The Hausmesse fair was held for the tenth time, and this year’s edition was the first since the beginning of the pandemic. Why is participation in this event so important for Melaco?

The event organized by KRONOSPAN Poland takes place cyclically in the formula of internal fairs. The company invites its customers to participate. The events around the fair take place throughout the week and are divided into individual industries that use in their production wood-based panels and other materials produced by KRONOSPAN. The day in which we participated, as the MELACO company, was reserved for the furniture industry. Its representatives meet here, which makes the event an excellent platform for exchanging information, talking about trends, and taking part in interesting presentations.

This year, the main presentation was prepared by a well-known designer, Tomasz Pągowski, who spoke about trends in interior design, and presented the directions in which contemporary furniture design is heading. Therefore, it is an interesting event. We have a chance to hear about trends live, discuss emerging conclusions, get inspired by the proposals and implement them into new products or projects that we can offer to our clients.

Which trends discussed during the presentation caught your attention in particular in terms of their potential?

An interesting and, at the same time, surprising trend is the approach to products used for interior design and furniture. For some time now, we have been observing a change of direction from uniform colours in favor of imitation of wood or stone, i.e. natural patterns. However, elements made of real wood or natural stone were still very popular. This is changing today and users are eager to replace natural materials with ones that imitate them. For example, wood can be replaced with a wood-based board. Or a the table top made of a plate imitating natural stone. Today, such materials are very popular, and users no longer hide the fact that imitation is only an imitation, and not a natural raw material.

Where is this coming from?

The main reason is the growing trend related to the protection of the natural environment. Consumers care about the environment, they care about it more and more consciously. This concern is manifested precisely by turning to products that are made in conditions that save the environment. Products made of wood-based panels help to protect the natural environment, and production plants – such as MELACO – additionally implement processes that allow to reduce the consumption of other raw materials. So consumers compromise – they choose imitations of nature because they want to the nature to be safe. They are not ashamed of it. On the contrary, it is part of their conscious approach to ecology.

Growing consumer awareness is not the only reason why producers decide to use ecological solutions. The current situation on the European market and in the industry also has a great influence, and it was also discussed during the Hausmesse fair…

Yes, the fair was a good opportunity to raise the issue of raw materials and their prices. The products we manufacture come from wood. The production processes additionally use energy, chemicals, and everything – from raw material prices, through energy costs and the chemicals used – is subject to incredible increases, affecting the price of the final product. The challenge faced by the industry is therefore the search for solutions that will allow us to offer more valuable and durable products for customers. That will allow us to offer recycled products, which will enable the processing of raw materials that are currently becoming expensive and scarce. At the same time, this process must create a fully-fledged piece of furniture. These aspirations are no longer just a slogan, they are a necessity related to the need to reduce the cost of production and use of the raw material.

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Is this situation something that furniture manufacturers need to get used to or is there a prospect that something will change over time? Costs will decrease and materials will become more accessible?

At the moment, there are no indicators that the situation will improve. On the one hand, we have war. The eastern borders are sealed, and wood-based products from Russia or Belarus are subject to an embargo. At the end of June, they will no longer reach Poland, the European Union, so the supply of these materials will decrease even more.

On the other hand, energy costs are rising all the time and access to coal is decreasing. This forces the energy sector to search for new energy sources, namely biomass derived from wood. For our industry, this means a further reduction in the supply of wood, because it is used by the energy industry.

There is no indication that the situation will improve, certainly not in the coming years. That is why the industry faces the challenge I have already mentioned, related to a change in the approach to production. We must learn to use the raw material that is available and make a product with high added value. Well designed, modern, matching the tastes of customers, but also durable, which the consumer will not throw into the trash in a year.

And as Tomasz Pągowski argued during the fair, consumers talk about their needs more and more loudly, because generation Z is entering the market. How do young people approach design and interior design?

Yes, generation Z is now becoming a recipient of our products. What we need to know about them is that they lives in two worlds simultaneously – the virtual and the real. This translates directly into the tastes of this generation, their perception of the world, and the way they approach interior design. They are no longer interested in such extreme minimalism, which has enjoyed great popularity in recent years. They want more ambiguity, are not afraid to mix styles. Therefore, they focus on interesting design that will allow them to create an interior with character.

How do the products offered by MELACO fit into this trend? Can they help producers to extend their offer to young people?

Thanks to the production lines, products and technologies developed in recent years, we perfectly fit into the trends that dominate among young people. We offer membrane-vacuum technology, used in the production of elements with a 3D effect in the MELAFOL line. We are able to create products with various obliquities, profiling and patterns. We have a wide range of high-quality polymer films with a huge range of colours and decors. Therefore, we are able to implement virtually any project that our clients come to us with. We provide full technological facilities, substantive support, we create prototypes, and we have innovations on a global scale, such as the Flick & Click™ tool-less furniture assembly system based on the patented Threespine® technology and very popular among our foreign customers.

You said that the Hausmesse fair, apart from inspiration, also provided an opportunity to meet representatives of the industry. How do you perceive the needs of your customers, i.e. furniture manufacturers?

We met a number of our active and less active clients and made new contacts as well. We notice that companies are really starting to look for opportunities to implement completely new projects. Like consumers, they are hungry for new ideas and products.

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Additionally, the situation on the market – rising prices of raw materials and product costs – make the current collections more and more expensive to produce. Their prices are rising, which discourages consumers. They are also often old collections, they’re losing popularity, not matching today’s trends and tastes. That is why furniture manufacturers are looking for new products, unusual solutions and interesting projects. We are able to help them in all this.

Thank you for the interview.