Tunis Furniture Exhibition : Overview

The Tunis Furniture Exhibition has been created in 1992 by the Tunis International Fairs Company, owner of the Exhibition grounds of Kram, a suburban town located 8 kms from downtown Tunis.

This exhibition, with an annual frequency, is a specialized professional event. It gathers the most efficient and successful industrial enterprises of the furniture sector.

At the very beginning, the Tunis Furniture Exhibition called “DAR” which means house in arabic, was including until year 2003 various activity sectors such as lights, furniture and even furniture manufacturing equipments. Thanks to acquired experience and professionals satisfaction, the event has evolved starting in 2004 towards an exhibition exclusively and totally devoted to furniture. For that purpose, it changed its name and has become The Tunis Furniture Exhibition.

It is one of the most important event in Tunisia and by all means the number one event of the whole furniture industry, organized with the assistance of professional unions such as UTICA and professional organizations such as The Technical Center of Furniture and Wood Industries CETIBA.

Exhibition surfaces:

All surfaces of the Exhibition Grounds ie 30.000 m² are taken up today by the Tunis Furniture Exhibition. The three Exhibition rooms provide exhibitors with all required facilities of a professional event. They are air conditioned and enjoy all safety devices.

The Exhibition:

The Tunis International Fairs Company offers to exhibitors a lay out of exhibition rooms consistent with the professional nature of the exhibition itself and designed to best fit the needs of a good presentation of furniture and to allow an easy flow of visitors thanks to a satisfactory system of traffic signals.

Exhibitors are responsible for stands conception and for that purpose are seeking professional decorators assistance with regard to their private space lay out and decoration.

In order to help them efficiently, The Tunis International Fairs Company proposes to exhibitors a team of architects / decorators whose main duty consists in supervising stands decoration and lay out plans, with the ultimate objective in mind to create a global harmony among different spaces.

Exhibition offer brocken down by activity branchs

The Tunis Furniture Exhibition displays products from all activity branchs of the furniture industry in Tunisia:

Modern and contemporary furniture.
Rustic and traditional furniture.
Kitchens and bath-rooms furniture.
Office and community furniture.
Wrought iron furniture.
Garden furniture.

Exhibited products	Percentage
Modern and contemporary furniture	62 %
Rustic and traditional furniture	20 %
Kitchens and bath-rooms furniture	6 %
Garden furniture	5 %
Wrought iron furniture	4 %
Office and community furniture	3 %

Exhibited offer:

Exhibited furniture is designed to meet the needs of hotel resort companies, real estate promoters, communities as well as private individuals.

A wide line of products is shown: bed-rooms, children-rooms, all kinds of reception-rooms, dining-rooms, office furniture, communities furniture … totally furnished kitchens with a special attention to be given to handmade bulky articles.

We have noticed over the past years the sustained growth of furniture production in KIT. The main material used is wood of different varieties such as the copper and white beech, the iroko, the mahogany and the ash-tree. Stratified boards are also used for furniture production.

The Tunis Furniture Exhibition is an annual gathering where manufacturers are eager to present new lines and trends.

Exhibitors compete fiercely in order to promote their new design creations together with their different styles furniture.

This event is stirring up a good innovation and competition spirit with, as a consequence, a large variety and profusion of choices.

Exhibitors

The Tunis Furniture Exhibition is open to the participation of tunisian furniture industrial manufacturers. In order to keep a high quality level of exhibited products, a tough selection of exhibitors is effected by a special committee set up by the industry professional organization and by the exhibition organizer.

The basic criteria of selection stem from the following requirements:

A high quality product.
An original and renewed line of products.
A good stands conception with regard to lay out, decoration and products presentation.

Abiding by their commitments towards their clients, with regard to delivery times, products quality and prices is one of the major selection criteria concerning exhibitors.

Historical data

Since 1992, exhibitors number has kept growing. The growth experienced during the past years is today confirmed by the exclusive attendance of outstanding industrial manufacturers and craftsmen. The exhibition growth is shown in the following chart:

Year	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Exhibitors Number	149	163	175	190	208	220	230

Exhibitors broken down according to activity branch
Activity branch	Exhibitors number	Percentage
Rustic furniture	15	9 %
Contemporary furniture	109	62 %
Office furniture	9	5 %
Garden furniture	6	3 %
Kitchens furniture	11	6 %
Bath-rooms furniture	4	2 %
Wrought iron furniture	9	5 %
Tubular furniture	6	4 %
Furniture fabric	6	4 %
TOTAL	208	100 %

Due to the fast growth of the exhibition, new projects will be set up in the years to come.

In order to put even more vitality into the exhibition, a competition involving the best stand and the best creation will be held during the next exhibition session. A prize will be granted to the winner by a jury made up of industry professionals and artists.

This side event is expected to make exhibitors more aware of aesthetics regarding their stands and at the same time will induce them to put more creativity in their production.

Expected visitors

Being a specialized professional event, held on an annual basis, the Tunis Furniture Exhibition is attended by two types of visitors:

a) Professional visitors:

- First of all, they are professional people such as furniture manufacturers, specialized craftsmen, carpenters, architects–decorators, designers looking for informations of all kinds. A technological watch is also sought concerning evolution of production, design, style, colours chemistry of new creations and lines of products. It is also a good opportunity to study prices, competition, to look for new partnerships, to negotiate business and intercompany cooperation.

- Second, they are professional buyers in charge of looking for supplies to their enterprise and who are waiting for the exhibition in order to benefit as much as possible from the variety and profusion of articles. These professional buyers are made up of hotels managers, real estate promoters, wholesalers and dealers, purchasing managers of public institutions, communities and big corporations. The abundant flow of professional buyers is in itself a good indication of success of a session. This happened during the last years and is expected to happen during the 2009 session.

If the Furniture Exhibition offer is mainly local, this is not the case with professional visitors. As a matter of fact, the Tunisian Furniture Exhibition has tended over the years to become more and more international.

Starting in year 2003, more foreign professionals are visiting the exhibition, establishing business relationships, ordering furniture articles, setting up joint ventures and starting commercial and technical cooperation.

North African professional are the most numerous today. Thanks to its good quality and its competitive prices, the tunisian production is also attracting tradesmen and dealers from France and Italy, who are coming more and more to attend the show. Furthermore, some twenty tunisian firms are working exclusively for exports.

b) Public at large:

Because of the friendly and personalized greetings on the part of exhibitors, the variety of offer displayed and the competitive prices, more and more individuals are induced to visit the exhibition.

The Tunis Furniture Exhibition will be open during ten days from January 28 to February 06, 2011 and hope to receive more than 120.000 visitors. During the last 3 sessions an average of 75.000 visitors attended the show.

Advantages and facilities granted to foreign professionals:

- Transportation: a 50 % discount on Tunisair airfares is granted upon presentation of an invitation document.

- Hotel accommodations: a special price is granted in selected hotels in Tunis.

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