Regency invests €6m

A €6m investment at Romania’s MDF door front producer Regency Front will allow the company to significantly expand its sales by 2025.

“The self-financing investment of €6m allowed us to develop the most technological door front production line in Romania,” said Dani Shawu, the chief executive of Regency Front, in a statement.

The move, he added, would allow the company to complete the range of products in both laminated and painted MDF doors, according to customer needs and preferences.

The new investment, completed in late 2023, was specifically to launch a new production line dedicated to making painted laminated MDF doors.

The new line has enabled the manufacturer to integrate an additional production capacity of up to about 700m2 per shift. The expanded plant includes what is described as the largest lacquer line in Romania, as well as fully automated edge sanding / primer application machines.

The final products are dedicated to both business customers and end consumers.

“Lately, we have seen a rising interest from our customers in interior design in general and furniture pieces in particular,” said Mr Shawu.

” We are constantly up to date with international trends and we are happy to offer Romanians a varied range of products, but also a vast palette of colours.”

“The local market is evolving in terms of consumer behaviour – the proposals no longer come exclusively from the furniture producer to the customer, but also vice versa,” said Alina Enache, marketing manager of Regency Front.

“Whether they just want to change the doors of an existing piece of furniture or they need the furniture from scratch, customers show a high involvement in choosing the models and decors they want, especially since the possibilities of choice have increased.”

Ms Enache said that, through its recently launched Bespoke collection, the Romanian business wants to broaden its portfolio. As much as 90% of the company’s customers are furniture producers, according to data released by Regency Front.

By 2025, the manufacturer aims to reach an annual turnover of some €10m. This would represent a solid increase compared with 2022, for which the Romanian business reported revenues of about €6.2m.

At the same time, Regency Front says it is aware of the challenges which are relevant to the current situation in the furniture market. The company says this market is characterised by rising inflation and increases in production costs, as well as increasingly high online sales.

Data collected by Regency Front indicates that the growth of digital commerce is impacting the Romanian furniture industry and its needs with regards to suppliers. While most orders continue to be generated by brick-and-mortar stores, there is a visible upward trend in online purchases, according to figures from Regency Front’s dealer network.

The Romanian MDF specialist currently operates a workforce of more than 30 employees, including engineers, architects, marketing, sales and environmental specialists, as indicated by figures from Regency Front.

Set up in 2018, Regency Front is based in the country’s capital Bucharest.