Ukrainians from DASK Centru develop their business in Romania

DASK Centru has been present in Romania for only three years and is already a well-known name in the market for furniture made from panels. Their 25 years of experience in the Ukrainian furniture market has made things settle quickly and satisfied customers have brought them other customers. The company operated in rented space until a year ago when they moved to new premises where they built the warehouse and a panel processing workshop. The showroom will soon be completed where customers, individuals or companies, can come to see the quality of materials and accessories, choose and order furniture based on the project made with the company's designers.

We went to DASK Centru headquarters on Giurgiului Road in Bucharest, where we talked to the company's administrator Stanislav Sapojnicov and sales director Ina Matei, a Ukrainian and a Basarabian, about the idea of opening a branch in Romania, adapting to the Romanian market, the workshop where they want to produce furniture and their plans for the future. You can watch the discussion at the end of the article.

25 years on the furniture market

DASK Centre was established 25 years ago in Ukraine as a small furniture hardware store. Gradually, the company grew and started to sell the other materials needed to produce furniture from derived panels. After 13 years in business, the company started opening branches, first in Ukrainian cities and then in neighbouring countries. Now, after 12 years, DASK Centru has 17 branches in Ukraine and one each in Poland, Moldova and Romania.

Meanwhile, the company has developed a range of hardware under its own brand, called DC, which it produces in China. It also brings various panels and materials first hand in Ukraine, being an authorized dealer for those brands. The quality/price ratio for these products is very good and the positive feedback received from customers has encouraged them to increase the range of products offered. The intention is to have a wide variety of products so that everyone can find everything they want in terms of furniture accessories. Experience with so many branches has shown them that tastes differ and it's good to be prepared for every requirement.

In Romania they have a large warehouse, structured in two areas, one for materials and accessories for the production of furniture and the other for finished furniture brought from Ukraine and a workshop for the production of semi-finished and finished furniture. They have developed a network of distributors in the country, and the furniture they produce is displayed in showrooms in Bucharest and throughout the country. Another production workshop, bigger than the first one, will be opened soon, as they intend to expand with the Romanian branch abroad.

KDT Machinery, a trusted brand

KDT Machinery is used for cutting, bending and drilling chipboard and MDF panels. "We chose the KDT brand because of the good price/quality ratio. It is neither the highest price of machines nor the lowest, but it has a very good quality and having the experience in Ukraine we decided for Romania not to experiment with anything else and stayed loyal to the KDT brand." Ina Matei told us. In fact, one of the branches was for a while the official KDT Machinery dealer in Ukraine. Expansion into the furniture market in several countries made it difficult to sustain this part of the business as well and they decided to give up their dealer status, but remain committed to the brand.

KDT Machinery is Asia's largest manufacturer of machinery for the furniture industry, one of the world leaders in the research and production of automated equipment and lines for furniture production. The company is headquartered in Guangzhou - China, with research and development centres in Italy and South Korea and production bases in Rimini, Italy and Chengdu. The company's portfolio includes automatic edgebanding machines, Circular knitting machines with movable or packet formatting table, CNC milling machines and Drilling CNCs, automatic production lines and even turnkey factories. In Romania, the authorized dealer of KDT Machinery is WoodMatic.

Future plans

The rapid development in Romania has given them confidence and they already have plans to grow the business in the future. They want to double their turnover this year, open another production point and expand their business from Romania to other European Community countries. In the new production workshop they will produce furniture for Bulgaria, but also for Canada. The furniture for Canada was produced in Ukraine and now part of it will be produced in Romania.

The showroom is another point of interest for the future development of the Romanian branch. They want partners to come here, choose materials and to design the furniture together, as the company motto goes. In the showroom, designers and planners will be at the customer's disposal and will support them with technical information.

In the video you can watch the two representatives of DASK Centru walk through their vast warehouse and workshop.