Furniture Fairs of Spain

By tradition, Spain is believed to be one of the leading producers of furniture, by providing important platforms where professionals in the sector can meet to present their new products and establish contacts both nationally and internationally. Historically, ArtesMoble has attended some of the most representative fairs with the greatest international presence in Spain, such as the Furniture Fair of Valencia, Furniture Fair of Madrid, as well as other prestigious international fairs amongst which highlight the Paris Fair "Maison & Objet”, and the Brussels furniture fair.

After a long crisis in the furniture sector started in 2008, there was a decrease (by 60%) in furniture consumption, which led to a deterioration of the home furniture sector, because of different reasons, such as cultural change and a renewed consumption pyramid that often gives preference to technological goods, leisure, and other goods rather than furniture. Forty-nine thousand furniture factories across Spain have been closed down over the last 5 years. As a consequence, Spain does not currently have a great international prestige furniture fair that could manage to represent a large majority of this sector from the highly industrialized furniture factories that produce the most demanded mid/low range furniture, to High Decoration firms that manufacture the artisan furniture with noble materials and exclusive finishes, as it is the case of ArtesMoble furniture.

The mentioned crisis has side shattered the people's trust in the Furniture Fair of Madrid, traditionally named MOGAR actually merged with INTERGIFT. In addition, the crisis has left greatly harmed the Furniture Fair of Valencia "HABITAT”, both were the two Spanish furniture fairs of high category that had a broad representation of the Spanish home furniture sector. New regional fairs have emerged during crises, such as the Bilbao Furniture Fair, and the Gijón Furniture Fair, fairs that have little participation and are oriented toward the local market. Furthermore, other small fairs have been hosted in Spain, such as the Galician Furniture Fair and the Yecla Furniture Fair. Among the recent fairs held in Spain, stand out the Furniture Fair of Zaragoza, which is the first biannual furniture fair that has been launched in 2008, is mainly oriented to promoting furniture of medium/low category, this fair is trying to focus on the High Decoration brands. For all the above, ArtesMoble has visited the most relevant Fairs, which can help us to reach our main objectives. Thus, our brand has been present at the Paris Maison Object Fair, the Furniture Fair of Zaragoza, the Valencia Fair, and the Fair of Madrid Intergift, discarding all the others. ArtesMoble has participated in the Maison & Objet Paris fair from 2007 to 2012, as a strategy for the internationalization of our brand. Paris' 2018 edition has managed to recover the offer lost from previous years, today the fair houses more than 3,000 exhibitors brands, filtered by product category: gifts, textiles, lighting, importers, related, and furniture. The fair has 130,000m2 of exhibition area. The facilities are excellent and the communications of the outlying areas of Paris are first class, such as metro, train, bus, nearby airport, road ... The city has a high level of internationalization. During my this year’s visit to Paris, I had seen a nice city, perhaps a little more disorganized than years ago. However, every year Paris becomes the benchmark of interior decoration, by promoting different furniture categories, from medium import furniture to high quality. Artesmoble has always been welcomed at this fair, which has invited us to know its improvement done for the next 2019 edition, encouraging us to participate in its future events.

 

This fair has adequate pavilions, accesses, and communications. Its offer presented in this new edition continues to grow compared to past editions, Zaragoza furniture fair was launched in the midst of a crisis starting with 209 exhibitors and now it has about 600. In our opinion, it is a great fair to promote medium and commercial furniture. Industry furniture that replaces natural wood with several layers of resin or melamine-impregnated craft papers. The fair has made a significant effort to attract international buyers, by inviting and offering special promotions, but there is still much for it to do. In our view, this fair can face serious difficulties, given the fierce competition with other fairs. Nevertheless, the Zaragoza Furniture Fair is well positioned in Spain. Our brand has participated in different editions of the HABITAT fair, when this Valencia furniture fair was the most important in Spain together with the Milan Furniture Fair, which is one of the most important Furniture Fair in Europe and the world, because of its tradition and its high-quality offering. Valencia is the cradle of furniture in Spain, since the first Habitat fair edition in 1917, there were very few furniture manufacturers exhibiting and it was not until 1963 when the fair had exclusively focused on furniture, wicker, and related, contributing to the local and national development of the furniture sector with a clear vocation for exportation. The fair facilities are new and aesthetically in line with Valencia’s image, which has been famed for its emblematic Arts and Sciences Centre. By 2007 there were more than 1,200 brand exhibitors across 120,000m2 of exhibiting space. As a consequence of the hard years of crisis (2008-2013), the Habitat fair lost its relevance, mirroring the major difficulties that were facing the furniture sector, the crisis left its mark on this fair. In an attempt to improve this bad situation, it was merged with CEVISAMA (Ceramics fairs) from 2014 to 2016. Those fair editions were the worst in living memory and almost ruined it. In 2017 the Fair decided to disassociate from CEVISAMA returning to hold the event by itself every September. In the 2018 Habitat edition, the Fair bets on returning to being the benchmark of high-end furniture and high decoration manufactured in Spain, keeping its international vocation, by becoming a relevant event where to exhibit high-quality furniture made in Spain.

Furniture Fair of Madrid INTERGIFT

The geographical position of Madrid (Capital of Spain), its infrastructures, and its communications networks provide easy access from any point in Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Those are the key factors contributing to making the Madrid Furniture Fair the main competitor of the Furniture Fair of Valencia. ArtesMoble has exhibited with pleasure in the Madrid Fair, the main motivation for our brand to exhibit at it was based on its geographical proximity that allows the easy journey and arrival of domestic and international customers, as well as, that the fair is in a constant stage of internationalization. The Madrid fair has given our brand the opportunity to be recognized with the international Furniture design award and to find our best national distributor "Artespaña”. On the other hand, the severe crisis (2008-2013) that faced the furniture sector forced the fair to merge with INTERGIFT, which is a fair very focused on gifts, textiles, and imported furniture. The Madrid fair has achieved substantial improvement in 2018, compared to the 2017 edition. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of room for improvement in product quality and in its internationalization. ArtesMoble has been invited to participate in the next editions of the four Fairs, we have our choice to go step by step to reach our objective. Yet it is now time for our brand to focus on the new models and finishes that will be exhibited at the chosen furniture fair.