Positive business trend in 2015

The Association of Office, Seating and Object Furniture* posted sales growth of 7.7 percent for the first half of 2015, and industry experts expect even better figures for the second half. Office furniture manufacturer Assmann of Melle in Lower Saxony reports a sales increase of more than 15 percent for the previous fiscal year. "With in excess of 97.5 million euros in 2015, we achieved our best sales result since the euro was introduced", enthuses Dirk Assmann, Managing Partner.

Beyond the generally healthy economic situation and a very good end of year for business, the company owner also attributes this success to the continuous improvement of internal processes and increased sales power from cooperations with specialist retailers. Other highlights of the year for Assmann included winning the Red Dot Design Award for the Applica range and two awards at the Großer Preis des Mittelstands competition, the "Grand Prix" of German medium-sized businesses. Shortly before Christmas, Creditreform then affirmed the company's very healthy balance sheet structure and excellent credit rating for the third time in succession. "Despite these successes, we will continue to work rigorously towards further improvements and process fine-tuning in the years to come – in the spirit of Kaizen", Dirk Assmann promises. Indeed, projects for 2016/17 were already well underway last year. The investment of several million euros into further modernising production, tweaking IT processes and a new building for sales and related teams speaks volumes about the current financial standing of the company.

* bso Verband Büro-, Sitz- und Objektmöbel e.V.