-made premium-class furniture. The Kharkiv-based company relocated to the Lviv region with its employees and families during the beginning of the full-scale war and built a dormitory for them.
• Hafele Ukraine – a leader in the furniture market in Ukraine that will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year. Today, Häfele is a global organization, with its warehouses and branches located in more than 120 countries worldwide.
• Varenycia Group – for 10 years, the company has been driving the industry of custom-made furniture and woodworking. The main difference in production is the meticulous manual work combined with automated machines and innovations. The company has a full production cycle and its own design bureau.

 

Thanks to the partners of the FURNICON LVIV conference: Lviv Regional Military Administration, Lviv City Council, Kleiberit, Hafele, ADLER, HN Logistic, Ki-Pro, Shopping Center “Try Slony“ and Stakhovsky Wines.