INTERZUM SPECIAL

00 möbelfertigung 3/2015

The furniture market in North America ischanging dramatically, placing retail giantslike Wal-Mart and Home Depot under enor-mous pressure. Demand fueled by IKEA hascome about for higher surface qualities, andthis is something that Schattdecor can pro-vide, for example with its foil products. On 5 February the global player staged its first-ever U.S. Foil Event at its plant in MarylandHeights, near St. Louis, MO. möbelfertigungwas there for an exclusive report.

>About 50 customersfrom differing branchsectors came to Schatt-decor’s plant in St. Louisfor the company’s firstfoil event on U.S. soil.Under the motto of‘See.Touch.Feel’ the surface specialist show-cased the advantages ofits foil products in general and its newly-developed Smartfoil EVOin particular.

>T

om Drazen is a proud man.His eyes shine with enthusi-asm when he leads visitorsthrough the Schattdecor

plant in Maryland Heights in Mis-souri. When he first began work-ing for the market leader, relatesSchattdecor Inc.’s General Manag-er, it was in the basement of hishome and with a sole employeeonly. For him it was thus a dreamcome true when Schattdecor builta plant near St. Louis and began

printing decor paper there on 28 January 2011.

Much at the Midwest works isreminiscent of the parent plant inThansau, Bavaria: the company-operated Schattoria canteen, thebeer garden, the bright work -places and the ultra-clean produc-tion facilities. Yet the employees atthe company’s twelfth plant radi-ate a positive energy all of theirown, an optimism that is typicallyAmerican, a gung-ho spirit of ‘yes,

we can’, tinged with German in-fluences.

“Schattdecor Inc. has grown25 percent in each of the past twoyears,” says Tom Drazen, who today heads some 40 employees.“And the potential for furthergrowth remains gigantic.” For ex-ample because of positive signalsfrom the housing market. “At themoment we are still below a million new houses a year but Iassume the figure will arrive at

1.5 million again in two or threeyears. And all these new homeswill naturally be in need of fix-tures and fittings,” he explains.

Such fixtures and fittings in cludeflooring, which like furniture is main-ly sold in the U.S. at huge homeimprovement chains such as HomeDepot, Menards and Lowe’s anddiscount retailers like Target andWal-Mart – all stores under pres-sure from the tough competitionthat IKEA presents in America too.

Furniture design with a pro-gressive look for American stan-dards and the higher quality of-fered by the Swedish superpowerare particularly popular amongthe younger generation and Amer-ican college kids. The establishedretail giants with their takeawayfurniture seem antiquated in com-parison and, as closer inspectionshows, play in a lower league interms of quality. “This challenge isone that all such retailers will

>Far left photo: BastianKastner, Dietmar Höglmeierand Klaus Müller, all ofSchattdecor, at the event. Centre: Tom Drazen, GeneralManager of Schattdecor Inc.,in discussion with möbelfer-tigung journalist Tino Eggert.Left photo: Furniture clad inSmartfoil EVO in ColumbiaWalnut, Telemark Oak andLivorno Beech.

Exclusive on-the-spot report from Missouri: Schattdecor is revolutionizing the North American foil market

Convincing customers with

higher QUALITY and broad SERVICEShave to face in future,” predictsTom Drazen.

Thanks to its current productportfolio Schattdecor is perfectlyequipped to meet North Americanmarket requirements and can satisfy demand easily, as stated at the company headquarters inThansau. For this reason it recent-ly held a foil event – its first onU.S. soil – at its plant in MarylandHeights under the motto of‘See.Touch.Feel’. And it was pleas-antly surprised by the success ofthe undertaking. About 50 cus-tomers from the timber product,furniture and supply industry, theadhesives branch and the recre-ational vehicle/caravan sector fol-lowed its invitation, some travel-ling from Canada and others fromCalifornia.

“In view of the size of NorthAmerica, this is not to be taken forgranted,” remarks Bastian Kastner,National Foil Sales Manager.

For the global player fromThansau, the goal of the branch

Exclusive on-the-spot report from Missouri: Schattdecor is revolutionizing the North American foil market

Convincing customers with

higher QUALITY and broad SERVICES

00 möbelfertigung 3/2015

trends through consulting on ap-propriate foil products to technicaladvice and processing support,” hedeclares. “Smartfoil EVO enablesus to provide a perfect answer tomarket demands for haptic effectfoils that offer enhanced tactileand visual realism – whether in theflat pack furniture segment or therecreational vehicle sector.”

Schattdecor serves the NorthAmerican market with Postfoil fromits Italian plant and Smartfoil fromits Polish product facilities, which ithas invested enormous sums intoover the past few years (as mö-belfertigung has extensively report-ed). “We have been registeringmore and more inquiries for over ayear, also from online dealers,” saysTom Drazen with a smile. “And ourplant has all the pre requisites inplace for further growth.” Thismeans in concrete terms that thefoundations have already been laid

get-together was to familiariseAmericans with the advantages ofits foil products and above all toacquaint them with its newly-de-veloped Smartfoil EVO. This wasshown on actual furniture in Co-lumbia Walnut as well as Tele-mark Oak and Livorno Beech forthe first time.

The Schattdecor team gave anoverview of European trends seenat the IMM Cologne InternationalFurniture Fair and provided obser-vations about the Las Vegas Market furniture and home decorshow, plus Anna Sternbauer of theDesign team in Thansau describedthe three main trends in the com-

pany’s 2014/15 ‘Mix and Match’Trend Guide, and proffered a fore-cast of further trend developmentsin surfaces.

Turning to the motorhome sector, Dietmar Höglmeier, Schatt -decor’s RV/caravan market expert,and Bastian Kastner compared the2014 Düsseldorf Caravan Salonand the 2014 National RV TradeShow in Louisville and went on toanalyse the respective market,which in view of recreational vehi-cle and caravan sales in North

America in particular presents agreat deal of potential for foil.

Foil Sales Head Klaus Müllersums up: “The event was a re-sounding success, and in our viewconfirmed that North America alsooffers great potential in the foilsector. Even in a continent of suchhuge distances customers willtake up an invitation if you havesomething interesting to offer. Wehad invited participants fromalong the entire production chainas appropriate to our service phi-

losophy, which was good as itmeant we were able to bring allstakeholders together.”

“We are having a lot of suc-cess in our drive to inform theNorth American trade about thequality of our foil products andraise awareness of the productionprocess and further processing aspects,” states Peter Weiden-schlager, Foil Sales Manager NorthAmerica and longstanding indus-try insider. As he relates, interest ishuge and so is the market, with

European quality in demand asnever before.

At the present the foil marketin North America is dominated by very thin Japanese thin foil, aproduct that soon reaches its limitsin terms of mechanical propertiesand tactile characteristics. In com-parison, Schattdecor offers manyoptions with its array of foil prod-ucts. What is wanted is very highquality at a reasonable price thesedays. With its Smartfoil EVO – afoil surface with highly-improvedsurface resistances and a look sonatural it is hard to distinguishfrom real wood veneer –Schattdecor is seeking, as it says,to enable very many people allover the world to be pleased withthe look of their home even on asmall budget.

“Our strategy is slowly but sure-ly starting to pay off. Customers aresurprised by the quality we are of-fering. Some are already beginningto deploy our foil products and oth-ers are putting intensive thought tothe idea of using them for newprojects,” says Weidenschlager.

“Schattdecor’s foil products arelikely to soon find a place on theAmerican market,” stated JeffreyJappa, President of JMC WoodManufacturing of Bridgeton, MO –although he is still using Japanesethin foil. “I find it astonishing thatSchattdecor has not entered themarket with these products before– the textures in particular are im-pressive.”

“Especially the overview provid-ed to us of the trends and the European trade fairs has beenenormously helpful,” said Kurt A.Berlin, Director of Furniture Designat Office Star Products in Califor-nia. “The presented foil products,particularly in the form of EVO and3D, offer fantastic quality. We are100 percent convinced by theseproducts, are already using themand see ourselves on the righttrack in this way.” Apart fromwhich, he added, Schattdecor serv-ice is first-class.

It is in this respect too thatKlaus Müller sees great growth op-portunities for Schattdecor in NorthAmerica: “We offer customers acomplete raft of services, from de-sign research to information on

for a further three printing presses.Thanks to continuing growth inNorth America, Schattdecor Inc.’sGeneral Manager hopes to order asecond, classical unit in St. Louis.And there it is again, that sparkle inhis eyes, that proverbial and typical-

ly American gung-ho ‘yes, we can’attitude. As Drazen concludes,“Who says we won’t be producingfoil ourselves here in MarylandHeights soon?” Tino Eggert

>The inside of the plantat Maryland Heights,near St. Louis, MO, whereSchattdecor currentlyprints decor paper on asingle press. The founda-tions for three others arealready in place.

>Top photo: The event was featured in the English editionof möbelfertigung, complete with an interview with theheads of Schattdecor AG and a glued-in sample of SmartfoilEVO. Above: The Schattdecor U.S. Foil Event team. Right: Proved popular with the guests – giveaways with a recipe for home-made Bavarian pretzels.

INTERZUM SPECIAL