Sixteen Polish office furniture producers will exhibit their wares at this year's Orgatec fair in Cologne.

Never before has the presence of Polish exhibitors been so strong, but the most important thing is that most of these manufacturers have been successfully selling their products on the European market for quite a long time now.

The first office furniture factories were established in Poland in the early 1990s with the start of the economic transformation and access to modern technologies. Today Poland has its own office furniture industry and is one of Europe's largest producers of office and metal chairs, chiefly thanks to Nowy Styl. But other manufacturers such as Profim, Mikomax, MDD and Balma also cope increasingly well both at home and abroad.

A majority of Polish office furniture companies are no older than 15 years. They were set up in the period of euphoria and great optimism in the early 1990s. From today's perspective, their founding capital was ridiculously low but their awareness and approach to business was quite serious. Almost all of these factories based their success on modern machinery and technology. Their first furniture lines were already good enough to compete with Italian products. Following several years of cooperation with Polish and Western designers, the Polish office furniture industry owns patented and reserved designs, which are worthy of presentation at international exhibitions in Cologne or Chicago.

The first exhibition of Polish design after World War II was opened in Frankfurt in September; it will definitely contribute to overcoming the stereotyped view of Polish products as being second-tier. Another issue is product quality, modernity and durability. Certificates held by Polish producers are the best proof of these features. Without such certificates Polish producers would have difficulty selling anything on demanding Western European markets.

Polish innovation
Almost all companies exhibiting in Cologne will present new products-not only in order to sell them but also to submit them for evaluation by experts. In the chair category alone, Nowy Styl will show a few office chair collections. Inspire is a chair line with an innovative design and original adjustable armrests. Its high-quality seat and backrest, made from foam, provide users with unusual comfort. The chair is equipped with an Active-1 mechanism that corrects the user's posture during "active" work. The collection which offers the largest number of varieties of different kind is Mind. The characteristic feature of chairs in this line are unusually broad ergonomic seats and backrests.

For younger users, the company will present two models: Ministyle and Freestyle, the latter slightly bigger. The chairs have a characteristic line and backrest shape. They are equipped with armrests and nylon wheel supports.

Mikomax, based in Łódź, sells its products in Poland, Europe and the United States and will present two new office systems: Mirage and Longer.

The Mirage system won recognition at the Spectrum 2004 fair in London. It is a light mobile office furniture system that can also be used to furnish rooms with a home office character. Individual elements are adjustable thanks to a specially designed framework. Partition walls are also based on aluminum sections filled with board, textile or cellular polycarbonate panels, depending on the user's needs.
Mirage is undoubtedly a modern system, designed in line with contemporary trends. Profim, an office chair producer based in Turek, will present three new product lines at the fair: Linus, Uwu and Pitu.

Uwu is a new office chair design. Ease in operating adjustment mechanisms and cleaning, coupled with unfailing operation, are the basic features of the Uwu range. The chair has an appropriately shaped backrest and seat. The swivel model has mechanisms for seat, backrest and armrest adjustment, which are easy to operate. Its characteristic design makes Uwu stand out from other chair designs. Large oval openings in the plastic backrest not only add to the chair's attractiveness but also serve as natural ventilation. The backrest can be enriched with color upholstered covering: the material can be selected from the company's catalogue. An additional feature-offered only in the swivel model-is a jacket hanger on the back.

Linus is an armchair featuring a soft, oval seat and backrest lines that are inspired by the shape of the human body. The characteristic lines, resulting directly from the principles of ergonomics, were developed and emphasized by finishing and structural elements and contrasting materials. The chair's structure is based on a metal frame covered with high-density polyurethane foam.

Pitu is a set composed of several pieces forming a system used to furnish a mobile conference room, light and easy to store.

Balma Furniture Factory will display new designs by the Polish designer Piotr Kuchciński: Proxy, Entre and Lap reception desk systems.

Proxy is an offer for an ergonomic office with the Open Space function. Interesting aesthetic and functional solutions add to the system's modern character. Thanks to a large number of elements, the system offers unlimited possibilities in arranging workstations.

Entre is a combination of materials-painted MDF board, natural veneer, laminated board or glass-and well-thought-out construction. The reception desk system is composed of several modules made of straight elements and two curved elements.

The whole range of reception desks will also be shown at Orgatec by MDD, based in Sępólno Krajeńskie. Visitors will be able to see the Flex, Ten and Spiro systems offered by the same manufacturer and already available on the market. The common feature of these systems is the ability to adjust desktop height. Desktops in the Ten system can additionally be equipped with various accessories.

The product range is vast and visitors will have a lot to look at. Time will tell if Polish products find buyers on the demanding German market.