Office furniture manufacturer NARBUTAS is celebrating its 30th anniversary. The company started its furniture production with a computer desk in 1991 and today offers more than 70 different furniture collections in more than 50 countries. While the pandemic has slowed down the fast-paced business growth of recent years, NARBUTAS hasn’t stopped – with current sales already exceeding the pre-lockdown level. The company is celebrating the 30-year milestone with a new factory, new furniture collections, and commitments to both people and the environment.
Petras Narbutas, founder and CEO of the NARBUTAS Group
The company was founded one year after Lithuania regained its independence. Back then, everything, including computers, was a novelty for people. The computer desk designed by NARBUTAS was what the market needed most at the time – a high-quality, functional, and user-friendly piece of furniture. Striving to deliver what matters most to customers informed the direction of the company’s business development.
“I realized that, just like me, our customers like functional and good quality products but don’t want to pay for what they don’t need. This is why we design and manufacture functional, good quality, attractive yet simple things. Our design motto is 'Nothing unnecessary',” said Petras Narbutas, founder and CEO of the NARBUTAS Group.
Lithuanian office furniture boasting international customer recognition
From its first production orders, the company has evolved and grown to become one of Europe’s leading office furniture manufacturers. Having established its presence in Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, and neighboring countries, the company currently boasts a network of 750 reliable sales partners globally.
While the bulk of its exports is still concentrated in Europe, the company is also actively involved with some new markets, namely the U.S., South American countries, and Australia. The company’s partners in various countries have been awarded major contracts for furnishing office spaces, with some of them having as many as a few thousand workplaces. NARBUTAS furniture is used by such companies as BioNTech, Colgate, Volkswagen, and Aston Martin, as well as the World Business Centre in Dubai.
NARBUTAS products and modern office furniture solutions are showcased in five showrooms located in the company’s strategic export markets: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the U.S., and Lithuania.
Growth in the face of the pandemics
With the expansion of the company’s export geography and the increase in sales, NARBUTAS is continuing to ramp up its production capacity. The company upgrades its equipment annually and this year it is working on increasing the area of its production plant. The investment of EUR 25 million of own funds will allow the company to increase the existing production site area by 60 percent. This will be the second development project for its production facilities. The first one was implemented in 2018 with a 25-percent boost in the size of the company’s production site.
The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected the office design and office furniture sectors. As a result, NARBUTAS has also experienced a reduction in sales. In 2019, the company’s consolidated sales revenue amounted to EUR 98.8 million, and in 2020, the same figure was EUR 93.4 million. However, the global crisis has not put its development plans on hold, and its extensive network of partners and exports promise an optimistic outlook. The company’s financial data shows that March and April sales have returned to and even exceeded the pre-lockdown level.
Welcoming furniture for returning employees
The post-pandemic office will have to meet different requirements. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the holistic approach to offices with a special focus on the physical, social and mental well-being of employees. Discussions usually revolve around factors that have a positive impact on people’s health. These include the amount of space and light, office greenery, and also ergonomic, acoustic, privacy ensuring office furniture.
Since the start of 2020, NARBUTAS has launched or unveiled additions to 13 office furniture collections that reflect changes in office spaces. The company has launched the upgraded SILENT ROOM acoustic pods and MY SPACE acoustic desk screen system which helps to create private spaces within open-plan offices. The product portfolio has been expanded by a number of new collections: the ROUND modular desk system for effective workplace design, ROUND PET felt acoustic desk screens which use more than 50% recycled plastic and are 100% recycled, and the SOFT ROCK modular lounge seating system for relaxation, non-formal meetings, cooperative or individual tasks.
It is widely accepted that after the pandemic most companies will have their employees work both in the office and remotely. The company’s smart office management tool FLANCO has been designed with this in mind to ensure efficient and safe mobility in the office. The app allows employees to book desks or meeting rooms and collects data on the availability of workspaces throughout the day.
Sustainability as the company’s strategic direction
Concerns for the negative impact of human activities on the environment and ways to mitigate it have intensified recently. The emphasis is usually placed on the environmental friendliness of raw materials, recycling of products, and the use of recycled materials in manufacturing new products. The greatest positive impact can, however, be achieved by reducing consumption. NARBUTAS product warranties, quality, durability, and the option of replacing individual components of furniture ensure a long service life of its furniture even after making modifications to the office interior or building.
The furniture production does not use water but utilizes rather high levels of energy. For this reason, all the energy consumed in the NARBUTAS production site is green energy which means that 100 percent of the energy is sourced from renewable energy sources. One such source is a solar power plant set up on the roof of the furniture factory. It produces an average of 15 percent of all the energy consumed annually. This solar power plant will be expanded with the completion of the new building.
The fact that the company is continuously undergoing transformation is also reiterated by the founder and CEO of NARBUTAS. “One of the keys to our recent success is our dynamic approach and is a modern, progressive company.
And being modern means changing constantly. I hope that our company will completely reinvent itself by the time it celebrates its 50th anniversary. And our values and modernity will be the only things that will remain unchanged,” said Petras Narbutas.