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::: Fep: a record year
THE CONGRESS of Federica Fiorellini
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The European
Federation of the
Parquet Industry
(FEP) revealed,
during the general
assembly held
in Rome
on May 28th,
the 2009 data
for this sector.
It was a record year for the European
Federation of the Parquet
Industry. Both positively
and negatively.
Record (positive) attendances at
the 35th European Parquet Congress,
held on May 28th: probably
thanks to the "location", enchanting
Rome (the city with the highest
concentration of historic and architectural
heritage in the world).
A record fall in production and
consumption of parquet in Europe
in 2009 (after twenty years of
constant growth!).
The President of the Federation,
Lars Gunnar Andersen, stressed
this in his keynote address: “Last
year we were faced with many great
challenges: after years of constant
growth in output, production
dropped decreased by 20% in Europe
(something we hadn’t seen since
2000!) and consumption also
fell by approximately 15%”.
However, despite this, Andersen
was not wholly pessimistic and pointed out that in recent months
demand for wooden floors had started
to rise again in some countries.
“...And so we must stop engaging
in price wars and join
forces to maximise our strengths of
quality, creativity and innovation”,
Andersen continued. “We should
focus on a well-conceived and successful
communication with the final
consumer to increase his
awareness and knowledge of our
product”.
Indeed, this last point, the end
user’s awareness, is the subject of
many of the FEP’s current initiatives,
as the Federation Secretary,
Endre Varga, pointed out.
From the Real Wood project, focused
on a website providing consumer
information in 8 languages
to the European survey of consumers
of wooden floors, useful
for developing new approaches
and marketing strategies.
Another key issue that emerged
during the meeting, highlighted
by Lorenzo Onofri, President of
the Federlegno-Arredo Floors
Group (the Italian association that
“hosted” the Congress), is the
need to define exactly what it means to be a producer, to
work under conditions of
fair and positive competition.
“We must work to ensure
that there are clear
rules, shared by all those
who work in our context,”
stressed Onofri, who then
recalled the experience of
the Italian Transparency
Code, a sort of product identity
card that provides
consumers with all the information
they need to understand
what they are actually
buying.
::: 2009: a year of
concern for
producers
But let us look at the “figures” for
the trends in the European parquet
sector in 2009, released by
FEP in Rome.
According to the data supplied by
individual member companies and
national associations, the European
market saw a dramatic fall in production
volumes and consumption
in 2009 for the second year running.
Total production in FEP countries
fell by 20.30%, with a volume of
67,523,000 square metres. “We're
back to 2000 figures,” said Varga,
commenting on these data. He also
pointed out, however, that there has
been a slight increase in production
and consumption in Germany in recent
months, which he hopes will
spread to the rest of Europe.
The greatest losses were recorded
in Hungary, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia
(Denmark, Finland,
Norway), Poland (which continues
to be the leading manufacturer
in Europe) and Spain. Germany is the second largest producer, ahead
of Sweden.
Regarding the 2009 production
plan by type of parquet, plywood
flooring easily remains the best
selling product, having increased
its share by one percentage compared
to 2008 figures (78% against
16% for solid parquet.)
Turning to consumption figures,
there was an overall drop in FEP
countries of 15.31% (86,005,000
square metres).
Bad figures for the Netherlands and
Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary;
Germany continues to be the
number one market in terms of
consumption, with a share of
18.42%, with Spain in second place
(13.12%), ahead of France (11.67%).
A curiosity: Austria holds the
record for the highest consumption
per capita: 0.76 square metres
per person.
A couple of words on the most
popular wood species? Oak sees
continuous growth and is the absolute most widely used timber
for parquet (some 62.8%), while
the use of tropical wood has
dropped significantly.
 ::: And 2010?
The European parquet industry has
always shown it has the ability to
adapt quickly to changing market
conditions. However, the situation
is now critical. Although the European
Commission’s forecasts are
quite favourable for the second half
of the year, caution is a must (as
the situation in Greece proves).
No one is willing to make optimistic
short-term forecasts, not
even the FEP Board. One fact remains
true: wooden flooring is
top of the list of European consumers' preferences, as well as
meeting all the requirements demanded by modern
principles of sustainable
development
and green
building (as mentioned
by Rupert Oliver,
consultant of
the American Hardwood Export Council,
in his report:
wood is the sustainable
product par excellence).
And so one must exploit
this advantage
to gain new markets
and maybe win shares
away from other floor types.
A hard challenge. The results will
be seen at the next Congress,
fixed for late May 2011 in
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
::: A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT
After more than two decades of steady growth in sales and
consumption, last year the sales of wooden floors in Europe
have fallen substantially. Also in 2010 we espect significant
losses, although in line with those of other markets. Which
tools can be put in place by European companies to deal with
the crisis? And how can the association give them a hand?
After more than 20 years of steady growth we had 2 years during
which the consumption of parquet is reduced with about
33%. This shows us that the financial crisis has had an unpredictibel
influence and major impact also on our industry. It is,
however, encouraging that you have managed to come through
such a dramatic change in volume and turnover with but a limited
damage. Our industry seems to have the ability to adjust
quickly to changing market conditions and it also indicates that
our industry is fairly well financed. It can mobilise the required
assets in times when the need is high.
So, what is the situation now? In the last couple of months we
have seen positive signals regarding our worlds economic recovery.
We have also seen that the demand for parquet has started to
grow at least in some markets and quite a few of us were expecting
a more promising 2nd half of this year. Then came the situation
in Greece and again uncertainty increases. What will happen and
will the same situation occur in Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal
and what about the euro? On the 10th of May the Ministers of Finance
in EU managed to come up with euro500 billon in a a fund
and together with euro250 billion from IMF they believe that this
is enough money to help the so called PIGS countries to survive
the next couple of years. It is, however, a fact that the medicine
those countries need and have to take is tough and will undoubtably
have a negative effect on the consumption at local levels.
This again implies that other countries’ export industries will
be affected, though for those amongst us exporting to the US, the
EUR versus USD ratio is presently rather favourable.
We cannot do much within the given macro-economic climate
other then adapt our businesses accordingly and in compliance
with the actual situation. The same as has been done during the
last two years, with a particular and further intensified focus on
creativity, quality, innovation and design – without therby forgetting
the ever increasing and fundamental importance of a
well conceived and successful consumer communication. The
search for other markets for our products must be intensified
and economic forecasts suggest that Asia will be the major
growth area for world trade over the next decade. IMF’s projections
from late 2009 indicate a growth of 8.2% p.a. for GDP in
developing Asian economies over 2010-2014, compared with 1.9%
p.a. for EU GDP over the same period.
In spite of the difficulties we have had it seems that our industry is still fit for fight, so let us join forces and competences to come
out of the tunnel at the end as winners!
Let us try to look at the positive side: USA shows signs of a positive
development; Brazil, China and India are growing markets
that will help the rest of the world back on track; Parquet has a
steady marketshare of 5-6% in Europe. We have countries with
up to 20% marketshare for parquet. There are still great oportunties
on which we have to materialise. We know from our pan-
European consumer survey on Parquet that 5 out of 10 people
want to change floors in their home, especially in their living
room, bedroom and kitchen. The first 2 mentioned are rooms
where parquet often is preferred.
People associate wooden floors with a natural and warm feeling,
and consider it a good investment on the long run. There is a
need for a further argumentative education in this direction.
Looking at trends, we saw that people care a lot about the
decoration of the house or apartment they live in. When decorating,
they prefer real products over fake copies, even if they
cost more. Our Real Wood campaign fits in very well here and
we have worked hard in order to increase consumer awareness
about the multiple inherent advantages of Real Wood floors.
Transfering parquet from a building material product to an important
part of home design and a much desired interior decoration
product remains a major task for the future on which ultimate
success depends.
A lot of people cocoon and spend more time at home in an average
week, compared to 5 years ago. A wooden floor is associated
with providing a ”warm feeling” and cosy home atmosphere. This
is less the case with laminate, ceramic and other flooring materials.
We have to find appropriate tools to turn these essential ingredients
fully to our advantage.
Whatever the case will be in the near future regarding the
economic situation it is important in my view and my conviction
that we continue to increase consumer awareness
by joining forces from individual talks, company actions,
national federations engagement and also in cooperation
with FEP as our European organization. At FEP we want to
support our members both in increasing the market and also
in defending the interest of our entire industry at all relevant
levels. This is the road we have to follow and the
guarantee that, by working together in a motivated manner,
we shall surmount the existing problems and pave the
road towards a prosperous future for the entire European
Parque t Indus t r y, and our
member companies in particular.
The more we can cooperate,
the more impact on the
consumer we will have.
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