ITALY – According to the CSIL report “The European market for office furniture“, the office furniture market in Europe continues to resume and is above the pre-pandemic level.

The gradual removal of restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic has impacted positively the business environment. However, the conflict in Ukraine has reduced the supply of materials and brought uncertainty to the market, causing radical price increases. Under those circumstances, the growth of 2022 has been strongly conditioned by rising inflation.

Production in values increased by +13% and amounted to EUR 9,463 million, but the performance includes a +12.1% price effect. This means that in real terms the production volume in Europe progressed by only +0.9%.

At the industrial level, the sector employed a total of 69,000 workers in 2022, meaning a loss of around 2,000 units on the pre-pandemic level. Also, the number of production plants in Europe is lower than in the past, but the level of technology is far higher. The investments in machinery remained predominant accompanied by efforts to increase sustainability and reduce environmental impact.

Today the top 20 players represent an estimated market share of about 48% of total European production and this share increased significantly over the last few years. Part of the company growth has been organic with players outperforming the sector average, but most part of the market share of some top players has been gained through M&A operations.