Bulgaria's Furniture Industry Lost Forever 20% of Pre-Crisis Volume - Expert

Bulgaria's furniture industry will hardly ever manage to recover its pre-2008 output even after the economic crisis is overcome, according to the director of furniture producers' chamber.

The Bulgarian furniture industry will lose permanently about 20% of the volume it had before the crisis, Stefan Ganev, executive director of the Bulgarian Chamber for Wood-Processing and Furniture Industries told BNR Thursday.

Because of the decline in construction of new homes and new hotels, Bulgaria's domestic furniture market has declined by about 50% since the start of the economic crisis three years ago, the Chamber estimates.

The Chamber has no information about bankruptcies among Bulgarian furniture producers but reports that some companies from the sector have forced their workers to take leaves.

Ganev has forecast that even after the crisis is fully overcome, there will hardly be a substantial growth in Bulgaria's domestic market because of the devastating construction slump.

He welcomed the opening of the first IKEA store in Bulgaria which is to come in the fall of 2011.

"We shouldn't deamonize the arrival of strong players on the market. They introduce their standards and their way of doing business, which helps our producers," he commented.

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