Housing and interior

The housing and interior industry is international

The housing and interior industry consists of both residential brokers and furniture dealers and manufacturers. As many of the dealers are part of the retail and wholesale industries, we focus on the furniture industry, which in 2008 consisted of approx. 400 companies.

The number of companies decreased steadily from 2000 to 2005 resulting in 18.2% fewer companies in the furniture production in 2005 compared to 2000. Since 2005, however, the number has remained fairly constant and in 2008 there were nearly 16% fewer companies in the industry than in 2000 – though 3% more than in 2005.¹

Danish furniture manufacturing can in general be divided in three main segments:

1. Housing furniture constitutes the majority of Danish furniture production. Specialties in this segment are children and youth room furniture, bedrooms, dining rooms, home offices, etc.
2. Commercial and contract furniture for interior design of workplaces, institutions and public spaces.
3. Designer furniture. Denmark is one of the leading nations on the international furniture scene.

In addition, the Danish furniture industry has a significant production of kitchen items, as subcontracting to the manufacturing of furniture components is an essential part of the industry.

Positive turnover growth
The furniture industry in Denmark in the period 2000 to 2007 underwent tremendous growth: While the industry in 2000 generated sales of approx. DKK 15 bn. the turnover in 2007 rose to over DKK 22 bn. - a turnover growth of nearly 50%. In 2008, on account of the financial crisis, total turnover was more than DKK 2 bn. lower than in 2007 - a decrease of nearly 10%. However, 2008 turnover of approx. DKK 20 bn. was still more than 1/3 above the level of 2000.²

An export-intensive industry
The furniture industry is an export intensive industry and on average, exports accounted for nearly half of total industry turnover in the period 2000 to 2008. However, there have been fluctuations particularly in the period 2002-2005, when exports accounted for a slightly larger share of total industry turnover.³

Employment falls
The furniture industry in 2008 had approx. 14,000 full time employees, which was approx. 7% lower than in 2000. The industry has since 2000 remained fairly stable at approx. 15,000 full time employees, but from 2007 the number fell dramatically.⁴

The development is even clearer when observing the total employment in the industry - and not just the full-time employees. Total employment in the industry has been on a steady decline since 2001. Further, the total employment in the industry decreased by almost 30% over the period 2001-2009 mainly due to an increasing proportion of production being outsourced to low wage countries.⁵

¹ Statistikbanken, GF2.
² Statistikbanken, GF2 (current prices).
³ Statistikbanken, GF2.
⁴ Statistikbanken, GF2.
⁵ Statistikbanken, ART1.

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