The Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufacturers offers to its members' services and the opportunity to join the cluster activity to reach the development of its members and the furniture department. 

Since its establishment in 2006, CCFM has invested almost CZK 400,000,000 in supporting entrepreneurship, applied research and innovation, and strengthening SMEs' competitiveness in the Czech industry.  

A new achievement of CCFM within 2021 is the involvement in the international project FGOI - Furniture Go International, which started on 16th September 2021 and will last till 2024. Managed by eight European clusters and co-funded by the European Commission under the COSME programme. The project will help SMEs reach new markets through collaboration and innovation. The project will create a new European Strategic Cluster Partnership to strengthen cooperation in the furniture and related industries within the EU and towards selected third countries: USA, Canada, Egypt and South Africa. 

The cluster joined the project from the very first day of its beginning. Its main task will be activities related to identifying and establishing new strategic partnerships across Europe and organising exploratory visits of cluster representatives to selected third countries. A major challenge will be the management of the whole so-called Project package WP6, which is aimed at the long-term sustainability of the partnerships established with the aim of concluding cooperation agreements between the project partners and international businesses or R&D organisations. "Experienced project managers will be involved in the entire project management on behalf of the Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufacturers, who, we believe, will be worthy partners for the other representatives of the project consortium", added Lucia Haraslínová, the chairwoman of the Cluster.

The project envisages, for example, the creation of long-term international alliances, the presence of permanent contacts in each of the markets of interest to guarantee the creation of business opportunities, the organisation of trade missions with members of the participating clusters and other tailor-made events for the participating companies. 

Clusters involved in the project: Transylvanian Furniture Cluster (Romania); Association Cluster of Habitat, Wood, Office and Contract Sector (Spain); Wood Industry Cluster (Slovenia); The Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufactures (the Czech Republic), Interior Cluster Sweden (Sweden); PRO WOOD Regional Cluster (Romania); Bulgarian Furniture Cluster (Bulgaria) a Habitat Cluster Barcelona (Spain). Altogether, they represent more than 500 organisations, mainly SMEs. 

The Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufactures defended the Silver Cluster Management Excellence Label

We are proud to announce that The Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufactures defended the Silver Label of European Cluster Excellence (ECEI). The evaluation was carried out by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) and the label is valid until 31 December 2024.

In the Czech Republic, only two clusters can currently boast the SILVER Label certificate, the CLUTEX - Technical textile cluster is also an owner of such a label.  The better-rated cluster in the Czech Republic is now only NANOPROGRESS, which holds the GOLD Label.

Chairwoman of the Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufacturers, Ing. Lucia Haraslinová, PhD., commented on defending the SILVER Label: "Defending the Silver Mark of Cluster Excellence is a confirmation for our cluster that we have been successfully meeting the set standards of cluster management for a long time. At the same time, it is also a confirmation for our domestic and foreign partners that the cluster is a trustworthy organisation for projects and new partnerships. However, going forward we will continue to work on better management mechanisms to provide better services to our members to ensure that our members and our cluster are more successful and competitive in the global market." 

The Silver Label certificate is a quality certificate that opens up new opportunities for cooperation with other foreign clusters and at the same time confirms the successful implementation of the improvement processes that were set up after the benchmarking survey after obtaining the SILVER Label at the end of 2019, and shows that the cluster is on the right track in improving cluster management.


Lucia Haraslinová, Chairperson of the Cluster of Czech Furniture Manufacturers, www.furniturecluster.cz.