3 minute read
Inspirational furniture design from the Black Forest
Rolf Benz is one of Germany’s leading furniture makers. Marco Siebel speaks to Director, International Sales, Rupert Hainzl about the company’s plans for the future and the importance of keeping production in the Black Forest.
Once upon a time, in a town named Nagold, a furniture maker named Rolf Benz decided that it was time for a change. He designed and created the first angled sofa on the German market. The Rolf Benz sofas, recliner, chairs, dining tables and coffee tables rapidly became the German standard for high quality furniture.
Rolf Benz AG & Co KG, since 1998 part of the Hüls group, has its global head-office in south-western Germany, in the heart of the Black Forest, halfway between the French city of Strasbourg and the German city of Stuttgart. The company has all of its production sites concentrated in this beautifully inspirational area, and it plans on staying there. There are no plans for production sites outside of Germany, to keep the label Made in Germany an honest one.
The company employs around 500 people, working together with an in-house design team on some 25,000 square metres. In 2011 and 2012 the site was expanded by an extra 4,000 square metres of showroom for two newly launched lines: ‘Concepts’ with furniture especially designed for use in hotels, restaurants and companies, and ‘Freistil’.
Global market, local suppliers
In 2011 Rolf Benz partnered with the German leather tannery company Heller in Hehlen, which won the 2011 Tannery of the Year award for its artisan leather products and its environmentally friendly production processes. The company provides Rolf Benz with seven stunning shades, from Nude to Choco, helping to make the upholstered furniture from the Black Forest alluring to an ever-widening public of connoisseurs.
In 2012 the Italian designer Gino Carollo joined forces with Rolf Benz to produce a new urban line Scala, a sophisticated modular
furnishing range that unites volume with grace, variety with style, and design freedom with cultural appreciation. The successful collaboration of all that is best in German craftsmanship and Italian design serves the global aspirations of Rolf Benz.
Using its leading market position in Europe
Rolf Benz currently enjoys a recognition level of around 35 per cent in the German market, which accounts for nearly 60 per cent of its sales. The rest of Europe generates 30 per cent of turnover, while Asia, with Singapore, Indonesia, India and notably Japan count for the remaining 10 per cent. Growth expectations for the German and European markets until 2015 are 5-7 per cent, and for the Asian markets, 7-10 per cent.
Director International Sales Rupert Hainzl: “During the next couple of years we will continue to follow the strategic course we have been pursuing for several years now, namely of leveraging the leading market position in Europe in the high-quality seating furniture segment to export the German quality label to Asia. For the European market we expect to see our client base grow, partly because of the fact that people turn away from impulsive spending and instead want to invest in a product that will last – one of our designs was created 27 years ago and still stands firmly.”
Freistil is the German and international name for Rolf Benz’s latest effort to attract the new generation. An extremely daring yet typical German stylish line, Freistil aims to persuade young consumers that they can afford the same quality Rolf Benz furniture that their parents have enjoyed for years. n
