CHILE - Arauco, the second world producer of wood panels, plans to advance in innovation and is preparing for the end of this year the launch of a new company: Me-do, linked to the furniture industry. The project was presented in April at the Milan Furniture Fair.

Francisco Lozano, Arauco's innovation manager, explains that Me-Do consists of an online platform, where the client chooses a design furniture -now they have chairs, tables and shelves-, personalizes it in terms of measurements, materials and colors, and orders it.

“The future lies in the ability to understand and relate to the needs of people, delivering value to their lives through the constant innovation of products and services, which will aim to be increasingly personalized, where the last stage of design will depend on themselves.” Under that premise Arauco created Me-Do, which as its name indicates ("I do"), is a web platform that allows people to customize their own product designs through a friendly interface.

As it targets the high-end market, Lozano details that they are working with recognized designers, such as the Milanese studio Palomba-Serafini, Ludovica Serafini and Roberto Palomba, and will use products made by Arauco as raw material. “Our goal is for the Chilean radiata pine to be positioned in the design world,” adds Lozano.

The platform is in the prototype stage, so orders can’t be made yet, in the mean time different furniture can be designed until it is fully operational by the end of this year.