Press release

Fredericia Furniture takes over Kvist Møbler collection

At the beginning of next year, Fredericia Furniture A/S will take over the entire furniture collection from its associate Kvist Møbler A/S. This will signify a marked strengthening of Fredericia Furniture’s position on the design furniture market in a move that will group the
best-known Børge Mogensen furniture under one roof.

The Shaker chair comes home
Fredericia Furniture, the company whose name is inextricably linked with Børge Mogensen design, now includes what is perhaps the furniture designer’s best known chair in its collection: the perennially
popular J39 Shaker chair – a classic chair found everywhere from canteens and conference rooms to churches and private homes. The Shaker table, which complements the chair, will in future
also be available from the family owned Fredericia company.

This will come about on 1 January 2005 when Fredericia Furniture takes over the furniture collection from Kvist Møbler A/S, a takeover which in one stroke will increase turnover by 50 per cent.
Comments Fredericia Furniture’s managing director Thomas Graversen: “This is the fulfilment of a long cherished wish. The collaboration between Børge Mogensen and my father, Andreas Graversen,
laid the foundations for Fredericia Furniture as we know it today. So it means a great deal to us to bring together production of the most important Børge Mogensen classics under one roof.

Strengthened position on export market
The takeover means a marked strengthening of Fredericia Furniture’s position on the international design furniture market. Annual turnover will be in the region of DKK 110 million and in addition Thomas Graversen foresees a sales synergy resulting from bringing the two collections together:
“On the export market, Kvist Møbler and Fredericia Furniture have their strengths in different geographical locations. In countries where one collection has had difficulty establishing a foothold, the other has done well – and vice versa. They will supplement each other well.”
Thomas Graversen is also delighted that the takeover opens up opportunities for collaboration with several particularly active furniture designers, from rising young prospects to established talents – names such as Christina Strand, Tom Stepp, Johannes Foersom and Peter Hiort-Lorenzen. Tom Stepp is the man behind the Funk stacking chair, while Christina Strand has designed the Rex chair, which won the competition “A Chair for the Crown Prince” in 2002.

Commitment to innovation
Thomas Graversen sees the new design products as an important supplement and an essential challenge to the classics in the expanded collection: “In recent years Fredericia Furniture has nurtured a
fruitful collaboration with a number of young designers who have to a large degree helped characterise our profile. Although based on tradition, we feel it our duty to dare to take chances and in so doing contribute to continued innovation in Danish furniture design.”
The collection which Fredericia Furniture is taking over is that of an associate rather than a competitor. The Kvist Group is one of the Fredericia company’s largest suppliers, producing among other things the moulded shells for Nanna Ditzel’s Trinidad chair. The Kvist Group will continue to enjoy the position of preferred supplier to northern Europe’s best design furniture producers – including Fredericia Furniture.
Says Michael Kvist: “I am pleased that our collection is going to Fredericia Furniture. It is a natural extension of our collaboration, and it is good to know that our furniture will have a new ‘home’
with a company which truly appreciates design.”

The new, expanded furniture collection will be on show at Fredericia Furniture’s showroom in Sct. Annæ Passage, Copenhage n from 1 January 2005.