Global sales of office furniture rose by 9.7% in 2021. This year, the market will continue its upward trend with a plus of 12.1% and thus reach pre-crisis sales levels by the end of the year. China and the USA in particular are proving to be growth drivers, as a study by Interconnection Consulting shows.

Middle East on the Up

The total volume of the global office market was 56.7 billion euros in 2021 and will rise to 63.5 billion euros this year. In the coming years, growth will slow down but remain high. The average growth is 8.5% per year. The impact on the global office market of lockdowns, trade restrictions and supply chain problems has been dramatic. However, the developments in the individual regions were extremely different during the pandemic. While the decline in China was only around 5%, Latin America lost around one fifth of its business volume. In the USA, turnover fell by 14.4% in 2020. The largest market for office furniture worldwide is China with a 28.2% share by value, ahead of the USA with 25.7% and Europe with 14.6%. The pandemic has also led to a shortage of important raw materials such as steel, aluminium or foam in North America, among others, which will lead to an increase in office furniture prices in the next few years. For China and the USA, Interconnection expects above-average growth rates between 9 and 10% in the next few years. “We also expect strong growth in the Middle East office furniture market in the coming years. The market is driven by high construction activity and a high share of foreign investment,” says Katarina Gajdova, the author of the study.

Swivel Chairs Do Not Dominate Everywhere

Chairs are the strongest product segment in the global office market with a share of 46%. Within this segment, the swivel chair is the most important product group, accounting for about a quarter of the total volume of office furniture sales worldwide. Swivel chairs are particularly popular in Asia and Europe. Despite their dominant market position (about 80% of all chairs worldwide are swivel chairs), swivel chairs are not number one everywhere. In Latin America and Turkey, conference chairs have the strongest market position. Swivel chairs are also the most dynamic product group. In 2022, Interconnection expects swivel chairs to grow 13% in volume worldwide. Room partitioning systems, which have become the new must-have in the office scene due to the pandemic, continue to be one of the fastest growing product categories with double-digit growth. The same is true for office desks. Due to the continuing social distancing in everyday office life, lounge furniture is losing market share. Overall, large private companies with more than 250 employees are the strongest customer segment for the office furniture market with 51%. The most important players in the global market are, in alphabetical order: Fursys, Haworth, Herman Miller, HNI, Kokuyo, Okamura, Onlead, Steelcase, Sunon.

Link to the report

02/11/2022

Copyright: Interconnection, Publication free of charge for coverage regarding the study and InterConnection Consulting.